help really needed

vandecarr

Hi,
I really want to perfect something and I believe the talent on this forum can help.
I want to get great portraits using nothing but a bounce flash and a reflector.
I used a Canon 350D in manual mode and a sigma 28mm-70mm DG lens.
The flash is attached to the hot shoe and bounced from the ceiling.
Does or has anyone here ever attempted to perfect portraits in this manner?
Here are my first two attempts at this. Your opinions are very welcome.



Thanks,
Mike

Seneca

I would put this thread on the PEOPLE Forum...you might get a better response there.

SloYerRoll

vandecarr wrote:

I want to get great portraits using nothing but a bounce flash and a reflector.

Thanks,
Mike

While you can get some good shots w/ a ceiling bounce technique, you will always see this "top light" cast the shadow on the bottom of the subjects faces. Even a reflector right below the face won't get rid of that nasty shadow.
Looks like you might want to look into a portrait posing book to see how a "good (conventional) portrait" is taken. A typical portrait pose is not the most comfortable of positions. Both these subjects look like they just stepped up for a snapshot, not a portrait. Any good book or web resource you study on will do a much better job explaining this than I though.

Gary Fong has a really cool invention that might help your plight since your trying to get great shots w/ one flash that is mounted to the camera.

I would personally try to get the flash off your camera and read up on lighting techniques.

If your insistant on using one light. Try taking your shots outdoors and use available light to compensate.

Also try getting futher away from the subject and zoom in a bit. This will help keep their heads from looking enormous.

LiquidAir

When you shoot a portrait with a ceiling bounce the type of lighting you want to shoot for is often called "butterfly lighting." It is a very common lighting style used in high key beauty photography. The standard way this is created is the studio is with a large soft box above the camera and a reflector for fill below the camera.

When bouncing a flash, the thing to remember is that the patch on the ceiling (or wall of you are wall bouncing) becomes the light source. So with a ceiling bounce the bright patch on the ceiling is taking the place of the soft box. The trick to getting it right is controlling the angle between this bright patch and your subject. If the patch is too close to your subject the angle will be too steep and you will get shadows in the eyes (sometimes called raccoon eyes). If you look at your sample portraits you can see these shadows, most pronounced in the second one.

There are a few ways you can control this angle:

1. Shoot with a longer lens from farther away. This will put the patch farther from your subject as you step back.

2. Tilt the flash slightly backward so the patch on the ceiling ends up behind you rather than straight overhead.

3. Get closer to the ceiling by shooting standing up rather than sitting down.

Once you have the main illumination angle under control you may still need some fill to manage the contrast depending on your ambient light levels and your camera settings. The easist way to get fill (and also a catch light in the eyes) is a bounce card. This web site shows how to make a simple bounce card: http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/. The size of the bounce card controls the amount of fill--the bigger the more fill. If I have gotten the main angle right, then usually find the standard Better Bounce Card to be too large. I usually fold mine down to expose an area of a about 2 inches square.

ziggy53

LiquidAir wrote:

When you shoot a portrait with a ceiling bounce the type of lighting you want to shoot for is often called "butterfly lighting." It is a very common lighting style used in high key beauty photography. The standard way this is created is the studio is with a large soft box above the camera and a reflector for fill below the camera.

When bouncing a flash, the thing to remember is that the patch on the ceiling (or wall of you are wall bouncing) becomes the light source. So with a ceiling bounce the bright patch on the ceiling is taking the place of the soft box. The trick to getting it right is controlling the angle between this bright patch and your subject. If the patch is too close to your subject the angle will be too steep and you will get shadows in the eyes (sometimes called raccoon eyes). If you look at your sample portraits you can see these shadows, most pronounced in the second one.

There are a few ways you can control this angle:

1. Shoot with a longer lens from farther away. This will put the patch farther from your subject as you step back.

2. Tilt the flash slightly backward so the patch on the ceiling ends up behind you rather than straight overhead.

3. Get closer to the ceiling by shooting standing up rather than sitting down.

Once you have the main illumination angle under control you may still need some fill to manage the contrast depending on your ambient light levels and your camera settings. The easist way to get fill (and also a catch light in the eyes) is a bounce card. This web site shows how to make a simple bounce card: http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/. The size of the bounce card controls the amount of fill--the bigger the more fill. If I have gotten the main angle right, then usually find the standard Better Bounce Card to be too large. I usually fold mine down to expose an area of a about 2 inches square.

Excellent answer and good advice.

ziggy53

vandecarr

Thanks to all of you


Mike