Alyssa and Kelsey. C&C Welcome

[CMfromIL]

Some pictures I took of Kelsey and Alyssa in a field. Really working on off camera flash setup and consistent images.
430 ex II with diffuser. Using 7d to trigger, but on camera flash is just to trigger 430. 50mm 1.4 lens.
1. Double Trouble

2. Alyssa sitting

3. Kelsey

4. Alyssa

5. Kelsey sitting

6. Setup

 

[PhillipM]

Quick observations. Your the photographer, so you pretty much know if you got the results you were after.

Try to carry some hair spray with you, especially this time of year, due to static electricity. See image one for that.

The only thing worse than looking up a girls crotch is a guys crotch. See image two for that.

Pleasant. No. 3. Some here won't like the small catch light.

Too tight? See number 4. She has no shoulders. Hmmmmm? Born without Shoulders?

Strained hands. See number 5 for that one. Why are you letting her sit this way?

 

[CMfromIL]

Thanks Phillip,

I'll suggest hairspray in the future...seeing as I'm bald I don't normally carry a can!

As for #2, here is an alternate:

As far as #4 goes, I was going more for a face/head shot. I did recrop and adjust color a bit:

I'll work on the hands. Thanks for the comments, I appreciate the suggestions.

 

[KmH]

1. Double Trouble

Dark eye sockets.

The diffuser on your speedlight just eats up light power. If you take it off you can get the same exposure with a lower power setting.

For better subject separation from the background light wise (higher lighting ratio), you'll need to use HSS or put a ND filter on your lens and crank up the speedlight power level.

 

[CMfromIL]

Thanks KMH. I was having some difficulty with daughter #2 (the ultra-blond). Her hair was 'blowing out' on my viewfinder even at 1/64th manual. I could only manage to control exposure with the cover on. I'll suggest she dye it brown for better pictures! :lmao: I'm sure she will oblige me.

 

[JAC526]

You may want to think about a shoot thru umbrella. They are dirt cheap and can give some really nice soft light. I think it would of helped here.

Also if you need more power just gaffer tape another speedlight (if you have one) to the same light stand.

 

[amolitor]

Several of these have trouble with varying color balance between backgrounds and subjects. This is a tough problem to solve.

 

[CMfromIL]

I do each one in lightroom individually. Perhaps I should try batch editing?

 

[CMfromIL]

You may want to think about a shoot thru umbrella. They are dirt cheap and can give some really nice soft light. I think it would of helped here.

Also if you need more power just gaffer tape another speedlight (if you have one) to the same light stand.

I have 2 430's. However, I had it dialed down to 1/64th. (Which is the lowest power setting. Having an additional one probably would have just contributed to more problems in this instance). I will however, look into an umbrella.

 

[Ilovemycam]

Beautiful girls, good job!

 

[JAC526]

You may want to think about a shoot thru umbrella. They are dirt cheap and can give some really nice soft light. I think it would of helped here.

Also if you need more power just gaffer tape another speedlight (if you have one) to the same light stand.

I have 2 430's. However, I had it dialed down to 1/64th. (Which is the lowest power setting. Having an additional one probably would have just contributed to more problems in this instance). I will however, look into an umbrella.

I think though by using more flash you could of separated them from the background more successfully.

 

[KmH]

Add a stop of flash - 1/64 to 1/32.
Stopping the lens down a stop gives you the same exposure at 1/32 that 1/64 gave you, but if you only close the aperture 1/3 of a stop, or 2/3 of a stop it's like having 2 additional flash power settings between 1/64 and 1/32. Stopping the lens down will also make the DoF a little deeper, but it will also help reduce the ambient light a bit too.

In my edit I added 1/2 stop of light to the girls, and subtracted 1/2 a stop from the background for a total 1 stop change to the overall lighting ratio.
I also added a mid-tone contrast adjustment to the models and did some local sharpening on the models.