C&C These photos please!

[SabrinaO]

I have problems with fill flash on location. I honestly don't know how to really get it right! I use my speedlight on camera with a diffuser cap and pointed it straight at the subjects. Is this right? Because every time I used my flash the results were not good, and you could tell flash was used.

These shots were shot at 8am early in the morning with NO flash. It was very wet and cloudy... and O thought that there wouldn't be any harsh shadows but some pics there are...especially under their eyes. Anyways, please C&C.

 

[SabrinaO]

:er:
From what I see these look super sharpened. So frustrating. Im still trying to get sharpening for web down too...

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I really like the last one. I'd crop or clone out the bit of blown sky in the upper left.

I also like it crop as well...

 

[Kerbouchard]

For fill flash, there is one thing you you may want to consider. Your typical flash is around 5500 Kelvin...meant to mimick broad daylight. When shooting early morning or late evening, i.e. the golden hours, you may find it beneficial to use a gel to balance the color temperature of your flash with your background. When your background is noticably warmer in color temp than your subject, it is easy to tell that two different light sources were in use and can ruin the harmony of a photo.

 

[SabrinaO]

OMG these look really bad... way too sharpened. Anyone else seeing that? Ill fix it later... too tired now.
Anyways heres another showing dark circles under eyes.

I do have a reflector too... maybe i should of had one propped against my legs pointing it in their direction?

 

[SabrinaO]

For fill flash, there is one thing you you may want to consider. Your typical flash is around 5500 Kelvin...meant to mimick broad daylight. When shooting early morning or late evening, i.e. the golden hours, you may find it beneficial to use a gel to balance the color temperature of your flash with your background. When your background is noticably warmer in color temp than your subject, it is easy to tell that two different light sources were in use and can ruin the harmony of a photo.

Thanks for the info! I set my wb to flash whenever I use it. Will that make a difference too, or should i use gels also? Also when using flash, how strong does the output need to be? I'm thinking 1/64 or 1/32? I don't remember what I had the flash set to, i think it was auto.

 

[Kerbouchard]

For fill flash, there is one thing you you may want to consider. Your typical flash is around 5500 Kelvin...meant to mimick broad daylight. When shooting early morning or late evening, i.e. the golden hours, you may find it beneficial to use a gel to balance the color temperature of your flash with your background. When your background is noticably warmer in color temp than your subject, it is easy to tell that two different light sources were in use and can ruin the harmony of a photo.

Thanks for the info! I set my wb to flash whenever I use it. Will that make a difference too, or should i use gels also? Also when using flash, how strong does the output need to be? I'm thinking 1/64 or 1/32? I don't remember what I had the flash set to, i think it was auto.

For your first question, it depends. For your second question, it depends.

For the white balance, ideally, you set your color temp to match your background and then gel your flash to match it. This results in the best balance and if done well, you can't tell that flash was used.

As for the power, it completely depends and is not nearly as cut and dry. It depends on how powerful your flash is to start with, how close it is to your subject, what kind of modifiers you are using, etc, etc, etc. I like to use TTL when I can. Makes it easy. For fill flash, I will set a -2 exposure comp to start with and adjust from there. For exact power settings, you need to use a light meter or trial and error as the angle of the flash, the distance to the subject, the ambient light, etc will all come into play.

Generally, you will set up your shutter speed, ISO, and aperture to slightly underexpose your subject and expose the background how you want it to be. From there, you will add your flash. You can use a meter, a calibration target, or just adjust based on the histogram.

Nothing wrong with using automatic, as long as you know how it's working and you are controlling it instead of it controlling you.

 

[SabrinaO]

For fill flash, there is one thing you you may want to consider. Your typical flash is around 5500 Kelvin...meant to mimick broad daylight. When shooting early morning or late evening, i.e. the golden hours, you may find it beneficial to use a gel to balance the color temperature of your flash with your background. When your background is noticably warmer in color temp than your subject, it is easy to tell that two different light sources were in use and can ruin the harmony of a photo.

Thanks for the info! I set my wb to flash whenever I use it. Will that make a difference too, or should i use gels also? Also when using flash, how strong does the output need to be? I'm thinking 1/64 or 1/32? I don't remember what I had the flash set to, i think it was auto.

