gah... why?

ababysean · Feb 9, 2011

I am doing a playgroup party today and I have no idea why I even agreed. The setup is INSIDE a room with NO windows (it is in a base chapel) I have my one SB-600 flash and I can get it off camera, but ugh... This is going to be not good. I'm not looking forward to this at all. I'm even wondering if I should just bounce the flash from my camera instead of putting the flash off camera? What do you think?

Here is the room.

Ignore the things that look like windows in the back, they are not.

164533_148554068535657_100001431947276_288180_399087_n.jpg

Also, they have overhead florescent lights, If I turn them off I have no idea if my auto focus is going to work.

blah stay tuned for some shots later!

kundalini · Feb 9, 2011

ababysean said:
Also, they have overhead florescent lights, If I turn them off I have no idea if my auto focus is going to work.

Since fluorescent lights are constantly changing colors in degrees Kelvin, you'll want to expose long enough to try and catch the light 'near the middle' of the sine wave. You can increase your chances by not increasing your shutter speed to more than 1/120s. I'd turn the WB to fluorescent and if you can pick up a 'window green' gel, that will color balance the flash to fluorescent. Having one of those gels along with a CTO (orange) for incandescent lights will help a lot with color balancing your flash to existing conditions.

Hope that helps.

Robin Usagani · Feb 9, 2011

Bounce it, set it to ttl. Looks like an easy room for flash.

ababysean · Feb 9, 2011

Yes! so it was not as bad as I thought, I actually turned the lights off in the room and was able to just use flash.

182855_151433258247738_100001431947276_304263_1482002_n.jpg

2.

168722_151433418247722_100001431947276_304269_4158337_n.jpg

3.

179836_151433454914385_100001431947276_304271_5956615_n.jpg

4.

182439_151433611581036_100001431947276_304277_5389104_n.jpg

5.

182642_151433708247693_100001431947276_304281_6580086_n.jpg

6.

168377_151433848247679_100001431947276_304288_4117747_n.jpg

Robin Usagani · Feb 9, 2011

Oh.. i didnt know you were going to do a backdrop and stuff. Then I would definitely would have done OCF manual flash so I can keep it consistent. I thought you were going to move around and do almost like an event photography.

e.rose · Feb 9, 2011

You got some cute shots :sillysmi:

Just for my own educational purposes... did you turn AAAAAAAAALL the lights off? Or just most of them?

Because if you turned AAAAAAAALLLL the lights off... was your flash's sync-speed not a fast enough shutter speed for you to have been able to not even have to worry about the ambient light off or on?

Or is there some element I'm missing here?

ababysean · Feb 9, 2011

nope. but it was off camera. I had the umbrella camera left at about 10:00 above kids.

ababysean · Feb 9, 2011

e.rose said:
You got some cute shots :sillysmi:

Just for my own educational purposes... did you turn AAAAAAAAALL the lights off? Or just most of them?

Because if you turned AAAAAAAALLLL the lights off... was your flash's sync-speed not a fast enough shutter speed for you to have been able to not even have to worry about the ambient light off or on?

Or is there some element I'm missing here?

it was not pitch black..... there was a glass door that allowed a tiny bit of outside light in, but still very dark, enough for me to be able to focus.

e.rose · Feb 9, 2011

Were you using a slower shutter speed?

Robin Usagani · Feb 9, 2011

I would just set it low ISO and small aperture erose so the ambient light barely does anything. You wont have problem with mixing different light temperature. You almost never have a problem with sync speed unless it is super bright and you use larger aperture.

e.rose · Feb 9, 2011

Schwettylens said:
I would just set it low ISO and small aperture erose so the ambient light barely does anything. You wont have problem with mixing different light temperature. You almost never have a problem with sync speed unless it is super bright and you use larger aperture.

Well, that's what I was trying to get at. Wouldn't there have been a way to get the settings to the point where the ambient didn't matter and the lights could have been kept on?

I didn't word it well... or just worded it flat out wrong. I'm blaming it on my miserable germs again that are making ME feel miserable right now. :lol:

But I just took two shots with my camera. When I had it set to 1/125 f/2.8 ISO100 - no flash, I got a completely black picture with the light on in my room. So then when I turned the flash on and got the exposure correct with the flash, I had a shot that was done with all flash and no ambient, without having to turn the lights out.

So I guess I'm just wondering why it was that Crystal needed to turn the lights out for the shoot. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm missing here. :lol:

kundalini · Feb 9, 2011

e.rose said:
So I guess I'm just wondering why it was that Crystal needed to turn the lights out for the shoot. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm missing here.

Ummmm, it wasn't, really. THIS was shot in open shade on a sunny summer afternoon with hotshoe flash. There is a large dark green shrub behind.

e.rose · Feb 9, 2011

kundalini said:
e.rose said:

So I guess I'm just wondering why it was that Crystal needed to turn the lights out for the shoot. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm missing here.

Click to expand...

Ummmm, it wasn't, really. THIS was shot in open shade on a sunny summer afternoon with hotshoe flash. There is a large dark green shrub behind.

Gotchya :thumbup:

Josh66 · Feb 9, 2011

ababysean said:
it was not pitch black..... there was a glass door that allowed a tiny bit of outside light in, but still very dark, enough for me to be able to focus.

...Are you sure? A few of them look like they are slightly OOF to me. The first one stands out the most. The last one looks to have the best focus.
All of the ones between the first & last seem to also be somewhere between them as far as focus goes too...

I would have definitely done this with the lights on ... if only just for focusing.

ababysean · Feb 10, 2011

kundalini said:
e.rose said:

So I guess I'm just wondering why it was that Crystal needed to turn the lights out for the shoot. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm missing here.

Click to expand...

Ummmm, it wasn't, really. THIS was shot in open shade on a sunny summer afternoon with hotshoe flash. There is a large dark green shrub behind.

But what if you WANTED the bush to be seen? (backdrop) Then you'd have to either slow down the shutter or go with a more open ap? Then you would also have flash exposure and daylight (fluorescent?)

I guess I'm just used to turning the fluorescent lights off, because when I shot in a pro studio, we did. I asked why and the owner said fluorescent lights are the devil, so might as well cut them off.....

But with that being said, next time I think I am going to try to use a smaller ap, I think I was at f4 for most of these and 1/160 second.