Flash Off-Camera

padu · November 3, 2006

Here's my first experiment with an old minolta flash mounted on a reflective umbrella. I appreciate comments as I'm trying to make a personal portraits photobook and I'm eager to learn portrait techniques. Thanks!

DoctorIt · November 3, 2006

the color balance looks a bit green to me on this monitor (I'm guessing a simple curves, white point adjustment would fix this easily), but as far as lighting/exposure, you've done very well! Great catchlights in the eyes, and good shadows.

padu · November 3, 2006

DoctorIt wrote:

the color balance looks a bit green to me (on this monitor), but as far as lighting/exposure, you've done very well! Great catchlights in the eyes, and good shadows.

My first mistake was to take the picture in her bedroom (which is all green

). I had to use a mask on her face to correct it a bit, but I guess some color cast is still present... I was mainly concerned with the skin tone. I'm not sure if I got it right.

Scott_Quier · November 3, 2006

padu wrote:

My first mistake was to take the picture in her bedroom (which is all green ). I had to use a mask on her face to correct it a bit, but I guess some color cast is still present... I was mainly concerned with the skin tone. I'm not sure if I got it right.

Just a few comments to try to help:

Exposure looks good to me.
Color cast - shoot raw, shoot a gray card for WB setting then set your custom WB or use the gray card shot in PP to set the WB.
Shadows on her left (our right) - get a white foam-core board as a reflector and place it to camera right to reflect a little light back to fill some of that shadow. Regulate the fill by placing the board either closer or farther from the girl.

padu · November 3, 2006

Scott_Quier wrote:

Just a few comments to try to help:
Exposure looks good to me.

Color cast - shoot raw, shoot a gray card for WB setting then set your custom WB or use the gray card shot in PP to set the WB.

Shadows on her left (our right) - get a white foam-core board as a reflector and place it to camera right to reflect a little light back to fill some of that shadow. Regulate the fill by placing the board either closer or farther from the girl.

I bought that whitebal gray card now. Haven't used indoors yet, but in my recent trip to NY it's been proven very useful. (I always shoot RAW).
Thanks for the fill light tip. I had the side of a white piece of furniture on the shadow's side, but I guess it should be closer to her in this photo. I'll buy one of those collapsible circular reflectors for fill light.

Owen · November 3, 2006

I don't think this requires any fill. The modeling on her face is gorgeous and you lit it very well. It looks like window light. Beautiful portrait.

JenGrace · November 3, 2006

I love her little pose, and I think the lighting and shadows are complimentary and nicely done. The only improvement I would make would be to not crop so high (like maybe include just a bit of her torso and the rest of her chopped off elbows). The hat makes it look a little off. Other than that, I like it!

pathfinder · November 3, 2006

Lovely lighting, but ever so slightly green. A faint magenta photo filter in PS should help with that.

I might have preferred just a tiny smidge more light from her left to create a little catchlight in her left eye. Just a smidge.

I might have considered a portrait framing, rather than a landscape framing also.

Lovely pose of a real cutie!!

JimM · November 4, 2006

Absolutely adorable!!!

The key to kids is the expression, and this one is priceless!

Nordic · November 6, 2006

Wow, what a great portrait, and perfect lightning!

Well done!!

Kind Regards,
Andreas

padu · November 6, 2006

JimM wrote:

Absolutely adorable!!!

The key to kids is the expression, and this one is priceless!

I know, I'm absolutely in love with her

ziggy53 · November 6, 2006

Padu,

I am a bit distracted by the color tint as well. I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd try a BW conversion.

This is a simple grayscale conversion, with a bit more Contrast and Gamma. I also cropped to 8x10 and that created a distracting dark region on the right that I managed in PShop. A slightly larger border/mat, and I think I like it a lot. (I will remove if you wish.)

ziggy53

padu · November 6, 2006

ziggy53 wrote:

Padu,

I am a bit distracted by the color tint as well. I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd try a BW conversion.

This is a simple grayscale conversion, with a bit more Contrast and Gamma. I also cropped to 8x10 and that created a distracting dark region on the right that I managed in PShop. A slightly larger border/mat, and I think I like it a lot. (I will remove if you wish.)

ziggy53

Hi Ziggy,

I liked the BW conversion!

Now I had the (mis)understanding that contrast and gamma were the same thing. What's the difference between them?

photogmomma · November 6, 2006

I definitely would like to see more light on her left, our right. She's such a beautiful girl that she could really benefit from it. I don't think it needs to be a ton, but something to bring her face out of shadow a bit.

I love the greyscale conversion and might want to see a bit more contrast on it.

I would also love a lower and a vertical crop on this. Or at least a square crop. Too much hat and not enough arms, IMHO.

This is a great first shot! You're getting me excited to try something like this... Ack! Just what I need - more equipment!

!

Great job! Adorable girl!

Owen · November 6, 2006

Why is everyone saying "less shadows"?

Light is highlight and shadow. Shadows are artistic. This is a beautiful portrait. The shadows are not overpowering. If there were less shadows, it would appear flat.

ziggy53 · November 6, 2006

Padu,

I looked for a site that had a decent explanation of Contrast and Gamma, but couldn't find one.

The best way to show the difference is through the Curves function of PhotoShop, which can provide both Contrast and Gamma in a single control.

Gamma is a method of affecting the middle tones of an image, without having much impact on shadows and highlights.

Contrast works on shadows and highlights, without much imapct on middle tones.

Here is the original image in Gray Scale. Note that no Curves have been applied (straight line in the Curves dialog window).

Here is just increased Gamma:

Here is just increased Contrast:

Is this starting to make sense?

P.S. The "Levels" function of PhotoShop is supposed to be a Gamma type control, but it apparently has something called "Slope Limiting" which prevents a true linear capability, and can crush the shadows and possibly burn the highlights.

The Curves function apparently has no such limitation or problem.

ziggy53

Flash Off-Camera

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