please help. flash/focus issues. and a few C&C

matt62485

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first off, im having issues getting correct lighting. the shot of my nephew was with my sunpak hotshoe mounted bouncing off the ceiling, but no matter how i tried it, this is the best i got. hotspots on the forehead, etc. how do i technically avoid this? do i need more equipment or is this a user error?

secondly, why is it so difficult to manually focus my 50mm/1.8!?

pic1.jpg


lastly, any of these have any strong points? please C&C as neccessary

1.
bee1.jpg

2.
bee3.jpg

3.
bee6.jpg
 
That hotspot on the forehead thing...usually comes from direct spill lighting that i coijng from the very small side profile of the flash's plastic Fresnel lens that covers the flashtube and reflector...."some" flash units have a bad,bad habit of doing exactly that...I have experienced this behavior mostly with older, handle-mount style flash units, as well as the Nikon SB-16 flash unit from the 1980's.

One way to get around it is to rotate the flash backwards, and do the bounce "backwards", so that the Fresnel lens is pointed entirely away from the subject. This problem is almost always,always worst when you are very close to the subject. A second way is to use a piece of black foam or black paper to shield the subject from this bit of accidental "spill" lighting, so that the light that hits them is entirely from the bounce.

This problem used to be pretty annoying with some flashes.
 
ahhh. makes sense, i didnt think about trying to twist it around, good call. how is the overall power of the light though? too much?
 
50mm wide open is soft and the DOF is very shallow. Try using a small aperture if you're shooting wide open.
 
Yes, the baby is over-flashed...too much...you can see a hard shadow under his chin, and that's from direct light.
 
50mm wide open is soft and the DOF is very shallow. Try using a small aperture if you're shooting wide open.

im confused by what ur saying here. :confused: small aperture, wide open...? isnt that the opposite? small aperture = large fstop, smaller f = wide open... correct?

maybe im misunderstanding what ur saying
 
50mm wide open is soft and the DOF is very shallow. Try using a small aperture if you're shooting wide open.

im confused by what ur saying here. :confused: small aperture, wide open...? isnt that the opposite? small aperture = large fstop, smaller f = wide open... correct?

maybe im misunderstanding what ur saying

I think what they are suggesting is to try a lower f# like f4.2 because the DOF is very shallow.

A Higher f# like f22 would be more appropriate for a landscape type setting.

The lower aperture setting will allow in more natural light and you may not need the flash, therefore no more hotspots!
 
50mm wide open is soft and the DOF is very shallow. Try using a small aperture if you're shooting wide open.

im confused by what ur saying here. :confused: small aperture, wide open...? isnt that the opposite? small aperture = large fstop, smaller f = wide open... correct?

maybe im misunderstanding what ur saying

Wid aperture is the smaller number. f/1.8 is very wide; it allows a very shallow DOF. If you use a smaller or narrower aperture, which is a bigger number, f/5.6, f/9, etc... your DOF will get wider.

A smaller aperture might not necessarily affect the DOF a lot depending on the lens and with a smaller aperture, the lens usually gets sharper since the camera is using more of the center of the lens.
 
i understand the fstop/dof/aperture thing but the way it was worded confused me. that pic was taken at the lowest fstop on my 18-55 and i still needed the flash
 

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