Newspaper assignment and Flash/WB/JPEG question

Manfr3d

I finally recieved my 1st call by a newspaper today asking
if I could make some pictures for their karnival news
feat. for their printed edition and for their online gallery.
(And yes I'm getting paid for this. And I'm not undercutting
the pro photographer - which makes me feel good and worthy )

I'm going to use a 70-200/2.8 on one camera and
a wide angle 10-20/5.6 on a 2nd body. Strobe on
each camera.

Since I almost exclusively shot available light (concerts
and parties) aside from some sports and nature in the past
I'm wondering what's the best strategy for working with
whitebalance and flash during daylight (noon) is.

They want jpeg images without postprocessing. Figured
I'll set my camera from RAW to JPEG .. sth. i normaly
never do. So here my questions:

Do you guys swich wb from ambient to flash every time
you turn on/off your flashguns? And what metering mode
(flash settings) and flash technique has worked best during
daylight (overcast/sunny) for you and why?

I hope you don't mind sharing some of your job skillz with
a newbie.

Icebear

Sounds like a job for auto wb to me.

Manfr3d

Icebear wrote:

Sounds like a job for auto wb to me.

*laugh* ... that's an awesome answer. Why didn't I think of that before?

Anyone using a lightsphere or pocket bouncer for such assignments?

SloYerRoll

Fwiw
I've never sold to a newspaper. But I've done test prints @ newpaper quality settings to see what turns out best.

I've found in general that the lightsphere is great if you have to have your strobe on camera in general. I haven't had one instance where non LS shtos turned out better then LS shots. If conditions permit, I like to leave the cap of the LS off, ceiling bounce the strobe and let the spill from the LS remove the raccoon eyes. (make sense?)

As far as PP goes, it looked to me like high contrast is really important. Even to the point where it look a bit over sharpened (or whatever filter your using) on a standard jpeg. This will help pronounce the lines and emphasize what your trying to show.

Of course anyone w/ real world experience posts negate any comments I've made.:D

alex

Manfr3d wrote:

They want jpeg images without postprocessing. Figured
I'll set my camera from RAW to JPEG .. sth. i normaly
never do.

If you have enough memory and enough time before you have to hand over the images, you could shoot RAW+JPEG. If everything works out, just hand over the JPEGs and you are done. If something goes wrong you have the RAW files and can correct them and convert to JPG. The photo editor just doesn't want to deal with RAW files, but he usually doesn't care where the JPEGs come from.

Manfr3d wrote:

Do you guys swich wb from ambient to flash every time
you turn on/off your flashguns? And what metering mode
(flash settings) and flash technique has worked best during
daylight (overcast/sunny) for you and why?

I would stay away from flash white balance if you are outside, since the sun will be your main light source. Either use daylight or just stick with auto, always worked for me.

Manfr3d wrote:

Anyone using a lightsphere or pocket bouncer for such assignments?

When shooting with the 70-200 I never used any diffuser, but for the wide angle you might need something, I prefer a Stofen Omnibounce, because it's nice and small. A little bounce card might work as well.

Disclaimer: I only shot for a few college newspapers, but they never complained.

Manfr3d

Thank you Alex. Everything you said makes alot of
sense to me. Shooting RAW+Jpeg seems to be the
route I'm going to take. And what I'm going to do then
is check those Jpegs and replace them by converted
RAWs if their wb is really messed up. The added security
is very welcome to me.

Scott_Quier

Another thought: If you are pretty certain you can nail the exposure, I wouldn't worry about the RAW. Shoot JPG and, if necessary, re-work the WB in PS CS3. ACR 4.x will allow you to adjust the WB of JPG files as well as the RAW files.