Family portrait session (7 images)

Scott_Quier · April 30, 2007

I no longer live in fear of shooting in bright (as in 3:00PM with NO clouds at all) sunshine! I had agreed to shoot some family portraits for a friend and co-worker, scheduled for that last hour or so of sunlight and she called me the day before to re-schedule for 3:00PM the next day. I warned her that they may not turn out but she was insistant.

So I make the photographs. The sunlight is so bright I find it extremely difficult to chimp.

I get the shots home and load them up, fearing the worst, and leave to get some water and to calm down just a little. Five minutes later, I come back and I'm just blown away with what Photoshop Bridge is showing me. Many of the embedded JPGs (I shoot RAW, exclusively) are "nearly flawless". Of course some are over flashed, but, many of them turned out very nicely. Here are just a few of the keepers (uncropped, so the client has as much image possible for cropping during the purchase process)

1. The obligitory B&W ('cause I like B&W)

2.

3. Oh, did I mention that they showed up at the shoot wearing black and white!

4. Mother and daughter

5. This was an outtake, but I couldn't toss the image. The "attitude" of the little guy is just cute.

6. Another out-take

7. A final B&W

Thanks for looking! I would appreciate any comments you may have.

Antonio Correia · April 30, 2007

Scott,
It looks that you are mastering the flash.

Neverless, I think it is a little too present.

I do know the light is harsh and that is difficult to overcome.

On the other way, may be you could have used a reflector or the interior part of it, to produce soft light. Do you know which part I mean ?

In fact it looked like you could use some assistance who would help with pleasure ...

I would like to be able to produce such a good set of pictures myself !
It is so easy to criticize !
But when it comes to do ...

Cheers.

Swartzy · April 30, 2007

Scott....
I think you did a great job all around on these....especially at 3:00 in the afternoon bright sun! Fill flash worked very well and any little descrepancies now are easily alter in PS. I personally might take the healing brush set to darken and remove a little of the hot spots on the mother/daughter's cheeks. Other than that.....I love your conversions.

You've captured these very nicely and I'm certain they'll be thrilled. Very nice and good for you!

saurora · April 30, 2007

I agree with the previous comments re: touching up and maybe a little less flash. But these are awesome and I'm sure they will be pleased and I sure understand why you're happy! Shooting in the bright light is a real challenge for me, I can never see the darn display to read the histogram and even setting controls is difficult! I especially like the last post! :saurora

Scott_Quier · April 30, 2007

You all are right about the flash being a bit too hot. I never even thought about using the Healing Brush to fix the hot spots on cheeks, etc.

The client is thrilled with them so I don't think I'm going to re-work these for them. I may take some time to see if I can correct them, but just for my learning.

Antonio - reflectors are good if the light isn't too bright. If is, untrained subjects have a hard time keeping eyes open. Plus, like you say, an assistant is required and I don't have one.

But, for next time....

Thanks again for the comments, I really appreciate it.

evoryware · April 30, 2007

#3 and #5

JimW · April 30, 2007

Scott, I think you did a really great job in very tough light. Congrats. This kind of success against the odds is often unnoticed by the customers, yet is a greater achievement than taking a simple snapshot of a beautifully lit scene. Great job.

Are you aware of a little program (PS add-in) called Photokit? It’s worth it’s weight in gold, I think. One of the commands available under the Tone Correction menu is contrast mask (level 1, 2, or 3). If you’re interested, you might download a trial version and apply contrast mask level 3 to a few of these images. It will extend the tonal range (opposite of adding contrast). Just thought I’d mention it, although these images are great as they are. It’s a nice little program to have in your back pocket.

Regards, Jim

Antonio Correia · April 30, 2007

Scott,

Now that I am at home with my beautifull monitor I can see - in better coditions - the superb work you have done.

Cheers !

Scott_Quier · April 30, 2007

Antonio Correia wrote:

Scott,

Now that I am at home with my beautifull monitor I can see - in better coditions - the superb work you have done.

Cheers !

Thanks Antonio - I've admired your work as well.

