Learning about Light 101 - Assignment 1 - 3/15/10 - 3/28/10

[keith foster]

Good shots LB, and a really cute baby.
I noticed you had the same issue I did with wb. I was surprised at how much difference there was in wb in the 3 shots. I guess I hadn't paid close enough attention to that in the past.
How did you get the baby to cooperate? I move too slowly.
All 3 of your shots look properly exposed to me. I had a hard time with that even using the histogram on my lcd.

 

[Dominantly]

Well, pretty straight forward assingment. I took the 3 photos, then I looked at them on my computer and realized you could see the mess in my office, so I'll have to retake somewhere else.
I had opened the shades and had a very nice ambient illumination from the sunset over the mountains, right outside the window too.

 

[LBPhotog]

Good shots LB, and a really cute baby.
I noticed you had the same issue I did with wb. I was surprised at how much difference there was in wb in the 3 shots. I guess I hadn't paid close enough attention to that in the past.
How did you get the baby to cooperate? I move too slowly.
All 3 of your shots look properly exposed to me. I had a hard time with that even using the histogram on my lcd.

I had a slight issue with WB ... the sunlight that was coming through the window was "warmer" afternoon light and my strobes throw off "DAYLIGHT" so it took a bit of tweaking in the camera, and it's still not quite right.

The exposure for the first and the second (daylight only, strobe only) was pretty straight forward the kicker was the combo shot, it was a little trickier so I just fooled around until I got something that looked pretty good ...

As for the baby, we'll she's not mobile yet so that's how I got her to cooperate. Plus, I've been doing this type of stuff for the last 3 years with kids so it's kinda easy for me.

Thanks for the complement on the kid, but I swear to all of you, she gets it from her momma!

 

[Village Idiot]

Sorry. I've been off work and pretty busy since Wednesday, so I'll catch up with this tomorrow.

 

[Village Idiot]

I'll get to all the post today, but they're being answered in no particular order.

Thanks for the info - I thing I understand. I'm just happy that you didn't think that I was trying to step on your toes! Cheers!!

- Dan

That could really do with the intensity of a light source. Normally, if you take a photo indoors and expose for the ambient in the house, windows will appear blown out. If you expose for the ambient outside through the windows, the inside will appear underexposed because the exposure from the sun outside will be that much more brighter than what you see indoors, which is why the catch lights are present, but the majority of the exposure comes from the strobes.

do you know if the pocket wizard plus II will work with the combo of a D3000, SB-600?

Yes. Is there a specific reason you want PW PII's? There's a variety of different triggers out there with some being just as reliable but not as expensive.

 

[Village Idiot]

I hope this is what VI is looking for, and I hope these are done correctly.​

​

Looks good so far. I swear I'm going to get examples tonight.

i'll bite.

Nice shots. Thanks for the help. My weeks are finally starting to settle down.


Looks good. I don't know if you've noticed, but in all the photos where you use ambient clearly, there's very little shadow. That's because your light source is so huge. A large light source is a softer light and will cause less shadows. It's like shooting outside on a sunlit cloudless day vs. an over cast day. The clouds on an over cast day will act like a huge softbox and will diffuse the sun giving a big soft light. This will be covered in a future assignment.

 

[Village Idiot]

Good shots LB, and a really cute baby.
I noticed you had the same issue I did with wb. I was surprised at how much difference there was in wb in the 3 shots. I guess I hadn't paid close enough attention to that in the past.
How did you get the baby to cooperate? I move too slowly.
All 3 of your shots look properly exposed to me. I had a hard time with that even using the histogram on my lcd.

I had a slight issue with WB ... the sunlight that was coming through the window was "warmer" afternoon light and my strobes throw off "DAYLIGHT" so it took a bit of tweaking in the camera, and it's still not quite right.

The exposure for the first and the second (daylight only, strobe only) was pretty straight forward the kicker was the combo shot, it was a little trickier so I just fooled around until I got something that looked pretty good ...

As for the baby, we'll she's not mobile yet so that's how I got her to cooperate. Plus, I've been doing this type of stuff for the last 3 years with kids so it's kinda easy for me.

Thanks for the complement on the kid, but I swear to all of you, she gets it from her momma!

This will be covered in the future as well; I'm just glad people are noticing it. It's one thing to take a shot and not notice there's a problem vs. getting a photo and having to ask why is it wrong and what do you have to do to correct it. It's really an easy fix and the WB assignments are fun because adding gels and colors can make for some really cool (ha ha...punny) shots...

 

[LBPhotog]

VI - another question here, and this is more "Technical" I guess.

I understand that the more you open up the aperture the more ambient light you will let it - that makes sense to me; but, why doesn't the shutter time effect the amount of ambient light? Is it because the artificial light source, when it fires, over powers the ambient? Just a little confused as to why length of exposure doesn't matter to this equation.

Another issue that I am trying to work around, and the lack of understanding to my first question might be the reason I can't get this part either, I've been doing other ambient/artificial combinations (just with my sb-800 and a bounce card) and I can't seem to get the ambient to act like I want it to above f/2.8 - is that because the ambient is just too weak? 2.8 is nice for some portraits, but it's hell on my DOF - would a stronger ambient produce different results?

