Confusion with lighting and flash sync speed. Help.

[jwbryson1]

I changed my settings to f/14 and at that aperture I was able to shoot as low as 1/80 and block all ambient light. My seriously stupid rookie mistake it forgetting to check all of my settings before taking the shots. I got so excited with my new gear (backdrop, etc.) that I just wanted to start shooting and I made dumb errors.

But, now I know.

 

[Trever1t]

Cool! Now bump up your speed and open the aperture a bit

 

[Jan Matis]

You can still use faster shutter speed. You need to be on full manuall mode. more for example on lightenupandshoot.com

I was in full manual mode.

(that's my punishment for trying to help without re-reading it. ) Despite I shoot with Sony, I will continue

On my a77 (and my old a700 too) when you have flash on hot shoe to be allowed hss (high speed sync) the flash needs to direct forwards on 90 degree angle (in any different angle hss will not activate and shutter speed is limited to 250).

I do not know nikon at all and I also do not know whether you had some radio triggers or use some equivalent of sony wireless-light-morse-code where on-camera flash configures and triggers off camera flash. But the point is - if you use radio triggers try to angle fash to point 90 degrees forward as if it was on hot shoe. ( just a quick sanity check - your wireless radio triggers also have to be hss compatible )

 

[jwbryson1]

Here's what I got SOOC. Shot to JPEG + RAW. No editing done. Just trying to get effect of blacked out background. It needs work but closer than when I started.

 

[joealcantar]

Here's what I got SOOC. Shot to JPEG + RAW. No editing done. Just trying to get effect of blacked out background. It needs work but closer than when I started.

-
Lift the lights above the subject so the shadows fall down at about a 45 degree angle.
Turn her face a little more so you get a 2/3 view of the face.
Looks like both lights are set the same , turn one off and get the settings and lighting right with one light on side main side of face and then bring in your second flash/light and fill in the shadow/fill side of the face gently. Looks like you have a flash on the camera if so and not filling in shadows properly use a reflector NEAR the face to fill in shadow area.
Lift the hat a little the shadow cutting into the eye is distracting.
-
Shoot well, Joe

 

[jwbryson1]

Here's what I got SOOC. Shot to JPEG + RAW. No editing done. Just trying to get effect of blacked out background. It needs work but closer than when I started.

-
Lift the lights above the subject so the shadows fall down at about a 45 degree angle.
Turn her face a little more so you get a 2/3 view of the face.
Looks like both lights are set the same , turn one off and get the settings and lighting right with one light on side main side of face and then bring in your second flash/light and fill in the shadow/fill side of the face gently. Looks like you have a flash on the camera if so and not filling in shadows properly use a reflector NEAR the face to fill in shadow area.
Lift the hat a little the shadow cutting into the eye is distracting.
-
Shoot well, Joe

Thanks. That hat's a little big for her and kept slipping down. This was shot with one SB-700 off camera, camera left about 30 degrees and bounced off the ceiling. My D90 was in commander mode and set so the on camera flash was not supposed to flash, but my daughter said they both flashed. I thought she was mistaken because I had set it not to go off. It sounds from your post, Joe, that you think 2 flashes were used too? I need to check that--not sure why the on camera flash is firing.

 

[Kerbouchard]

There are a ton of ways to get a black background. Here is an example of one done at the local park.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...49679-havent-posted-images-here-while-so.html

 

[Derrel]

You're making it REALLY tough on yourself with that hat pulled down so far on her forehead !!

The light coming in from the left side of the camera is casting a hard shadow of her nose on her cheek. Overall, the exposure seems quite a bit under-exposed.

 

[joealcantar]

If you are using commander mode set the preflash setting to "--" it will fire the pre-flash but not a flash that will affect the shot. I saw two catchlights is why I was thinking you used two flashes.
-
Shoot well, Joe

 

[Tiberius47]

I set up my new black backdrop, put my camera in manual mode and adjusted the setting to f/4.5 and 1/640 shutter speed which totally eliminated all signs of the backdrop and all ambient light which was my goal. I put my subject in front of the backdrop, took my SB-700 off camera and angled it to bounce light off the ceiling. When I took the shot, however, the shutter speed was 1/200 which is my D90's flash sync speed, and of course the lighting is a bit hard, the backdrop appears and there are shadows. Not what I wanted or expected.

So how do I fix this? What am I doing wrong (probably a lot of things)? My goal is to have my subject lit and the background totally blacked out.

Thanks.

You're bumping up against the camera's flash sync speed. Basically put, if the flash is going to work, then it needs to be at a point where the whole sensor is exposed at the same time, and with faster shutter speeds this doesn't happen because of the shutter construction. You can use high speed synch (sometimes called FP mode) if your flash has it.

To get the background to drop out, move the subject away from the background, move the lights as close to the subject as you can and dial the power down to the minimum you can while still getting enough light for your shot. Because of the way light falls off, very little light will reach the background.

 

[jwbryson1]

You're making it REALLY tough on yourself with that hat pulled down so far on her forehead !!

The light coming in from the left side of the camera is casting a hard shadow of her nose on her cheek. Overall, the exposure seems quite a bit under-exposed.

Agreed. That hat is a bit too big for her head and kept slipping down. I was having some fun and trying to figure out the black background effect and trying to direct her as well. She was more interested in being late for the start of Sponge Bob so I had just a few minutes to get a shot.