Princess Party Shots...

PhilD41

So one of my daughters turned 5 on the 2nd. We had her princess themed party this past weekend. Since my wife had to nurse our infant in the middle of it she asked me to come up with something to keep 8 preschool girls busy with. Well, they were already dressed up so I decided a photo shoot should do it. I probably should have taken a little longer to prepare but it all worked out in the end. Below are four of my favorite from the party. Would love to hear what you all think regarding pretty much anything. For starters, I know my light ratio is pretty flat, it wasn't on purpose, but with the age and type of photos I am not convinced it hurt too badly. Anyway... what else do you like / dislike?

#1 - 1/200 @ f/2.2; 50mm; ISO 100


#2 - 1/200 @ f/2.2; 50mm; ISO 100


#3 - 1/200 @ f/2.2; 50mm; ISO 100


#4 - 1/200 @ f/2.2; 50mm; ISO 100

On a slightly different note.... I am debating getting a third speed light that I can put in the back for a kicker. I don't have the funds nor the room to go with AB's and grid lights yet. I am curious if you think it would help with this type of shot or if I should just use my reflector as the fill and move the second speed light back? I will have to experiment with this sometime soon and see how it works.

divamum

Adorable girls!

Is there anything cuter than little girls in tutus or Princess costumes?!

Thoughts, in no particular order:

- watch your white balances, both while shooting and (probably more importantly) in post. 1&2 are slightly orange (2 is actually probably close to dead on, it's just that redheads are hard for skintones!), 3 is quite magenta, and 4 is leaning to green on her face (her arms are fine). A few little tweaks in post will fix that, I think.

- I think for this shoot, the slightly wider shots work better because you can tell they're princesses!

- I love your depth of field on #2 (personal taste, not a technical comment as such)

- 1 light + reflector is my FAVORITE setup, even though I have a couple more lights I can use when I want. One easy and cheap way to experiment with this is to get a piece of foil-backed sheet insulation from Lowes or HD - it's a pain to transport unless you have a truck or a big minivan (I broke a couple tied to the roof of my Subaru wagon) but at $12 a sheet, it's worth trying. I sometimes use mine as a background, but I OFTEN use it as a big reflector, just propped on the wall out of shot. LOVE it. I sometimes will add my 2nd speed light as a big, soft hair light by bouncing it off the ceiling (sometimes in another room, just letting the resulting light come out through the door!). It effectively creates a giant softbox. I can't control the light, but I make it work by moving the *subject* forward or back to get the light to fall where I want it. It was a little diffficult to figure out at first, but now I've done it a few times it's one of my go-to set-ups indoors

Hope that helps!

PhilD41

Thanks Diva!! For whatever reason, I had a hard time with the color casts on these. You have an amazing eye and I would have to agree with you on these. I will try and tweak them here. These were just for fun so I don't know that anyone is ever going to use them. Before I start doing these for score I need to get use to using a grey card and at least calibrating my monitor. I am currently looking for a Sypder 3 Pro for this if anyone has on laying around. :-)

I also like your lighting suggestion. I will have to give this a try next time. I have a side room that would work well for this. I also have a large silver side to my reflector i haven't found a use for. :-) Thank you very much for the input and suggestions. There are sooooo many things to try and experiment with!!

divamum

My stupidly small shooting space (aka my living room - scuse the dog toys and vacuum - I was still clearing up!). These are just A/B reverse shots of each other.

See the vestibule to camera right in the right hand shot? If I put the flash in the music room (the other side of the adjacent wall on camera right, with a door opening into the vestibule), that vestibule becomes a giant softbox. I effectively use that adjacent wall (in the lh reverse shot, it's the wall with the prints hanging on it) as a flag to control how much light falls on the subject. It requires moving the subject (since I can't move the wall lol), but it does work.... I've posted a couple of examples using it this way so you can see how effective it can be

Room (10x15 but FULL of furniture, so very restricted for shooting)



All of these shots used my "faux" softbox on camera right as hair light/rim or BG lighting for high key (I usually point the flash more at the wall rather than bounce it for hi key, but the wall-flag FINALLY makes it possible for me to get a hi key effect in my space)







(should have pulled her a little further forward for this one, but because it was a full length series I was running out of room even by opening the front door and backing out onto the porch!!)

watchmen

Well there goes all those times I told myself I couldn't do studio work because I didn't have the space or equipment. I guess no excuses now! Truly inspiring diva.

Qarik

killer idea and mostly well done. I have decided that I don't like pure black backdrops unless the subject has some kind of rim/kick light (just my taste). The only suggestion if you are presenting as a set..keep the subjects relatively in the same areas of the frame..one is close, one is far, one has head chopped off (which is okay...just be consistent).

PhilD41

Qarik wrote: »

killer idea and mostly well done. I have decided that I don't like pure black backdrops unless the subject has some kind of rim/kick light (just my taste). The only suggestion if you are presenting as a set..keep the subjects relatively in the same areas of the frame..one is close, one is far, one has head chopped off (which is okay...just be consistent).

Thanks Qarik, I took about 50 shots total, from all of the party. One 3/4 and one head shot of each of the 9 girls. I would have done a seamless but again, I don't have one. Anyway... These were just some of my favorites. I agree with the rim/kick. That is I didn't decide that until it was too late. I was wanting to go pink or white, but I don't have a white background yet. Actually a white background with a pink gel would have been fun as well.

PhilD41

divamum wrote: »

My stupidly small shooting space (aka my living room - scuse the dog toys and vacuum - I was still clearing up!).

If I remember I will take a picture of my space when I get back from my business trip. Sometimes I wish I had a larger space, but then I remember that there is still a TON of things to learn in the space I have. Someday, but for now I have what I need to improve!

divamum

watchmen wrote: »

Well there goes all those times I told myself I couldn't do studio work because I didn't have the space or equipment. I guess no excuses now! Truly inspiring diva.

One of the many reasons I stick with speedlights. Until not so long ago I only used my STE2 Canon trigger; I finally got some radio triggers which makes the faux softbox easier (I did it with the line-of-sight system because the IR bounced off the walls, but the radio signal is more reliable in that regard). I still use ETTL, too - I don't "have" to, but I find for what I do I usually like the results so much that I just haven't been motivated to change. Manual exposure + FEC gives me a fair bit of control, and it's just so easy to do it from the camera instead of the flashhead.

Hackbone

Are you shooting raw or jpg?

PhilD41

Hackbone wrote: »

Are you shooting raw or jpg?

Me? I always shoot RAW. Even back in my days of point and shoot I had third party firmware for my Canon S5 that let me shoot RAW. Of course with that one it didn't even save the camera white balance setting so it was a little tricky. I process in Corel AfterShot Pro as I am a full Linux nerd. Been using it since it was Bibble. Works fairly well.