First shots with off camera flash C&C

mpaulie

I got my flash last week, a Lumapro LP120 with a light stand and convertible umbrella, and was able to get some practice for the first time on Saturday. I had friends and family over for a BBQ and had no trouble twisting arms for some test subjects.

All shots are bounced into the umbrella at about 45 degree to the subject on full power, camera right and high (as high as i can get with 7' ceilings in the basement). I used a black sheet as a background.

I've only done some exposure fixes in post I know I need to do a lot of eyes and teeth processing, also my first time shooting RAW... C&C very appreciated.

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Thanks!

Trevlan

Not bad for your first attempt. If you have a convertivle umbrella, use it a shoot through. You'll avoid the hot spots easier. Also, why did you use the flash on full power? What aperture where you shooting at? On one of the shots, it looks like maybe F5.6 or F4. You don't need full flash at those apertures. 1/4 power and adjust the flash distance and your are golden to shoot at your camera's sync speed. This is a studio set up, your main light is the flash, no need to use the ambient light at all.

Hope this helps on your next test.

**Also, if you have a reflector, put it on the other side for fill, no need for a second light. ;-)

adbsgicom

As was pointed out to me not long ago, generally (all rules may be broken from time to time) try to avoid lighting the ear-side of the face when the face isn't pointing directly at the camera (then you can't avoid an ear-side). Nice pictures. The woman in 3rd & 4th picture looks eerily like my wife's sister-in-law. Her name isn't Wendy, is it?

mpaulie

Trevlan wrote:

Not bad for your first attempt. If you have a convertivle umbrella, use it a shoot through. You'll avoid the hot spots easier. Also, why did you use the flash on full power? What aperture where you shooting at? On one of the shots, it looks like maybe F5.6 or F4. You don't need full flash at those apertures. 1/4 power and adjust the flash distance and your are golden to shoot at your camera's sync speed. This is a studio set up, your main light is the flash, no need to use the ambient light at all.

Hope this helps on your next test.

**Also, if you have a reflector, put it on the other side for fill, no need for a second light. ;-)

Thanks Frank, I will try the shoot through next time and grab something for a reflector. I read somewhere that bouncing the light into the umbrella created a softer light which was the reason for doing that instead of shoot through. All the shots were taken at F 5.6 (good eye!) and 1/200, no ambient light.

I had done some quick tests through all the power settings and on the camera full power had looked the best. I know there is too much glare on some of the faces but does it really look too bright?

Thanks

mpaulie

adbsgicom wrote:

As was pointed out to me not long ago, generally (all rules may be broken from time to time) try to avoid lighting the ear-side of the face when the face isn't pointing directly at the camera (then you can't avoid an ear-side). Nice pictures. The woman in 3rd & 4th picture looks eerily like my wife's sister-in-law. Her name isn't Wendy, is it?

Avoid lighting ear-side of the face when not facing the camera... ok got it! Boy, I did that in a lot of the shots

The woman in the pictures you referred is Shannon, that would have been some coincidence.

Thanks a lot for the tip, I'm writing things like this down in a little book so I can go over them real quick before I start shooting.

adbsgicom

The in-laws live in New Hope, PA with other family in NJ. Good luck.

VayCayMom

What a fun bunch! Nice job, way to go!!

Trevlan

mpaulie wrote:

Thanks Frank, I will try the shoot through next time and grab something for a reflector. I read somewhere that bouncing the light into the umbrella created a softer light which was the reason for doing that instead of shoot through. All the shots were taken at F 5.6 (good eye!) and 1/200, no ambient light.

I had done some quick tests through all the power settings and on the camera full power had looked the best. I know there is too much glare on some of the faces but does it really look too bright?

Thanks

I wouldn't say blownout, but the hotspots are always distracting. This shot was at f4.5 1/500th ISO 200 using the shoot through at about 5 feet away from the subject. It's not my best, but closely resembles your shooting conditions. If I would have used the bounce, the highlights would be more prominent.