I took my speed lights off camera, outdoors and heres what happened.

[JustJazzie]

I am actually revisiting the editing on many of these. I realized that I edited these the same way I would have a natural light shot. There is quite a bit more vibrancy that can be featured in the background that I have lost, and I think I like it that way!

Edit 1

Edit 2

Those flashes look.... precarious

Actually, they were sturdier than they look. The did unfold once, but never showed any signs of separating.

Nice work, Jazzie. I especially like the ever-so-slightly more dense look on the family group shot re-visit that you did.

Thank you, Derrel!

Also, Skin tones? Are they all too pink? I need to invest in a grey card!

@tirediron and @Braineack

I did revisit the brightness, and you are right. It is inconsistent. I am toning down the highlights on the toddler especially. How is this looking in regards to brightness/highlights?

Heres a redo of the family shot. I burned down the little girl on the right (closest to my key light) and dodged the dad to try and even him out.

Nailed it!

Thank you!!

 

[Derrel]

One thing I've found is that it photos shot in this manner can be processed in multiple ways, and any number of those ways can be pleasing. Sometimes I will do an entire shoot, and think it looks just fine, then will give it a few days' worth of rest and come back and re-visit it and think, "Nope! What the heck was I thinking!" And then I will proceed to do a minor- to major-level revision of the set!

I am not suggesting that you've done anything wrong with these shots, just that there's a range of acceptable ways to process this type of bright, light, airy-look photography; one person might like 'em more dense, another might like 'em more bright, and so on. There is no, one, single best way to handle this kind of lighting; you're in charge of how you want your photos to look.

 

[JustJazzie]

One thing I've found is that it photos shot in this manner can be processed in multiple ways, and any number of those ways can be pleasing. Sometimes I will do an entire shoot, and think it looks just fine, then will give it a few days' worth of rest and come back and re-visit it and think, "Nope! What the heck was I thinking!" And then I will proceed to do a minor- to major-level revision of the set!

I am not suggesting that you've done anything wrong with these shots, just that there's a range of acceptable ways to process this type of bright, light, airy-look photography; one person might like 'em more dense, another might like 'em more bright, and so on. There is no, one, single best way to handle this kind of lighting; you're in charge of how you want your photos to look.

Thanks for reminding me about this! I think sometimes I stare at things for so long trying to get it right, that I forget "right" is completely subjective!

Thank goodness for light room's snapshot feature.

I need to get in a better habit of letting the files sit for a week or so before I touch them, but I always edit hastily because I am eternally impatient. :Giggle:

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

Having never shot outdoors with a flash, what wb setting do you use? Is the color temperature of the flash much different from sunlight?


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[JustJazzie]

Having never shot outdoors with a flash, what wb setting do you use? Is the color temperature of the flash much different from sunlight?


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hmmm... Apparently I had my white balance set to cloudy. *shrug* I just left it there from my test shots so Im not sure why it worked.

Maybe because the refactor bounced the flash light so it evened the color temperature across the subject but rendering the background color "wrong"?

 

[Braineack]

if you shot raw it didn't matter, otherwise the image would look orange, cloudy iirc is like 7700K. Flashes are ~5500K.

 

[JustJazzie]

if you shot raw it didn't matter, otherwise the image would look orange, cloudy iirc is like 7700K. Flashes are ~5500K.

It doesn't matter if you are going to adjust it in raw, right? I didn't really adjust it in these. maybe a + or - 5 is all.

 

[Braineack]

correct.

 

[JustJazzie]

correct.

So, since I didn't correct it, shouldn't the WB have been completely off? Or did the white reflector change the color temp coming from the flash?

 

[Braineack]

people make too much fuss over WB. your **** looks good.

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

I agree it does look good.

I’ll usually set it in camera to whatever the scene is but then will still hit auto in lr to see if it looks any better.


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[Braineack]

I don't have much luck with auto buttons in LR, but I do find it nails the tint pretty well. lol.

