woof c+c

[CouncilmanDoug]

sam by Henryfradley, on Flickr
I'm trying to figure out off camera flash, so I'd like some general thoughts on the lighting and how to improve it. I'm working with a single vivitar 285hv. This one was taken with the flash camera right at 1/16 and at f8, 1/200, and iso 400

 

[WesternGuy]

Not bad for starts at off camera flash. The only thing I see is that the right side of his face is blown out a bit, well, maybe more than a bit. If you shot this in raw, you can probably get rid of the blown highlights in post-processing. You could try a diffuser on the flash, maybe cutting down the power of the flash output - don't know if that will actually help in this case, or maybe get another flash, because after all, this is portrait work. You might find that using a white card or something similar and bouncing the flash off the card will help The other nit that I have is with the background - that "green thing" above his left ear in the upper right of the image is a bit distracting as are the lights on his right and that vertical bar of light that goes up past his right ear. HTH.

WesternGuy

 

[Rick58]

Nice , but I agree with Western Guy. If you could tame the highlights on the right side of his / her face and burn in the bright foliage, I think you'd have a winner. Maybe I'm just a dog lover, but I like this.

 

[CouncilmanDoug]

I'm gonna try doing the same shot again with a diy diffuser, and I might try a larger aperature to make the background less distracting

 

[Frequency]

Lovely dog

 

[CouncilmanDoug]

took a couple more today, tried using a diy diffuser and shooting raw
1.

Untitled by Henryfradley, on Flickr
2.

samlick by Henryfradley, on Flickr
3.

Untitled by Henryfradley, on Flickr
better? there's a couple more on my flickr too. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Rick58]

Every one of these could be sellers. Love that big pink tongue...LOL

 

[CouncilmanDoug]

thanks, he likes to pose.

 

[Rosy]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50324982@N05/7776476962/
sam by Henryfradley, on Flickr
I'm trying to figure out off camera flash, so I'd like some general thoughts on the lighting and how to improve it. I'm working with a single vivitar 285hv. This one was taken with the flash camera right at 1/16 and at f8, 1/200, and iso 400

Love your doggie

 

[PhotoWrangler]

The easiest way to do OCF is to expose for the background.

Meter the ambient background light and set your exposure one to two stops underexposed. Then let your flash compensate as necessary. In the photo below, I exposed for the sky and underexposed by two stops. I placed my SB700 on a stand camera left in iTTL mode. I used PW Flex units to trigger, but you could also use the 'line of site' method as well. And yes the clouds are real.


ETA: Shooting RAW isn't going to help your lighting. Its just going to create more post processing for you on the back end.

 

[CouncilmanDoug]

Chris, Shooting raw helps if I need to do any highlight recovery or anything like that. Also my flash is fully manual so I can't use ttl. I like that shot though,

 

[PhotoWrangler]

What kind of flash are you using?

 

[CouncilmanDoug]

vivitar 285hv

 

[PhotoWrangler]

Well, if you're using fully manual flashes, just back the flash up a little bit. In the first pic, if your highlights are coming out a little too hot, increasing the distance between your flash and the subject will cut down the amount of light hitting your subject.

 

[cgipson1]

That last set is nice.. good exposures! Looks like relatively soft light too.. way to go! Nice dog!