First Shoot tomorrow, need CC

KDPhotography · Mar 6, 2011

Well I have my first shoot tomorrow. I will be shooting a 9 day old baby. I am not charging these people as I dont feel I am ready for that. I am looking more for technical advice on the following photos, but any advice is fine! I set my equipment up the other night and snapped a few of my son for a little practice and to practice more on my lighting. Any CC or advice for the shoot would be greatly appreciated!! Oh, and I know many of you hate selective coloring, but one of the following photos has it!

PASM · Mar 6, 2011

The second photo

really nice
Always charge..maybe just a coffee and a sandwich, but get something.

KDPhotography · Mar 6, 2011

One specific question I have is for some reason the lower part of the images I took that night were very dark. In the second photo you can see as it is more noticiable. That is even with some edititing. I kepy playing with my lights, but nothing seemed to help. Any idea on how to fix the problem or whats causing it?

tirediron · Mar 6, 2011

KDPhotography said:
Any idea on how to fix the problem or whats causing it?

You weren't by chance using an on-camera flash with a large lens hood were you?

KDPhotography · Mar 6, 2011

No, I have two off camera strobe lights.

tirediron · Mar 6, 2011

It's hard to tell from the catchlights, but is your key light positioned in such a way that you're blocking some of the light? That is is high, aimed down? Is there something else in the way?

bigtwinky · Mar 6, 2011

If you get a black band like that, it usually means that your shutter is faster than your max flash sync speed
Most cameras are 1/200 - 1/250 max sync speed. If you shoot 1/500, you'll get a black band...its actually your shutter curtain

MissCream · Mar 6, 2011

I've gotten that before. My flashes won't fire if I'm over my sync speed. It turns out that my images were just slightly, about half a stop to a stop under exposed. I adjusted it and after that it was fine. It also looks like you have slight motion blur, I can't see your exif data to see what your shutter speed is though.