Experimenting with a Flash.. any help is appreciated..

[chrisburke]

So I don't use flash very often... most of the weddings and portraits I do have been outside, during the day.. so really no need for flash... but I've seen some very impressive shots out there and it was all because of lighting.... last night, my wife and I were walking around the city, and we stumbled across this alley.. it just grabbed my eye.... it was lighted nicely, and it just looked good to me... so I said "hey lets do some pictures" she knew that the sole purpose of the shoot was because I wanted to practice with my flash... some of the pictures.. not so much, but a few of them caught my eye... anyone who gave give tips would be appreciated... I dont have the funds to go out and buy fancy lighting gear... for gear I have:
Nikon D40
Phottix Battery Grip
18-55mm Kit Lens (x2)
70-300mm Zoom Lens
Nikon SC-29 Wired Hotshoe
Sunpak PF30x Flash
Nikon D50

anyways, thats enough writing, heres the pics that caught my eye... the only real editing I did was some saturation and some cropping..

1:

2:

3:

4:

 

[Zabimaru]

i really like the last one although a little more light on the right side(our right) of her face would have made it slightly better.

As for the standing ones they all seemed decent to me, although i would recommend having her stand further away from the wall next time so the shadow isn't as harsh (unless that's the effect you were looking for.)

Also in the first two the flash has reflected in her glasses. (only a minor thing doesn't really distract from the photo)

 

[chrisburke]

the last one was my favorite too.. as for the right side.. i thin kits the dark right side that i like about the photo.. thanks for the standing away tip.. I wondered how to get rid of that.. i mean I can clone it out in PS.. but if standing away gets rid of this, thats a lot easier

 

[Sydkid]

Number 4 is great. Maybe try warming up that top left-hand corner a bit, it seems a little distracting. Also, if you can re-shoot, try having her look a little more towards the brighter side, then you can catch more of her face in the light. I think just a tad bit would work at getting a better shadow across her nose. Good luck!

 

[chrisburke]

be how do you warm it up???

 

[chrisburke]

I tried doing some more shots tonight with an irish mist bottle.. and I just cant seem to figure this fancy lighting stuff out.. I mean I can get the pictures to look fine, but I'm trying give sort of a dramatic look when using a flash... heres a pic a friend of mine took... perhaps you guys can tell he how he got this dramatic look.. i'd ask him, but he moved to shanghai and i almost never get to speak with him...

this is what I've been getting....

 

[manaheim]

Your friend may have used a snoot. The light is really even and soft though, so I'm not certain... may have been a softbox.

Some of the other lighting pros here can probably tell you.

In either case, I believe he used a flash with a very high speed shutter time so as to toss the background into black.

Here are some posts I did when I was horsing around with a snoot. Even if they aren't exactly what you're looking for it might be fun to play with. I had a blast doing these, and theres some great info in the threads from some of the more snoot-savvy members of TPF.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132089&highlight=snoot

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132199&highlight=snoot

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132195&highlight=snoot

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132319&highlight=snoot

Oh and my FAVORITE snoot shot, and the one that inspired me to play with this...

THE DOGFATHER...
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131213&highlight=snoot

 

[Zabimaru]

I'm not sure what you're using for the background but if any light manages to get on a black back drop then it will make it appear gray. Also you're using a reflective base(looks like glass?) which means the light will always bounce off it making that part seem like glass (maybe you wanted a black background with a glass bottom i don't know).

It looks to me like your friend used a soft box but i only started playing around with snoots, soft boxes and various lighting effects yesterday lol.