Outdoor light test

evoryware

Hi.


1. Her boyfriend is away in the military and sent these flowers to her job. Needing some practice with lighting, I asked her if I could take her picture and I'd give her copies in exchange that she could send her boyfriend. Time was an issue otherwise I would've picked a better spot and different pose.



2.


3. Another one of our friends decided to get in on the fun.


4.



I'm seeking C&C on these shots specifically for the lighting. This was a pretty harsh 5PM light, even under the tree. These are flash filled with 580ex and lightsphere.
Thanks!

Scott_Quier

Loose the LS for outdoor shots. It just wastes light and doesn't give anything back in return.

These look really good! As you specifically asked for lighting C&C ... I'm thinking that you might have done better with a negative EC as your backgrounds are just a touch overexposed. The flash level looks just about spot-on.

dogwood

Scott_Quier wrote:

Loose the LS for outdoor shots. It just wastes light and doesn't give anything back in return.

These look really good! As you specifically asked for lighting C&C ... I'm thinking that you might have done better with a negative EC as your backgrounds are just a touch overexposed. The flash level looks just about spot-on.

The thing with the lightspere is especially outdoors, you're losing all kinds of light since there aren't walls or ceilings to bounce off and your light is scattered 360 degrees. There's a very cheap and easy alternative some folks on the lighting forum over at dpreview.com came up with-- a DIY craft foam diffuser. Throws all the light forward and seems to work well outdoors. Cost is under $5. Search "fun foam" and you should find dozens of posts there.

evoryware

Thanks for the comments. I'll be working on it more soon as the sun comes back out!

Scott_Quier

dogwood wrote:

The thing with the lightspere is especially outdoors, you're losing all kinds of light since there aren't walls or ceilings to bounce off and your light is scattered 360 degrees. There's a very cheap and easy alternative some folks on the lighting forum over at dpreview.com came up with-- a DIY craft foam diffuser. Throws all the light forward and seems to work well outdoors. Cost is under $5. Search "fun foam" and you should find dozens of posts there.

This is so true when you build it like a scoop, where none of the light just "goes up". Could work really cool. And for cheap too!