The rare appearance of my munchkins.

[vipgraphx]

You had mentioned that your screen was black before you shot, I am assuming your lcd camera screen. My question is why? Were the lights off? I am thinking your exposure was so low that before the flash triggers everything is dark and once your flash fires then wala you can see the kiddos. Is this what is going on?

Since I am in no place to give flash advice all I can offer is perhaps natural lighting advice and then applying it to and with your lighting might help.

When I shoot the kids in low light I will make sure I get fast shutter speeds, and higher ISO. I will normally use exposure comp into the -EV as it helps freeze life. This is why I would then raise ISO to help bring in light. I would imagine you can do this with flash and strobes. I may be doing things wrong not sure but I am usually pretty happy with the results I get.

I never use meters (maybe I should) I normally will just make adjustments until I am satisfied. I am more of a manual person and like to rely on my adjustments rather than the camera. Like I said probably I am doing things wonky….

 

[Braineack]

these weren't natural light at all. These were shot with a strobe. I could have stopped down, but I was trying to blur out any wrinkles in the muslin. These were spur of the moment shots so I didn't have time to wet them down and let the wrinkles fall out.

Sorry, thought these were using your window. I didn't read.

 

[gsgary]

I attempted to view the focus point but it did not register, so I am wondering how you focused. I'm not the best at judging focus, but it looks to me as if you focused on his shirt (#1) instead of his eyes.

I use single point and set it over his eye. I was shooting at f4 though hoping to get rid of imperfections In the background and my kids ARE wiggly so I can't promise he didn't move when I snapped it.

Shoot at F8 and have them at least 6 feet from the background flag the lights so the light does not hit the background an use 1 light as a hair light and you will not see the wrinkles

 

[JustJazzie]

I attempted to view the focus point but it did not register, so I am wondering how you focused. I'm not the best at judging focus, but it looks to me as if you focused on his shirt (#1) instead of his eyes.

I use single point and set it over his eye. I was shooting at f4 though hoping to get rid of imperfections In the background and my kids ARE wiggly so I can't promise he didn't move when I snapped it.

Shoot at F8 and have them at least 6 feet from the background flag the lights so the light does not hit the background an use 1 light as a hair light and you will not see the wrinkles

If only I had room for that in my tiny" studio," just working with what I've got! thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

[gsgary]

I attempted to view the focus point but it did not register, so I am wondering how you focused. I'm not the best at judging focus, but it looks to me as if you focused on his shirt (#1) instead of his eyes.

I use single point and set it over his eye. I was shooting at f4 though hoping to get rid of imperfections In the background and my kids ARE wiggly so I can't promise he didn't move when I snapped it.

Shoot at F8 and have them at least 6 feet from the background flag the lights so the light does not hit the background an use 1 light as a hair light and you will not see the wrinkles

If only I had room for that in my tiny" studio," just working with what I've got! thanks for the suggestion, though.

In that case make folds in the background so people can tell it is on purpose

 

[LCLimages]

Or touch up wrinkles in PS. But that can be a PITA!

 

[Derrel]

There isn't much color or microtexture in their faces.

The_Traveler brings up a good point about microtexture or microcontrast; there really is not much in their faces for two reasons, one being they have smooth, youthful skin with very small pores and almost no blemishes whatsoever and the second reason being that the light source is very large, with light coming literally "from above" and also "from below" on every pore in their faces.

If the subject would have been a rather wrinkly octogenarian woman, the effect would be marvelous lighting...light, shadowless, soft, and minimizing of textures and imperfections. It's a case literally of any shadows, microscopic almost in size, being cancelled out by light coming from the opposite side, due to the large size of the light source. This is similar to using two light sources when photographing a wrinkled-skinned face, one light above, one light below, or one light on one side and an equal light on the opposite side; both pretty well-known glamour lighting tricks for photographing older women so as to literally minimize texture on the face by filling-in the microscopically small shadows created whenever light emanates from one,single basic point of origin.