flash with friends

[xzyragon]

Got a friend to come out and help me get some practice with my umbrella. They don't bode well outside when it's windy, but inside or in a controlled environment, they're super fun!

Still working on getting it right (all my shots were underexposed and had to be adjusted PP), and I wanna grab a second strobe as a fill / hair light, or a rim light depending on the situation.

Anyways, here's a couple pictures. As always, I love your guy's C&C / input.

IMG_5828 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

IMG_5879 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

 

[FITBMX]

#1look a little dark on the left side to me, and not a fan of that pose.

#2 Is the better one to me, but the right side of her face seems a little dark.

Do remember that I know very little about lighting, so don't listen to much to me!

 

[tirediron]

Not bad. #1 would definitely have benfitted from a hairlight, and in #2, I think your key light needed to come further image right. In both cases, I think the light needed to be closer (and at lower power) and/or have increased diffusion as the specular highlights are just a tad strong for my taste.

 

[Derrel]

If everything is underexposed, it's time to boost the ISO level a full EV, or even two, to get the desired degree of exposure. The first shot is not half bad really. I like that her eyes have catchlights in them, due to where the light was placed in relation to her. The sparkle in her eyes MAKES the shot, where in the second shot, her eyes are pretty dark and just do not show up well. We can see that in the second shot, her cheek casts a shadow that falls at the corner of the mouth,which really makes the face shape obvious, but the nose has a really hot, specular reflection on it, and that is usually not a good look. I would say, keep shooting, keep practicing, keep paying really close attention to the exact angle you put the umbrella at in relation to the subject's face/positioning. Learning to shoot umbrella flash with a speedlight, and no modeling light in the umbrella means that you are shooting "blind" until you have an image on the LCD for review, but if the subject moves his or her FACE in relation to the light, then the shadow pattern/catchlights changes, so you are back to square one each time the person's pose changes. So--you have to really,really,really constantly monitor how the lighting is actually falling across the face. It's easy to get it right, then modify the pose/head angle/camera angle and then lose what was at one time a good thing.

I think if you have the chance to get in a really good, dedicated practice session, that it might be useful to actually take some masking tape and mark out the floor with some angles of 20,30,40,45,60,75 degrees, to see how those angles change your umbrella's lighting pattern. What's critical with smaller umbrellas especially, is to learn how far off to the side you can go before the shadow-side eye loses its catchlight.

 

[xzyragon]

I think if you have the chance to get in a really good, dedicated practice session, that it might be useful to actually take some masking tape and mark out the floor with some angles of 20,30,40,45,60,75 degrees, to see how those angles change your umbrella's lighting pattern. What's critical with smaller umbrellas especially, is to learn how far off to the side you can go before the shadow-side eye loses its catchlight.

I have a friend volunteering to help me with this on thursday!

And I wasn't a fan of the strong highlights on either of these. I'll make sure to up the ISO and lower the flash power on the next one. No hair light until I can get a second flash, which cactus conveniently upped the price on ($140 -> $175).

 

[Derrel]

IT'S GREAT to have a volunteer for this type of study and learning session. If you tie a length of string onto the central part of the umbrella, you can use that as a metering/positioning guide, where when the string just touches the chin of the person, with the flash set "a certain way", the proper f/stop on the lens is f/ 8 or f/5.6, or whatever. Obviously if it's f/5.6 at 100 ISO, at 200 ISO it would be f/8. Have fun with it!

 

[xzyragon]

IT'S GREAT to have a volunteer for this type of study and learning session. If you tie a length of string onto the central part of the umbrella, you can use that as a metering/positioning guide, where when the string just touches the chin of the person, with the flash set "a certain way", the proper f/stop on the lens is f/ 8 or f/5.6, or whatever. Obviously if it's f/5.6 at 100 ISO, at 200 ISO it would be f/8. Have fun with it!

the piece of string is an awesome idea!

I planned on having angles laid out on the ground from -30 through 210 or so, have the model keep the same pose (or 2 poses. Once with the face towards the camera, one angled slightly away), and cycle through with the umbrella at varying heights and distances relative to the model. Throw in different flash powers at different distances and I could be looking at hundreds of shots. But I'm going to compose everything into a web page or eBook or something for later reference, so this should get interesting.

 

[Derrel]

I think that's a great idea. I would suggest doing the facing straight ahead thing first, and then re-starting with the angle head position for the second, complete sequence.

An interesting way to photograph a person is with the shoulders at one angle, and then the face going "across the body", at another angle. The basic idea is this: turn the person's body away from the light, and then have them turn the head toward the light. This works especially well with females. Move the light farther and farther and farther around in an arc, and observe the effect.

So, with feet facing LEFT toward 7 o'clock , the head would be facing to the to the right toward 5 o'clock, and the main light would start out near the camera at 6 o'clock, and would be movedfarther and farther around in a counter-clockwise direction, eventually ending up kind of behind the subject, at the 11 o' clock position.

 

[xzyragon]

I think that's a great idea. I would suggest doing the facing straight ahead thing first, and then re-starting with the angle head position for the second, complete sequence.

An interesting way to photograph a person is with the shoulders at one angle, and then the face going "across the body", at another angle. The basic idea is this: turn the person's body away from the light, and then have them turn the head toward the light. This works especially well with females. Move the light farther and farther and farther around in an arc, and observe the effect.

So, with feet facing LEFT toward 7 o'clock , the head would be facing to the to the right toward 5 o'clock, and the main light would start out near the camera at 6 o'clock, and would be movedfarther and farther around in a counter-clockwise direction, eventually ending up kind of behind the subject, at the 11 o' clock position.

I usually have all my female subjects do this because it makes their shoulders appear smaller and more "feminine". The reason why I want to have the light go past 90* is because I want to see how the shadow falls behind their shoulders, while still hitting their face (which should be looking square into the camera on the first series). Should provide some contrasty shadows on their body while still lighting up most of their face.

 

[Derrel]

Just a comment; on the setup I detailed above, if there is a fill light, OR a BIG reflector, and the lens is opened up, as the light moves around and starts to get "behind" the subject, the brightness of the light as a rim light goes up, as the angle of incidence flattens out. If you open up a couple stops, you might get some good looks.

It might seem odd, but with a subject facing 5 o'clock and the light behind them at say 11 o'clock, that angle creates a very BRIGHT or "hot" rim lighting effect; with the same flash power, but the light at 3 o'clock, the light is not so bright and specular.

Sounds like you already have the making for some good test session material!