Learning to use off-camera flash [C&C appreciated]

LizardKing · Sep 9, 2012

Good night everybody!

The SB-700 softened by a white sheet up and right from the camera, reflective white board to fill the shadows on the other side and a sweet gift from the girlfriend :mrgreen:
Any comments, tips or C&C would be much appreciated.

LizardKing · Sep 10, 2012

That bad uh?

eddlum25 · Sep 10, 2012

LizardKing said:
That bad uh?

No, it's that good

. I like it anyway

GraceNFaith · Sep 10, 2012

I also like it. Nice job.

tirediron · Sep 10, 2012

Not bad at all; a little more fill image left wouldn't have gone amiss, but it's a good start!

LizardKing · Sep 10, 2012

Thank you all! Just wanted to know if I was on the right track or there was some really bad mistake.
I like it, but one sometime can be too subjective with your own pictures. I can still probably make that wood look a little better and try a better composition, though...

Thanks again and have a nice day!

Big Mike · Sep 10, 2012

The light is nice and soft, so if you're going for that, well done.
However, it doesn't seem to light the subject evenly (top to bottom)...The bottom looks much darker. Not necessarily a bad thing, it really depends on what you want the shot to look like.

That's likely why you don't have much feedback...we don't know what you were trying to accomplish (you only told us what you did, not what you were trying to achieve)...so it's hard to really say whether you reached your goals or not.

LizardKing · Sep 10, 2012

Big Mike said:
The light is nice and soft, so if you're going for that, well done.
However, it doesn't seem to light the subject evenly (top to bottom)...The bottom looks much darker. Not necessarily a bad thing, it really depends on what you want the shot to look like.

Yes, I was going for a soft light, thanks! I wanted to do both shots: one evenly lit and another with a darker bottom. But I think I like this one better.

Big Mike said:
That's likely why you don't have much feedback...we don't know what you were trying to accomplish (you only told us what you did, not what you were trying to achieve)...so it's hard to really say whether you reached your goals or not.

You're completely right and now I've learned.

I basically wanted to sell you the product. I mean, as if it was an assignment from a client to photograph her work or products.

Geaux · Sep 10, 2012

What aperture was this shot at? When it comes to product photography, its much more pleasing on the eye to have the whole object sharp. Looks like the top of the box, it's losing some sharpness due to DOF.

Other than that, I love the colors being portrayed in the shot, they mend really well.

LizardKing · Sep 10, 2012

Geaux said:
What aperture was this shot at? When it comes to product photography, its much more pleasing on the eye to have the whole object sharp. Looks like the top of the box, it's losing some sharpness due to DOF.

Other than that, I love the colors being portrayed in the shot, they mend really well.

f/4.5 -- You're right, you can see that in the top. Next time I'll try a smaller aperture. Thanks!

Geaux · Sep 11, 2012

I'd suggest f/8-f/11 with a shutter of 1/160th is a good starting point. Adjust flash power and see what works best

LizardKing · Sep 11, 2012

Geaux said:
I'd suggest f/8-f/11 with a shutter of 1/160th is a good starting point. Adjust flash power and see what works best

Thanks! The only problem is that I cannot use a higher flash power than 1/8 because the SB-700 doesn't seems to be able to synch when using a higher power. I'm gonna buy a wire to connect them that way and (hopefully) solve the problem, until I decide to send it for repair. So, having that value pretty much fixed, I used the aperture to adjust the exposure.