Playing in leaves

divamum

Oooh, boy, what a frustrating day. Child kindly agreed to an autumnal shoot on the grounds of her elementary school - very impromptu kinda thing, so I just grabbed the bag and off we went.

Strike 1. I remembered flash, modifiers, and monopod+flash attachment, but managed to forget a fresh set of batteries. The flash fired intermittently for a while, then pooped out entirely, leaving me to try and make things work otherwise.

Strike 2. Something weird is going on with the AF. I have no idea if it was due to the lighting conditions today, if there's some custom function deep in the bowels of the camera that i've mistakenly set, or if there's something wrong with it, but it was woefully inconsistent, and few of the shots were as sharp as I would like (and can normally expect). Still trying to figure out what that was about, but I'm just :bash A 10% keeper rate does not make me a happy camper....

Strike 3. While laying in the leaves to get the shot, my second 8g flashcard must have fallen out of my pocket. By the time I realised it was missing we had moved to another location and, although we went and looked for it, no dice. Sigh. Easy come, easy go.... :cry

So, the limited results of our session. I think I must have been, however ineptly, channeling Heather for these :rofl




2


3


Are they horribly soft at this sort of size? I've been looking at them all afternoon (computer problems on top of everything else) and just can't tell any more...

adbsgicom

I can't really tell soft at this size, but I like what I see. The third one doesn't do much for me, but I like the other two a lot, the second one being my favorite.
The third one suffers, I think with the really bright face which feels way off the the blue side, and that her feet are missing in a disconcerting way.
Looking at the X3 for the middle one, it seems rather sharp.

VayCayMom

Odd you should mention the auto focus thing. I had changed some settings before the last wedding regarding priority focus/shutter release and I assumed that was the reason. But yesterday I did a lengthy shoot and still had some that were soft and I don't know why.
Your last image reminded me of the one you posted some time back of her wearing a white and red dress, and it became a teaching moment about the lighting. Such a difference in her soo soon. The kitty ears are no more. It's fun to watch her bloom !!!

adbsgicom

Don't give up on the kitty ears. We took a trip to a place called Great Wolf Lodge a couple months ago with two 11-year-olds and they thought the wolf-ears that came with kids-meals were great (at least for a time). There are still chances for brief moments of kitty ears.... have your camera ready for them...

Zanotti

Nice shots! Lighting is quite even and flattering.

If you really think its some random setting you have messed with, why not reset the camera to new and reprogram the settings you like?


Z

divamum

Thanks, guys. At least I got a few keepers out of it, even if the ratio of keepers to bad shots stank! Yes, she is blooming these days - definitely have a young teen on our hands, even though her 13th birthday isn't until May. She still pulls the kitty ears out sometimes, I'm glad to say - they definitely have an iconic status :giggle.

In the meantime, did some more shots today to see if I could figure out what was up with the camera. Couldn't go back to the wooded area, but we have a maple in our own backyard that went nuts this weekend, and there was some pretty light coming through it to set it aflame.... Posing and expressionwise these aren't so special (I was running out of "cooperative model" time after 2hrs yesterday and another session today!) but they ARE in focus and the light was just yummy. I'm bouncing flash off the light grey house behind me as fill and (GO ME!) I remembered to slap a 1/4 cto on the flash to counter the cool colour of the house and the shade we were in. I am getting there, however slowly

I am SO glad I did these this week though - not only because of the nice weather, but it was a great reminder of some technical things I haven't use in a while before this e-shoot I have coming up. It's definitely freshened up my "mental checklist" a bit, which is a very good thing...

I think I want to play with the processing a tad more on these, just for fun; as it is, they're pretty representational rather than artsy, if only because the reality of the colours was so gorgeous!

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5

adbsgicom

Nice and crisp. No colors like that here....
The color on the first one still seems cool...

divamum

Thanks for chiming in, Andrew. The first one of the new pair, or the first one in the first post?

I realise those last two are teetering into snapshot territory (cf previous comments about lens testing and reluctant model), but if anybody has comments on the lighting, the C&C is always welcome - it's been a while since I dragged the flash gels out, so, all input is gratefully received...

adbsgicom

First of the second set, sorry.
One thing I've experimented with if you don't have triggers is bouncing the flash off your reflector to make the fill more directional.

divamum

adbsgicom wrote: »

First of the second set, sorry.
One thing I've experimented with if you don't have triggers is bouncing the flash off your reflector to make the fill more directional.

I have triggers - both an ste2 and the one in the 7d. I was just using the side of the house as a handy-dandy giant reflector both because I wanted to experiment with it, and because I was too lazy to get the lightstand out What I do find curious is why the catchlights are so small, since the flash was pointing away from the subject. I guess I was close enough that even bouncing off the house (which was RIGHT up behind me - our deck is small!) the light source was still a pretty small one?

adbsgicom

Depends on the spread of the flash. If you have the flash auto-zooming, and your focal length is longer than 105mm, the flash spread is maximally narrow. You can set the spread to be wider by manually controlling the zoom.

Also try using the flash aimed off to the side. Since the house is diffuse, you will get scatter in all directions. You will lose a lot of light since much will bounce away from your subject, but you will get more directional light coming back to Mini-D....

divamum

You know, I hadn't thought about the zoom on the flash. Duh. I was using the 135 for those because I wanted the yummy bokeh on the tree, but I didnt' even think to check the flash for zooming. Plus, as I say, it was riiigghhht behind me. I did do a few with it semi-angled, but it was either too direct-flash-y if I made it 45* to the front, or just went out into nowhere if it was 45* to the back, when it didn't have enough juice to light the subject (couldn't rearrange our positions too much because I wanted the leaves as the bg). If this had been a more serious and critical shoot, I'd have just grabbed the big umbrella and set it up properly, but for these quick tests, decided to wing it with the wall as my bounce.

reyvee61

Oh man I've had days like that but it looks like you got some great shots anyway.
I really dig #1 and on your second posting she shows her lovely smile as well.

Might I recommend Eneloop rechargeables by Sanyo...
I have the high output Sony brand but they don't hold their charge on the shelf like the Eneloop's do. I shot over 250 images with my SB800 the other day with Liz and these batteries really held their own. In fact, at one point when I thought they were wearing down I changed them out and put some of the freshly charged Sony's in and guess what?
They were weak at best so I had to put the Eneloops back in to finish off the shoot....

Bummer about your memory card.....

divamum

Thanks Rey! I LOVE my eneloop-type batteries (tenergy - same product, different label, thread about them here). I have plenty of 'em... but they don't do me any good when they're at home on the desk instead of in the bag These weren't low from sitting, but from use earlier in the week - I simply forgot to swap them out because I'm a total doofus sometimes I only brought the little softbox, too - I thought about grabbing the brolly, but then I realised that my lightstand/brolly holder was set up for a different attachment and I just didn't (want to) take the time to set it up. That'll teach me! Then again, the batteries wouldn't have lasted to use it anyway, so ...

Ah well. Some days are just like that! Have now ordered a replacement card (grrr) and am on track to getting to the bottom of the focusing issues. And, as I say, I'm really GLAD I did these this weekend - it's been quite a while since I've done that kind of an outdoor shoot (mostly been inside with headshots and/or doing candids or performance shots) and with this e-shoot coming up it was good practice. Basically, Ijust need to teach myself to channel Heather and Angie at all times

#1 is my favorite as well - the day may have been a washout with technical glitches but that's definitely a mom-keeper for me, if not for photographic posterity

adbsgicom

What do you think is affecting the focus?

divamum

Not sure - still working on that, see thread here.