First ever pics with my new strobes

[Bluffkin]

Here are some pictures of my son, with me testing my new Lencartas. I kept one out of the two lamps in it's box. Just want to focus on one for now until I can get to grips with learning. E.Rose is mentoring me on portraits so hoping you all see some improvements over the next coming months, but no harm in showing you my first attempts!

I am going to be honest with you all, for the first time yesterday I heard about rule of thirds, when my friend saw these and told me about it. I really had no idea something like that existed. But then you can see how n00bie I am still xD

I started off with the flash on low power and directly in front of my boy. Next I will angle it a bit and try for something different. This was just a 20 minute shoot before he got bored and walked off.

Be as harsh as you want. I'd rather work for the compliments.

Thank you guys and girls

 

[tirediron]

Not bad at all for a first attempt. I think you could stand to drop your exposure by ~ 1/2 stop or so, the skin seems a bit 'hot' and the colours a little washed out, but your catchlights are nicely positioned and you don't have any harsh shadows indicating light-to-subject distance was good. Also, consider shooting in portrait aspect; that will help to eliminate compositional 'oopses' such as the cropped forearm in #3.

 

[Bluffkin]

Not bad at all for a first attempt. I think you could stand to drop your exposure by ~ 1/2 stop or so, the skin seems a bit 'hot' and the colours a little washed out, but your catchlights are nicely positioned and you don't have any harsh shadows indicating light-to-subject distance was good. Also, consider shooting in portrait aspect; that will help to eliminate compositional 'oopses' such as the cropped forearm in #3.

Thank you tirediron! Appreciate your time to take a look and reply.

I think the only way I could drop the exposure is by using a wider aperture if I remember correctly as my shutter speed was at sync speed, anything more and I would get black lines. My ISO was at 100 and the flash was on the lowest setting (1.0)

I've not heard of portrait aspect, is it something to do with the viewfinder? I'll google it asap.

Thank you again!

 

[Braineack]

smaller aperture; not wider.

What were you shooting at? I would have started here at f/8 at the widest. Take #2 for example, your son's face isn't entirely in focus. You could have benefited from shooting a smaller aperture and getting more Depth-of-Field.


as far as portraits, you've heard of the term. Just turn the camera 90° counter-clockwise. Look how little space your son is taking up in the frame in #1--maybe 1/4 of the frame, if even.

 

[Bluffkin]

smaller aperture; not wider.

Ah yes! I was going through it in my head and reversed it. I do understand it...PROMISE.

as far as portraits, you've heard of the term. Just turn the camera 90° counter-clockwise. Look how little space your son is taking up in the frame in #1--maybe 1/4 of the frame, if even.

Ohhhhh, Doh! Now I feel stupid. I'm looking too deep into it and thinking there is something in the camera that I didn't know about.

I'll get the EXIF data when I get home. I was using a 50mm f/1.8.

Thanks

 

[Derrel]

Congratulations of the new studio flash units! You'll continue to get better and better with more time and practice.

 

[Designer]

Congratulations on getting Emily to mentor you!

 

[Bluffkin]

Thank you everybody! Appreciate the feedback. Took my lights to a friends birthday get together. Nothing come of it (Nothing was expected). There was no space, and the only place there was, it was a glass conservatory. Which I found out the hard way about light and reflections haha