Hollywood Hills, looking for C&C

Tom3 · Dec 10, 2008

Today, we went up the hills, by the Hollywood sign, as my wife wanted to 'test' her new haircut and I wanted to test my new flash

These were done with a D200, Sigma 18-200 lens and SB-600 flash.

The biggest issue we had to face was the harshness of the sun; it was about 3PM which was not the ideal time but that's all we hard

This is my first set with an external flash.

Please, give me any feedback so I can improve!

ShutterSpeed · Dec 10, 2008

I like you're aspect ratio.

Your second image doesn't seem very well focused.

And obviously the lighting on the second and third presents some challenges.

But overall I like the composition and the overall picture.

Tom3 · Dec 10, 2008

Lighting is actually what I need to figure out; I just got an external flash and I have to find out how to make sure the foreground matches the background.

The second pic literally looks like she's been pasted on another picture, which the first one does not have that problem at all.

Is there a process to follow in order to match foreground and background?

ShutterSpeed · Dec 10, 2008

i don't have an external flash..so i'm a noob. but i've been learning from from immersion...but flashes - i'm clueless.

ShutterSpeed · Dec 10, 2008

question.

if you were near the hollywood sign, what kept you from getting that in the shot?

forgive me for sounding like an idiot - i live in arkansas.

jwsciontc · Dec 10, 2008

1st one looks decent, 2nd and 3rd look OOF and pasted on the background

Tom3 · Dec 10, 2008

I didn't forget

But we can see it from our house, so the Hollywood sign is not really special to us.

Tom3 · Dec 10, 2008

jwsciontc said:
1st one looks decent, 2nd and 3rd look OOF and pasted on the background

What is the process to match the foreground with the background? (as, obviously, I can not change the background)

rdzmzda · Dec 11, 2008

the last one would have been really good i think if u had something to bounce the natural light back onto her face...

Photog · Dec 11, 2008

You also need to watch the spike coming out of her right shoulder.

manaheim · Dec 11, 2008

That last one was your best shot... imo, the fact that I can pretty easily tell that you used a flash pointed right at her in the first three is a significant detriment to the photos. (no biggie... you just got it, you're getting used to it)

You could try getting something to diffuse it... even just attaching an index card to the back of it and pointing it straight up would probably be great. You could also look into fash-attached softboxes and the handy dandy plastic diffuser may also be a great option.

Keep at it. It's nice that you have a subject willing to pose for you, and she even dressed nicely for the occasion.

Tom3 · Dec 11, 2008

the first set I made was pretty bad: the sun was extremly harsh; then I went with the flash, much better but she looked like a copy and paste on a background;
then I tried to lower the flash intensity, but it was really a guessing game.
I'm trying to find what is the right process to determine how much to light up a subject.
Would the flash up with a diffuser be strong enough when oudoors at 3pm though?