Trying my hand at portraits and strobist stuff

wildviper

Please provide your thoughts..as usual, I can take criticism well.

1.


2.




3.



4.



5. Self!




Oh, by the way, please ignore the wet and sandy jeans of my wife. Since we were just playing around with shots, I didn't really care.

Scott_Quier

The light in #3 and #4 and the way you balanced with the ambient - WOW Those are seriously well done!

The OCD in me, though, would love it if you were to level the horizon in these.

Mitchell

I agree with Scott. You did a wonderful job balancing the light with these.

Care to share your setup and settings?

digidrone

I agree with the pros!!!
#3 is fantastic

Agnieszka

Really, really beautiful. Any chance you could take a pic of your set up next time? Would really love to see it.

Thanks

Halite

#3 is very lovely--nice lighting balance, pose and composition.

The lighting on #1 also really works well. It really balances the bright glare from the background sunset without really calling attention to itself. Unless the viewer thinks about it, there's nothing prodding you to think, "Hey, there's no way the setting sun is lighting her face like that!"

On #5 you saved yourself until the sun was basically gone. You probably could've gone with a longer exposure to get a bit more light in the background. You would not likely have had to worry about holding still for the long exposure, since you were lit entirely by the flash.

BTW, the sandy, wet jeans actually work well for these shots, since they just say, "casual, fun evening at the beach", which isn't a bad message at all. In fact, you've inspired me to get my wife down to the shoreline before the summer is over.

Dionysus

howd you handle the lighting? did you use a stand? direct flash, or bounced off umbrella?

wildviper

wow thanx everyone. I totally didn't expect this reaction; especially asking for my setup! I usually am asking that of the others!!!

Ok, as for the horizon levelling, I will fix that and re-post.

As for the setup, I had two strobes, the SB600 and SB26. Both of these were gelled 1/4 CTO. The SB26 was the main light at 1/4 power and was with an umbrella. The Sb600 was bare and was about 2 stops below the main light.

My exif info, I have to get from the other computer. But I think I was at f5.6 and at a shutter speed of 80. The mistake I did was not to drop the shutter speed. I was so caught out by the other things, that I forgot about that.

ISO was between 400-800 on my D70s. The main light was always about 3 feet away at a 45 degree pointing down.

I gotta go to work now...will post more info later if I can think of it.

bendruckerphoto

Very well balanced with the flash and ambient. My only criticism is that the pose in the 1st shot looks a little stiff. Otherwise, fabulous job.