Beach Shoot with Taylor

jonh68

I wanted to do something different wit this beach shoot. Flash was sb-800/sb-700 combo instead of alienbees as I'm tired of hauling that stuff on location for off camera flash and i wanted to use high speed sync. I used a d700/70-200 VR. I'm still toying with the WB on some of them. I favor warm and saturated which I guess goes against the trend of desaturation.

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Hackbone

I really like 2-4-6-7 best of the grouping. Nice job on lighting these.

Mitchell

Can you describe how you used your flashes for these? Any modifiers? Were they all OCF?

My biggest problems with the nikon speedlights off camera at the beach have been somewhat inconsistent firing even with an SU-800 and a slow recycle time. I've gone to using an AB800 with a beauty dish powered by a Vagabond mini when I go to the beach.

jonh68

Mitchell wrote: »

Can you describe how you used your flashes for these? Any modifiers? Were they all OCF?

My biggest problems with the nikon speedlights off camera at the beach have been somewhat inconsistent firing even with an SU-800 and a slow recycle time. I've gone to using an AB800 with a beauty dish powered by a Vagabond mini when I go to the beach.

I was using the D700's camera flash in commander mode, TTL. I was in A mode, using exposure +/- for backgrounds, and TTL +/- for subject. All flash was off camera and I had the D700 flash set to no effect.

I used a Lumiquest softbox, and a gold diffuser dome towards sunset on the sb800. There are limitations and if you work within them things fire off. I have had better luck using the on camera flash rather than one of my strobes on camera for remote firing outside.

I would make sure to have the strobe head angles in a way the sensor was in line with the camera. Sometimes I had to twist it backwards but it worked.

Mitchell

jonh68 wrote: »

I would make sure to have the strobe head angles in a way the sensor was in line with the camera. Sometimes I had to twist it backwards but it worked.

I've trained myself to always look for the sensor and to twist the head accordingly. I've fooled myself with this problem in the past.

I do find I get better range and fewer misfires with the SU800 than with the onboard flash on the D700 as commander. It's all still a bit of a gamble for me outdoors but particularly at the beach.

You did a nice job with these.

Qarik

out of all these I dig 7 and 8. The others not so much. The reason I like 7 and 8 is because of soft golden ambient light is playing well with your warmed up flash (and the posing is great). I think 8 is killer! lots of issues with the other shots.

jpc

Nice set. You should check out Phottix Odin. You will never screw around with hit-or-miss CLS again. They work perfectly with my D800, D7100 and SB700s.

jonh68

jpc wrote: »

Nice set. You should check out Phottix Odin. You will never screw around with hit-or-miss CLS again. They work perfectly with my D800, D7100 and SB700s.

I've been looking at getting that system, along with the newest flash.

jonh68

Mitchell wrote: »

I've trained myself to always look for the sensor and to twist the head accordingly. I've fooled myself with this problem in the past.

I do find I get better range and fewer misfires with the SU800 than with the onboard flash on the D700 as commander. It's all still a bit of a gamble for me outdoors but particularly at the beach.

You did a nice job with these.

I haven't had any real issues so far going back to this system for three shoots now. I have a wedding this weekend and I feel confident enough with my test shoots that I will probably use this for just the bride and groom shots.

jonh68

Qarik wrote: »

out of all these I dig 7 and 8. The others not so much. The reason I like 7 and 8 is because of soft golden ambient light is playing well with your warmed up flash (and the posing is great). I think 8 is killer! lots of issues with the other shots.

Thanks, this was an experiment for me and those are two of my favorites from the set.

FlyNavy

Nice work!

BreakALeg

Love the warmth of 6, 7, 8. Dig the water shot, too.

kdotaylor

I really like #3 and #7...nice job!

jonh68

Thanks guys!

zoomer

I like 1...looks like a fun set.

Bilsen

First and foremost, I LOVE the warm color of that natural light. Love it.

I can't really pick favorites, I like them all. Maybe a bit washed out in # 1 (or only as compared to the rest) and not crazy about the sneer in # 8. How's that for nits. # 10 is just stellar.

Oh yeah, she could be more hideous also.

Did I mention I LOVE the warm colors?

jonh68

Bilsen wrote: »

First and foremost, I LOVE the warm color of that natural light. Love it.

I can't really pick favorites, I like them all. Maybe a bit washed out in # 1 (or only as compared to the rest) and not crazy about the sneer in # 8. How's that for nits. # 10 is just stellar.

Oh yeah, she could be more hideous also.

Did I mention I LOVE the warm colors?

Thanks! on 1 I could have done a better job of lighting her. I played around with contrast but that brought up other issues, or at least I thought they were after a marathon editing session.