For your first question, it depends. For your second question, it depends.For the white balance, ideally, you set your color temp to match your background and then gel your flash to match it. This results in the best balance and if done well, you can't tell that flash was used.As for the power, it completely depends and is not nearly as cut and dry. It depends on how powerful your flash is to start with, how close it is to your subject, what kind of modifiers you are using, etc, etc, etc. I like to use TTL when I can. Makes it easy. For fill flash, I will set a -2 exposure comp to start with and adjust from there. For exact power settings, you need to use a light meter or trial and error as the angle of the flash, the distance to the subject, the ambient light, etc will all come into play. Generally, you will set up your shutter speed, ISO, and aperture to slightly underexpose your subject and expose the background how you want it to be. From there, you will add your flash. You can use a meter, a calibration target, or just adjust based on the histogram.Nothing wrong with using automatic, as long as you know how it's working and you are controlling it instead of it controlling you.

Omg you are amazing! Thankyou so much for explaining this all. It all makes sense now! It never clicked to expose for the background... I was always exposing on the subject, and then washing/blowing them out with the flash

 

[Kerbouchard]

Well, there are a few more nuances...
Shutter speed has no effect on flash exposure(as long as you are within your sync speed) so it is the best method of controlling the exposure for your background.
ISO and aperture have an effect on both flash(read subject exposure) and your background exposure.
Flash power should only effect your subject's exposure.

If you set up your subject so that they have less light or the same light as the background, you can underexpose the subject/background utilizing your shutter speed/aperture/iso and fill in the rest with your flash power. This provides the separation from your background and your subject. It lets your subjects be the brightest thing in the scene which adds some pop, and if your flash is geled to match the color temp of the background, it will look completely natural. Now, the next step is to look for oportunities at the border between shade and sun to use the sun as a hair light/kicker light/rim light to provide some additional separation and still balance the exposure between your background and your subject.

 

[SabrinaO]

Well, there are a few more nuances...
Shutter speed has no effect on flash exposure(as long as you are within your sync speed) so it is the best method of controlling the exposure for your background.
ISO and aperture have an effect on both flash(read subject exposure) and your background exposure.
Flash power should only effect your subject's exposure.

If you set up your subject so that they have less light or the same light as the background, you can underexpose the subject/background utilizing your shutter speed/aperture/iso and fill in the rest with your flash power. This provides the separation from your background and your subject. It lets your subjects be the brightest thing in the scene which adds some pop, and if your flash is geled to match the color temp of the background, it will look completely natural. Now, the next step is to look for oportunities at the border between shade and sun to use the sun as a hair light/kicker light/rim light to provide some additional separation and still balance the exposure between your background and your subject.

Im just trying to simplify what you are saying. Its early

So basically you are saying underexpose the subject, or have the subject/background with the same lighting. Then use the flash, aperture and iso for the fill? How does the SS control the flash exposure for the background?

 

[Kerbouchard]

Sorry, it was a bit late when I was typing that and I can see where it might be a bit confusing.

Basically, you have 4 pieces to the exposure of the shot.

ISO
Aperture
Shutter speed
Flash power

The first two will effect your background and your flash exposure.
Shutter speed will only effect your background(assuming your subject has less ambient light on them than the background).
Flash power will only effect your subject.

So, basically, it all depends on you being able to use an ISO and an aperture that will give you a shutter speed less than 1/200th of a second and still have a subject that is underexposed. You then fine tune your shutter speed to get the exact look in the background that you are going for. You then adjust flash power to bring your subject up to the level that you want it.

If you can't get a low enough shutter speed, you choose a lower ISO or smaller aperture. Since you have a few alien bees, you can afford to get your aperture up into the f/11(or smaller) range and still manage to put out enough light to do what you are looking for. I like to get my shutter speed to around 1/100th of a second so that I have room to fine tune. If I'm just barely getting 1/200th of a second, then the light is controlling me and I don't have many options for how I want my background to look.

Take a look at this link, and spend some time with the links on the right column. It's a great resource, and one that taught me a lot when I was first learning flash. http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/3-dragging-the-shutter/

Neil explains it better than me and he has pictures and examples to boot.

 

[CBURKE]

What the flash used in the photos?
I am learning flash as well!

 

[SabrinaO]

Sweet! I was looking up gels and remembered i had these:

I used a pink transparent one, cut it to size to fit in the diffuser and took the shot. There was a pink tint to the photo. Anyways, is this pretty much the same material as a gel? Its just colored transparent films....

 

[Kerbouchard]

Yep, those are gels.

 

[SabrinaO]

Yep, those are gels.

OMG they are actual gels! Lol..i looked up roscolux and just found out. I found these at school intending to use these as gels. I thought they were paint swatches for painting or something. I had no idea what they were. So its normal to cut them off and size them? How are they supposed to be applied? Tape? STUPID me I cut off the holder that keeps them together so i wouldn't have to rip them out. :/