meet Christi

narancs

Hey fellow photographers!
I got a nikon sb800 flash to play around a bit, so I asked a girl friend to come over and be my modell. Since this was my first time with a flash, 2nd time I shoot a "modell" there is only 1 picture I want to share. The rest of them are looking good, put a smile on her face (which was satisfactory as well) but I don't feel I should show them..



I couldn't source some good lamps, so the only lightning source was the flash, my light reflectors (? not sure about the word, you know, those foldable silver&gold thingies) never arrived :bluduh

Things I see:
-she isn't looking into the camera, I know. And I like it this way. I know her look instantly shoots the eyes away from the picture. Trust me, when she looked right into the lens, looked helluva boring :dunno deleted it.
- shadows. There were lots of them on her face, msot of them are gone thanks to PS. Next time I need light refelectors or some kind of lightning in front of her.


Let me know what YOU think :ear

Thanks for watching.

adbsgicom

Overall, very nice. I agree that having her looking away works much better. Looks more like a candid moment than something else. Did you have any sort of diffusion on the flash? If not, that would account for a large amount of shadowing. I've had some good luck with some little flash-mount soft boxes (called minimax) that work well (not as wonderful as an umbrella or a real soft box though), but very mobile. You could also try bouncing the flash off the ceiling or a wall. If you shot the flash off to the right, it would have (perhaps -- based on the geometry of the room) bounced back and lit her face very differently.

I'm learning/experimenting with a lot of this now, so I'm far from expert on it.

narancs

adbsgicom wrote:

Overall, very nice. I agree that having her looking away works much better. Looks more like a candid moment than something else. Did you have any sort of diffusion on the flash? If not, that would account for a large amount of shadowing. I've had some good luck with some little flash-mount soft boxes (called minimax) that work well (not as wonderful as an umbrella or a real soft box though), but very mobile. You could also try bouncing the flash off the ceiling or a wall. If you shot the flash off to the right, it would have (perhaps -- based on the geometry of the room) bounced back and lit her face very differently.

I'm learning/experimenting with a lot of this now, so I'm far from expert on it.

Thanks!
I only used the bouncer on the flash. And the flash was pointed upwards, almost full power, to overexposure the bakcground and her cloth.
I found nice write-ups how to make nice softboxes. I guess I have a new project

adbsgicom

narancs wrote:

Thanks!
I only used the bouncer on the flash. And the flash was pointed upwards, almost full power, to overexposure the bakcground and her cloth.
I found nice write-ups how to make nice softboxes. I guess I have a new project

Can you share the link?

narancs

adbsgicom wrote:

Can you share the link?

just type "diy softbox" into google. Lots of nice ideas.

Nikolai

As far as high key goes I think you did great!
Her pose and, especially, your lens' focal length leave to desire much better. As a rule, WA (wideangle) lenses are only used for comic/special effects, since they create rather unpleasant distortions.
HTH

narancs

Nikolai wrote:

As far as high key goes I think you did great!
Her pose and, especially, your lens' focal length leave to desire much better. As a rule, WA (wideangle) lenses are only used for comic/special effects, since they create rather unpleasant distortions.
HTH

Thanks!
I ran out of room to use 55mm