first "strobist" shots

[chammer]

after a bit of waiting, my wireless trigger/receiver came in today which completed my setup. have no idea what im doing other than going by the few videos i saw.

my setup is a 7' wescott 750 light stand, manfrotto 026 lite-tite umbrella adapter, interfit 36" translucent white umbrella (all shots were done shooting through it), pt-04 wireless trigger/receiver set, and a 430EX II flash.

this flower was the first shot i did:

i absolutely love the color and lighting of this shot. i think i got a bit lucky for a quick snapshot. lol

...and just a lil bit ago we needed weekly pictures of the puppies so we tried a "portrait session". im fairly pleased with the results, but i hate the background. going to use a backdrop next time for a more proper result!

1.

(my personal favorite)

2.

3.

4.

5.

i see some issues with focus in the group shots, and in the others i was having a problem with light power. sometimes it was too much and others was too low. was mainly trying to keep the flash on 1/4 or 1/2 power and adjusting brightness with the aperture. was shooting mostly at 1/60th to let some ambient light on. was also cheating here and there when i wanted to use a smaller aperture (like f/8) but really couldnt break from shooting due to puppies attention span so i was bouncing the iso around from 100 to 200 at times for extra light.

shot 192 pictures in total and learned a lot in the process.

again, im pretty happy with the results and it sure does make a dramatic difference when you're moving around and/or moving the light around in the lighting of the subject!

now to practice practice practice so my next set will turn out much better!

 

[altitude604]

wow! those look great!

 

[fokker]

That flower is great

 

[schumionbike]

I like these, perhaps if you can make the background darker by increase the shutterspeed in the shots, think that would do it right?

 

[c.cloudwalker]

First, get rid of that couch! :lmao:

Not seriously but shoot your photos somewhere else. No the best place for portraits. Especially when the close-ups show all the hair on it.

Other than that the lighting is pretty decent for your first try. Except for the last one which could have been helped greatly with a reflector. Go get a $2 one at your local craft store. A sheet of foamcore board makes a wonderful reflector. And if you feel like splurging, get a second one and cover it with aluminum foil.

 

[mooimeisie]

I seriously know nothing about lighting, but the colors and sheen on the flower are beautiful.