I think whatever the camera picks, seems to always be pretty close, but I always add ~1000-1500K warmth to my shots from there.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Next time it might help to take along a mirror and brush/comb or have the subjects bring along theirs. I think especially with fine or long hair as the people move around the hair is moving and it can start looking more messy.

I'd also watch the clothing. The little boy in the group shot has his shirt bunched up and his pants look like he'd gotten a bit dusty/dirty; it's just more noticeable with the plaid lines and the black pants. Not that a little boy has to be perfectly clean... just that and him standing awkwardly in the group shot like he's trying to hang on/balance made things more noticeable. And he needed a quick comb/arrange too for the close up in the bright sunlight with fine blond wispy hair.

It might have been nice for the photo of the girl with the braid to have her arms and hands in the photo to be able to see them, or make it more of an upper body shot with less arm in the frame. And it would be necessary to take the pattern of the polka dots into consideration framing the shot. With the photo of the parents they seem a bit low in the frame; the bottom edge is just below the end of her hair and a little space below that might have been nice.

It might be worth getting in more practice setting up and using the equipment and getting test shots framing in various ways til it becomes second nature. Not necessarily doing portraits, just taking pictures of whatever subject. That way at a session you won't have to think so much about the equipment because it will get to be more automatic, and then more attention could be given to posing subjects and framing the shots.

 

[JustJazzie]

Next time it might help to take along a mirror and brush/comb or have the subjects bring along theirs. I think especially with fine or long hair as the people move around the hair is moving and it can start looking more messy.

I'd also watch the clothing. The little boy in the group shot has his shirt bunched up and his pants look like he'd gotten a bit dusty/dirty; it's just more noticeable with the plaid lines and the black pants. Not that a little boy has to be perfectly clean... just that and him standing awkwardly in the group shot like he's trying to hang on/balance made things more noticeable. And he needed a quick comb/arrange too for the close up in the bright sunlight with fine blond wispy hair.

It might have been nice for the photo of the girl with the braid to have her arms and hands in the photo to be able to see them, or make it more of an upper body shot with less arm in the frame. And it would be necessary to take the pattern of the polka dots into consideration framing the shot. With the photo of the parents they seem a bit low in the frame; the bottom edge is just below the end of her hair and a little space below that might have been nice.

It might be worth getting in more practice setting up and using the equipment and getting test shots framing in various ways til it becomes second nature. Not necessarily doing portraits, just taking pictures of whatever subject. That way at a session you won't have to think so much about the equipment because it will get to be more automatic, and then more attention could be given to posing subjects and framing the shots.

I completely agree with quite a bit of what you have to say, however much of it was not reasonably feasible under the circumstances.

The parents were allowing him to climb and play, and run in and out of shots. This is exactly what I captured- when HE chose to sit down and was interested in the posing area, I grabbed a shot. Had I gone in to dust him off, the shot would have been missed completely. He would literally sit for 1 second and then start running away.

As for the family shot, you are right! He is trying to climb down.
If you have any good tips on how to keep a little boy clean who's climbing around the back yard, and how to get him to stand happily on the posing stool against his will, I am happy to hear it! (Also, if you do- then you should totally write a book on it!)
I did burn down his pants a bit in some of the final images to help hide the dirt a little better.

As for the hair- YUP! The little girls hair is definitely the biggest flaw in the photos. A lot of it has to do with the length. I was unable to tuck it in and get it to stay anywhere.
I combed the hair back many, many times, but unfortunately with a dog and the toddler running in and out of 9 out of 10 frames by the time I got a shot with good expression, and without extras- the hair was a mess again. I absolutely could have kept at it until it was perfect- but children bore easily and I would not have attained the expression I was looking for. At that point I was already loosing her so, I compromised.

The framing on the shot of the parents is due to the toddler hanging out, literally directly under the field of view, making framing options limited.

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

Kids are the worst; especially 5 and below. I 100% understand your difficulty; the whole family poses top the list. I take all our family pics because I’d be embarrassed for someone else to do it.


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