As noted above, there are a number of flaws in these shots that will not be there in my next attempt. Instead, I'll make different mistakes!

Nikolai · April 30, 2007

Scott,
Nice flash work, my friend!

I like the results!
Did you use it straight or with some sort of diffuser?

Scott_Quier · May 1, 2007

Nikolai wrote:

Nice flash work, my friend!
I like the results!
Did you use it straight or with some sort of diffuser?

Straight flash. My reading has indicated that, when outdoors, diffusers...

Like the GF LS just throw light away
Like the Omnibounce throw some light away and don't do anything to increase the size of the light source
I didn't have my Lumipix bounce diffuser with me and I don't think it would have worked here anyway as it absorbes at least 1 stop when you use it and I needed all the light I could get.

Thanks for looking.

Nikolai · May 1, 2007

Scott,

Scott_Quier wrote:

Straight flash. My reading has indicated that, when outdoors, diffusers...
Like the GF LS just throw light away

Like the Omnibounce throw some light away and don't do anything to increase the size of the light source

I didn't have my Lumipix bounce diffuser with me and I don't think it would have worked here anyway as it absorbes at least 1 stop when you use it and I needed all the light I could get.

Thanks for looking.

Exactly my thouhgts

(and I like that GF analogy :-), just wanted to confirm

I only use omnibounce or other diffuser (I have LumiQuest Mini-softbox) indoors, and mostly in combination with ceiling/wall whenever possible.

Scott_Quier · May 1, 2007

Nikolai wrote:

Exactly my thouhgts (and I like that GF analogy :-), just wanted to confirm
I only use omnibounce or other diffuser (I have LumiQuest Mini-softbox) indoors, and mostly in combination with ceiling/wall whenever possible.

Me to. Diffusers indoors, when you have a wall or ceiling close enough. Oh, it was LumiQuest ProMax (or some such) to which I was referring.

pathfinder · May 3, 2007

A lot of non-photographers really look at you funny when you use flash outdoors in sunlight, but you have demonstrated just how very effective fill flash can be when shooting in bright sunlight. Fill flash is one of those little secrets that really pays off in better photos.

The 580ex really does a very nice job and it is so simple to use for fill flash.

Did you shoot in Av or Manual mode, Scott?

Are your B&Ws created in Photo shop or are they direct from camera jpgs? Either way, they look excellent and you have captured the full range of tones from black to white in bright sunlight.

One technique I have been thinking about trying is to reflect a flash off a metallic gold Impact style reflector held by an assistant or a light stand - triggering the flash off the camera with a cord or an ST-E2. Should give nice warm late afternoon sunlight appearance. A gold lined umbrella might also be very nice for this.

Antonio Correia · May 4, 2007

Hello Pathfinder

I read somewhere that the use of the ST-E2 outside, with lots of sun, may not work very well.

I have seen your excellent pictures posted in this post, and I think they are great.

Does the ST-E2 works with the 20D and the 350D ?
I have the 430 DX and both cameras.

Thank you.

Scott_Quier · May 4, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

A lot of non-photographers really look at you funny when you use flash outdoors in sunlight, but you have demonstrated just how very effective fill flash can be when shooting in bright sunlight. Fill flash is one of those little secrets that really pays off in better photos.

Thank you for the kind words. Some of it was dumb luck, the rest from reading and test. This was the first time I was forced to do this for a paying client. And, I don't think I got any funny looks, but I was working, not looking at the tourists. So, for all I know, there was a group around there just laughing their fool heads off.

pathfinder wrote:

The 580ex really does a very nice job and it is so simple to use for fill flash.

Did you shoot in Av or Manual mode, Scott?

For outdoor, I have found through a small amount of experimentation and a lot of reading (which led to the experimentation) that Av works best for the way I work. Indoor is another questions. There I use manual almost exclusively. It's the only way I know to be able to meter for ambient and control both the shutter and the flash.

pathfinder wrote:

Are your B&Ws created in Photo shop or are they direct from camera jpgs? Either way, they look excellent and you have captured the full range of tones from black to white in bright sunlight.

