My little man

[Missdaisy]

I took this pic last weekend for my sons 6 year pictures. My boys have sleepy eyes natually (puffy upper eye lids) it's so hard for me to get good light in his eyes. Would a reflector of some sort have helped here?

 

[ANDS!]

Do you have the ORIGINAL shot?

 

[syphlix]

maybe some fill flash?

 

[Missdaisy]

I have the original on my home computer, I'm at work now, I'll post it up when I get home.

Maybe some fill flash would have helped, I've been using my on camera flash. I ordered a sb600 from B&H it should come today!!!!

 

[ANDS!]

I'm guessing the camera saw the lil dudes shirt, and compensated for the rest of the scene; when it should have been compensating for his face (since that's the most important piece here). An SB600 would help here (are they still ridiculously priced?) - even on-camera flash would work, but you would have to use such a small aperture to control how slow the camera would fire that it might ruin any artistic affect you wanted to go for.

I would also invest in a little mini-tri-pawd for your SB-600. No reason in getting an off-camera dedicated flash. . .and then sticking it on camera.

 

[tirediron]

Maybe some fill flash would have helped, I've been using my on camera flash.

Definitely. In this case, I think an off-camera strobe with a diffuser of some sort would have really perked up this image. Two strobes and diffusers would have been even better.

 

[Missdaisy]

I'm guessing the camera saw the lil dudes shirt, and compensated for the rest of the scene; when it should have been compensating for his face (since that's the most important piece here). An SB600 would help here (are they still ridiculously priced?) - even on-camera flash would work, but you would have to use such a small aperture to control how slow the camera would fire that it might ruin any artistic affect you wanted to go for.

I would also invest in a little mini-tri-pawd for your SB-600. No reason in getting an off-camera dedicated flash. . .and then sticking it on camera.

The sb600 was only $220 I didn't think that was too bad considering I almost bought the sb900 at $469. I hadn't even considered a tripod for my flash!!! :thumbup:

 

[DScience]

I'm guessing the camera saw the lil dudes shirt, and compensated for the rest of the scene; when it should have been compensating for his face (since that's the most important piece here). An SB600 would help here (are they still ridiculously priced?) - even on-camera flash would work, but you would have to use such a small aperture to control how slow the camera would fire that it might ruin any artistic affect you wanted to go for.

I would also invest in a little mini-tri-pawd for your SB-600. No reason in getting an off-camera dedicated flash. . .and then sticking it on camera.

The sb600 was only $220 I didn't think that was too bad considering I almost bought the sb900 at $469. I hadn't even considered a tripod for my flash!!! :thumbup:

If you don't have a tripod already, then I would recommend instead to get an umbrella stand with adapter for the flash. You will be able to position it higher, and then also have your tripod for the camera.

 

[ANDS!]

I'm guessing the camera saw the lil dudes shirt, and compensated for the rest of the scene; when it should have been compensating for his face (since that's the most important piece here). An SB600 would help here (are they still ridiculously priced?) - even on-camera flash would work, but you would have to use such a small aperture to control how slow the camera would fire that it might ruin any artistic affect you wanted to go for.

I would also invest in a little mini-tri-pawd for your SB-600. No reason in getting an off-camera dedicated flash. . .and then sticking it on camera.

The sb600 was only $220 I didn't think that was too bad considering I almost bought the sb900 at $469. I hadn't even considered a tripod for my flash!!! :thumbup:

For future purchases I would check out professional photography forums (Digital Weddign Forums springs to mind) and look at their classifieds. I got all three of my SB600's from a single person for about 450 bucks total (sadly I didn't buy them all at once). You can find some stupid good deals, on equipment used by professionals (or at least people with a vested interest in keeping their gear nice and tidy).

A tripod is a good thing to have period. If you decide to do this for money making purposes you'll eventually need that kind of gear anyway. The good thing about getting a tripod over an umbrella stand is that a tripod is multipurpose - the umbrella stand is really only for one thing - holding the camera flash. It will not hold up well in any kind of crazy weather conditions - not unless you want to spend a heft amount of cash on something like an Avenger stand.

For outside shots - barebulbing it is fine as you have no surfaces to bounce off of, so the light is already going to spread nicely. Also, zooming the lens (n the SB600) to a wide angle, will give you more spread, and ensure you don't have a tight narrow band hitting the face of your dude.

 

[Missdaisy]

I'm sure this is going to sound like a stupid question but do you have to have a special tripod for flash? Or is it just a special head?
I do have a tripod and head for my camera already.

 

[ANDS!]

A "tripod" for your flash isn't really a tripod so much as it is a stand to be able to position your flash. It serves a VERY specific purpose: to mount your flash on, and stick a light modifier in front of it (umbrella, softbox, gridspots. . .etc).

Lightstands & Booms | B&H Photo Video

Essentially, you need to decide what you are going to use your flash for, to determine whether or not you want to have drag a lightstand and umbrella around.

 

[Derrel]

You could use a camera tripod as a flash support system if you have a flash shoe mount that has a threaded hole on the bottom of it. Many accessory "cold shoes" have such a threaded hole, which is 1/4 inch by 20 threads per inch.
Also, most umbrella swivel mounting brackets come with what is called a "spigot"; with a spigot that has a 1/4x20 threaded receptacle, the spigot can be threaded to the tripod's tripod mounting screw, and the umbrella bracket mounted onto the spigot, and then a flash mounted onto the top of the umbrella swivel mounting bracket, either with,or without an umbrella.

The on-line web store FlashZebra has all the hardware you'd need, plus cables and triggering systems. FlashZebra.com

An SB600 flash hooked up to a simple optical slave trigger could fire the flash by using your on-board flash set to a low-power manual setting.