Off camera light take one

[YoMoe]

This is my first attempt with off camera lighting. I have one flash with an umbrella camera left, it is being triggered by the on board flash. I have a reflector low down on the right. I just got this equipment and it is so crazy with the holidays I haven't really had much of a chance to play with it. All suggestions and links to further reading material are greatly appreciated. I also just got calibration software for my monitor - how do the colors look?

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[dxqcanada]

The light seems too flat.

 

[kundalini]

If you're using the built-in flash to trigger only the OCF and not add to the scene, try using a white business card or aluminum foil to bounce the pre-flash. It will show as a secondary catch light dead center of the pupils.

Another consideration is to shift your light to the opposite side of the hair part with people that have long hair. This eliminates the shadow caused by the hair.

You're off to a good start. The fun and frustration begins now.

 

[YoMoe]

The light seems too flat.

Any suggestions on how to fix that?

 

[YoMoe]

If you're using the built-in flash to trigger only the OCF and not add to the scene, try using a white business card or aluminum foil to bounce the pre-flash. It will show as a secondary catch light dead center of the pupils.

There is a secondary catch light dead center from the pop up in all the shots. I'll try the card.

Another consideration is to shift your light to the opposite side of the hair part with people that have long hair. This eliminates the shadow caused by the hair.

That is a great tip and easy enough to do. Thanks!!!

 

[Frequency]

While seeing beautiful expressions, persons like me (portrait illiterate) are swept away by that and cannot recognize the problems related to portraiture, except when there are stark distractions; having no such problems, i liked both the images very much

Regards

 

[kundalini]

The light seems too flat.

Any suggestions on how to fix that?

Create shadows. We live in a three dimensional world and our brain is cognizant of that fact. Photos are two dimensional. Shadows will give us that third dimension.

Flat lighting is used in fashion photography and mug shots. One can be quite appealing, the other not so flattering.

 

[IgsEMT]

Create shadows. We live in a three dimensional world and our brain is cognizant of that fact. Photos are two dimensional. Shadows will give us that third dimension.

Flat lighting is used in fashion photography and mug shots. One can be quite appealing, the other not so flattering.

If only clients appreciated that fact

 

[YoMoe]

Thanks for all the explanations of flat lighting. For me, I can see there is something wrong with them but being new to photography it is hard to figure out exactly what is wrong.

 

[klam]

I would like to think that your pop-up flash is contributing to the exposure acting as a fill light which is softening up the shadows created by the umbrella. Which in turn is making the lighting a tad flat. Also your reflector placement is also acting as a fill. Your image#1 is nice. Nice exposure all around.

You can use a card to block the flash or anything else as mentioned by others. But Nikon makes a shield to block the light from the pop-up which attaches via hot shoe, the SG-3IR IR Panel. I have one and it works great.

 

[Derrel]

It looks to me as if the on-camera flash is very powerful,and is acting as a very strong source of fill light. So strong that it is in fact, competing with the ostensible main light, in the umbrella camera left. The strong flash is filling in the shadows the umbrella light would normally cast, and that causes the flat look. The solution is to dial the on-camera flash down, significantly in power.