1st birthday

Zerodog

My friends son had his 1st birthday the other day and I wanted to try to get some shots for them. This was my attempt.

I am new to flash photography. I have a few OLD Vivitar given to me by my uncle years ago. I got a Wein hot shoe thing to protect the camera and have been messing around with them. The latest attempt was with a Lumiquest Ultasoft defuser. I think it worked OK for this shot. It was almost completely dark at cake time. What I have found with the flash setup is that it is HARD. But I am getting better at setting the camera up to make it work. Full manual mode on the D90 and of course manual flash with the Vivitars makes it a challenge for me.

What do you guys think? What could have been better from a light standpoint?

MissB

I am no expert at all with flash... actually i've been avoiding it as long as I can... lol. Why?? Because I feel that so much dynamic of an image gets ruined with flash lighting... especially with kids. I really don't see a professional dynamic in either images. (take heed my humble opinions) the first one the flash gave kind of a pin pupil catch light.. and it feels kind of flat to me. 2 seems snapshotty to me. He seems to be fighting the situation and the over all image feels really contrived and uncomfortable. I might try using a second light source such as a table lamp or some other off angle side lighing to give his facial dimentions more character. If you can bounce the flash light just to amp up the overall light in the room...If you have to use the flash dead on.. use some sort of difuser or lower the intensity of your flash. If you don't have a difuser you can use what you have on hand... tissue... coffee filter, paper towel etc etc. I hope that was helpful

Zerodog

Wow! I didn't think it was that bad! But I am still learning. #2 is not so hot but I am talking about the light. Where I shot this was outside at a park in a pavilion close to being fully dark. The ceiling was 12ft tall and brown and angled all over the place. No bouncing available. The shots were totally on the fly so no fancy lighting could easily be used. I did use fairly large defuser on the flash as well. Did it not do enough? A bare flash from my 285 pretty much is hot white.

pwp

Given your situational circumstances - dark pavillion, no way to really bounce light, quick moving baby, etc. - I think you did pretty well from a light perspective. The photos don't look as flat as a snapshot, you haven't blown skintones or whites, etc. Light is fairly even on the subject.

As far as from an overall perspective, you could have pulled out a little bit. I want to see what his hands are in for #1, and #2 it would be nice to see the whole cake and even the face belonging to helping hands holding him up to the cake (maybe a horizontal shot would have worked better, here.) 1st birthday parties can be challenging to shoot, and often I have requests to shoot the little one alone in a studio setting with a cake or balloons, presents, etc. The party just offers up too many distractions to capture a sweet expression, and often you will find adults in the way as they try to help the little guy.

Overall, I am sure the parents will be pleased, so don't worry yourself!

Zerodog

pwp wrote:

Given your situational circumstances - dark pavillion, no way to really bounce light, quick moving baby, etc. - I think you did pretty well from a light perspective. The photos don't look as flat as a snapshot, you haven't blown skintones or whites, etc. Light is fairly even on the subject.

As far as from an overall perspective, you could have pulled out a little bit. I want to see what his hands are in for #1, and #2 it would be nice to see the whole cake and even the face belonging to helping hands holding him up to the cake (maybe a horizontal shot would have worked better, here.) 1st birthday parties can be challenging to shoot, and often I have requests to shoot the little one alone in a studio setting with a cake or balloons, presents, etc. The party just offers up too many distractions to capture a sweet expression, and often you will find adults in the way as they try to help the little guy.

Overall, I am sure the parents will be pleased, so don't worry yourself!

Here is #1 uncropped. I wasn't sure of the background but you do see the little dude with his hands in his cake.


I like this one because it looks like the kids are having a conversation about their cake.

pwp

I do like #1 more uncropped. Sure, it's a little more "snapshoty" because of the distractions in the background, but that's what you would expect from a first birthday party! I love the one of the boys "discussing" the cake, I can almost hear the giggles!