 

[Village Idiot]

VI - another question here, and this is more "Technical" I guess.

I understand that the more you open up the aperture the more ambient light you will let it - that makes sense to me; but, why doesn't the shutter time effect the amount of ambient light? Is it because the artificial light source, when it fires, over powers the ambient? Just a little confused as to why length of exposure doesn't matter to this equation.

The length of exposure matters to a point. It's difficult to see in your photos because everything is exposed evenly with all three light sources.

Say you're shooting a person outside right before sunset. The first photo is entirely ambient. 1/125 ss, f/4, ISO 100 for a properly exposed photo with no flash. It'll be a nice flat exposure with the sky starting to darken so it won't be blown out and the person you're photographing will be the right exposure as well. Say you add flash to this and have the flash's power & distance to it properly exposes the subject. Increasing the ss to 1/250 would cause the ambient exposure to drop by one stop. The clouds and background will darken while what is being illuminated by the flash will not, since you did not touch the aperture or ISO, and you'll have a more dramatic photo with a slightly darker surrounding while having a properly lit subject.

Shutter speed controls only the ambient light.

What you're talking about is when you are over powering ambient. Say you were outside in the same conditions shooting at 1/125, f/16, and ISO 100. The exposure would be 4 stops darker than the one at 1/125 and f/4. That should almost effective kill the ambient, so increasing the shutter speed by a tick or decreasing it won't matter too much as all the light for the exposure is coming from the power of the flash.

I hope I made that some what clear. If you have more question, ask. If I can't answer them in a way that you can understand I know some one will be able to.

One question for you. Do you know what a stop is in relation to one f stop or one stop of light?

Another issue that I am trying to work around, and the lack of understanding to my first question might be the reason I can't get this part either, I've been doing other ambient/artificial combinations (just with my sb-800 and a bounce card) and I can't seem to get the ambient to act like I want it to above f/2.8 - is that because the ambient is just too weak? 2.8 is nice for some portraits, but it's hell on my DOF - would a stronger ambient produce different results?

ISO. Don't be afraid to use it. I was comfortable shooting at ISO 1600 on a Canon 30D. If the photo is properly exposed, or even a touch over exposed then brought down in post, noise should not be an issue with most modern DSLRs. Use the ISO to boost the total over all levels.

It's all in relation to a stop of light and how ISO, shutter speed, and aperture work together.

ISO is essentially the sensitivity of the sensor to light. If you're shooting at 1/250ss, f/2.8 and ISO 100, you can bump up your ISO to 800, which is 3 stops of light. That means the the photo that was properly exposed before at f/2.8 will not be 3 stops over exposed. To fix it without adjusting your shutter speed, you can adjust your aperture up 3 stops to f/8 and get the exact same exposure that you had at 1/250, f/2.8, and ISO 100 now at 1/250, f/8, and ISO 800.

ISO also affects the exposure of the flash making it brighter along with ambient, that's why you'd use your aperture in your situation to bring the exposure back down and create a large DOF.

 

[Village Idiot]

example and explanation up.

 

[LBPhotog]

One question for you. Do you know what a stop is in relation to one f stop or one stop of light?

Yeah, that's not an issue, I'm all good there ... I have the fundamentals down solid.

ISO. Don't be afraid to use it. I was comfortable shooting at ISO 1600 on a Canon 30D. If the photo is properly exposed, or even a touch over exposed then brought down in post, noise should not be an issue with most modern DSLRs. Use the ISO to boost the total over all levels.

Damn my "Film mentality" ... I completely forget that I can do that! :scratch:

My images were taken with 200 ISO and .... bump the ISO up to 1600 and I can go from f/2.8 to f/8 and keep the same shutter speeds ...

*sigh* I know this stuff, I really do ... I just don't think about it in the moment ...

Thank VI!:thumbup:

 

[LBPhotog]

So, here's another one that I took yesterday ... big sliding glass door left of my daughter and my SB-800 bounced into my bounce card at a -2 comp. It was rainy and grey yesterday and that was nice soft light coming through the window. This was shot at f/1.8 and though it looks out of focus, the tip of her nose is in focus - just a very narrow DOF.

Another thing ... Bitter has his (BESP) posts - I think we need to come up with a catchy title, like "Idiot's Lighting Class" (ILC) or something like that ... I'm feeling left out when I see BESP and I really, really need to feel accepted - I have a fragile male ego! *lol*

 

[Village Idiot]

TYVCATWTIBSOLHTLEAEWWTFELEYHATHALAIIOLASAAMTDL

 

[LBPhotog]

OK, so I took VI's advice and I set the kid up again ... lo-and-behold VI WAS RIGHT!! :lmao:

I bumped the ISO up to 800, over exposed it about a 3rd of a stop and was able to shoot at f/5.6 and got a much better DOF (DUH)... this is the same set up as yesterday ... hope you guys don't get tired of looking at the kid here ...