There were done using a PS action that was released some time ago by Greg Gorman. There's a site (link) where you can get it. When it finishes running, it leaves a number of layers available to control levels, curves, black color fill, and other things. Very nice.

pathfinder wrote:

One technique I have been thinking about trying is to reflect a flash off a metallic gold Impact style reflector held by an assistant or a light stand - triggering the flash off the camera with a cord or an ST-E2. Should give nice warm late afternoon sunlight appearance. A gold lined umbrella might also be very nice for this.

As stated by Antonio, I also have heard the ST-E2 doesn't work well in bright (outside) light. I would love to get some wireless triggers, but that will have to wait.

pathfinder · May 4, 2007

By using a reflector to color the light, you can point the flash 90 degrees to the axis you are shooting and use the reflector to bounce the light onto the subject and just mount the flash on the camera itself, hence not really requiring an IR ETTL trigger. Not quite a easy to move the camera around as you work, but shooting from a tripod it would work just fine.

I find the ST-E2 works fairly well outdoors. I need to do a test in bright sunlight though.

redhawk · May 4, 2007

Encouraging
I'm really glad I saw this thread today. I have to shoot at a car show tomorrow and it looks like our weather will be similar to what you experienced. I hope I can utilize my 580 as effectively as you did.

Antonio Correia · May 4, 2007

Scott.

Allow me to post a small example of the use of the flash I have done in India, mid afernoon, direct flash with "condom" power reduced to 1/3 or 1 1/3 I don't remember, 16-35 lens+20D.

The light is not so harsh as in your shots but the result is quite good.

Hope you don't mind I post one of my pictures in your thread Scott.

Scott_Quier · May 5, 2007

Antonio Correia wrote:

Scott.

Allow me to post a small example of the use of the flash I have done in India, mid afernoon, direct flash with "condom" power reduced to 1/3 or 1 1/3 I don't remember, 16-35 lens+20D.

The light is not so harsh as in your shots but the result is quite good.

Hope you don't mind I post one of my pictures in your thread Scott.

Antonio, I don't mind at all. The more people and/or picutres the merrier!

I like the shot. Well done. Too bad you only posted a small one. You can edit and put the larger up so people can more easily enjoy it. I looked at your "L" version of the shot an some of the people in it don't look too happy. Might just be a culture thing. I don't know.

Antonio Correia · May 5, 2007

Scott_Quier wrote:

Antonio, I don't mind at all. The more people and/or picutres the merrier!

I like the shot. Well done. Too bad you only posted a small one. You can edit and put the larger up so people can more easily enjoy it. I looked at your "L" version of the shot an some of the people in it don't look too happy. Might just be a culture thing. I don't know.

Hello Scott,

Now, a click on the photo will guide you to a better and larger view.

I really don't know why some people are not happy in that photo.

I asked permission to the father and he told me OK.

Perhaps those with sad faces wouldn't agree with him.

Thank you Scott.

I have been looking for the photo herewith to post it for you to see.
(I still have some left to be treated, from India)

Here I used the flash but the man was at the shadow. The background was very strongly illuminated as the sun was hight.
It's a different situation of the one you had in your shots but I like the result. And you, do you like the result ?:D

You can aso click on this photo for a larger view. Thank you.

Scott_Quier · May 6, 2007

Antonio Correia wrote:

Here I used the flash but the man was at the shadow. The background was very strongly illuminated as the sun was hight.
It's a different situation of the one you had in your shots but I like the result. And you, do you like the result ?:D

To my less the well trained eye, this is a wonderful shot. Lot's of character in the man's face, which caused me to think of this (and if you wish, I can pull this down).

Antonio Correia · May 7, 2007

Hello Scott,
How could I ask you to pull down my photo in your version if it really is a very nice work ?

Thank for commenting Scott.

Cheers.:D

Antonio Correia · May 8, 2007

I thought you may find this interesting as he is shooting with a wireless remote control, the Pocketwizards

The results are quite pleasant to me.

Family portrait session (7 images)

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