In Home Session C&C

Kyna · Apr 19, 2011

I took these for one of my best friends. She couldn't afford to pay a photographer and I did it for free. This is my first on location session and the lighting SUCKED, I tried to make the best use of it I could.

She loves them, but I want to learn what I could have done better for next time. Thanks!

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Derrel · Apr 19, 2011

The lighting in these is indeed very bad. A large, standard accessory like a 42x72 in panel reflector could have made this session a winner. Two panels of the same size, clamped together, and you would have had lovely lighting. What I am seeing is excessive contrast in all four images, your highlights are blown out, your midtone values are a very narrow band, and then things go to deep shadows. This is such a shame too, because the last shot, of the father, baby,and mother all sitting on the couch in front of a window could have easily been rescued with even a $40 second-hand flash unit. I'm wondering about the image processing...can you try re-processing these with lower-contrast tone curve settings, and just allow some of the tones at the low end to drop to blackness?

Kyna · Apr 19, 2011

Thanks Derrel this is the C&C I need. What kind of flash unit would have saved me so I can purchase it?

Derrel · Apr 19, 2011

Gosh, almost any basic flash would work...just "a flash unit" that can be synchronized to the camera...I honestly think that some of the old-school Auto-Thyristor flash units that use analogue-style rotating dials or linear, slide-rule-style readouts are the easiest and most-logical types of flash units for portrait type work. Why? Because of their mechanical DIALS or their mechanical slide-rule readouts, the photographer can literally SEE all the distances, and the appropriate f/stops right across from one another, and the entire gamut of settings is visible from one end to the other. This is in contrast to some of the digital readout flash units, where only one bit of information is presented at any one time. Some of the flashes that use the older-style readouts would be made by Metz, or Sunpak, or the older Vivitar 285 design.

Even the camera's built-in pop-up flash could have been utilized here, to help lighten the shadows, and to make the lighting less contrasty. I hate to recommend things like the Canon 580 EX-II as being the required type of flash; although it is a very fine flash,and well-built,and well-designed, in the situation like shot #4, with a family in front of a strongly backlighting window, virtually ANY flash unit could have been used to help brighten up their shadow side--an old used Phoenix, a old, used Crown, or an old, used Vivitar or Nikon flash, hooked up to your Canon via a synch cord and a hotshoe PC outlet adapter...

Please take a look at this Vivitar 285HV rotary control dial photo, and yo can see, literally SEE, the right exposure and distance settings on the dial. calc | Flickr - Photo Sharing!