Prom Shots...

Kevin L. Kitchens

Daughter's quasi-high school/college prom was the weekend before last -- she'll be going to her highschool prom this upcoming weekend, so hopefully the weather won't force us indoors. Most of these were with flash off-camera ala strobist, though I'm not so happy with how they all turned out. The room was low-ceiling, white, with fluorescents that I forgot to have turned off.

Live and learn. Salvaged with Lightroom and Photoshop.

Richard

Hi Kevin,

Looks like you need some work on your flash settings. Maybe if you post a bit of EXIF and camera settings data someone can lend a hand.

jeffreaux2

Did you use some sort of noise removal on the photos? They appear to look very plastic.

joshhuntnm

I find flash to be a bit of a crapp shoot. here is what I am learning. Take a shot, take a peak, dial the flash up or down. these seem a bit hot.

Also, I think the shots would be better if you stood on a chair so it is not so up the nose.

Kevin L. Kitchens

Good tips all, thanks.

PhilCollum

Kevin L. Kitchens wrote:

Live and learn. Salvaged with Lightroom and Photoshop.

Kevin, I love your shots, but I'm curious for my own use: Any idea what's causing all the banding in these images? Was it something in post, or just JPG artifacts?

Cantfeelmyfingers

holy red batman!~

joshhuntnm

PhilCollum wrote:

Kevin, I love your shots, but I'm curious for my own use: Any idea what's causing all the banding in these images? Was it something in post, or just JPG artifacts?

I am learning here. . . what is banding, and what normally causes it?

jeffreaux2

I have seen two types.

Not sure about terminology but I'll give it a shot.
Noise banding: These are bands of noise that show up when a higher ISO images' exposure is pushed in post processing. Normally the noise would appear fairly evenly spread, but when upping the exposure it jumps out in bands.

I have also seen color banding on images that have sharp gradients....such as a vignette...and are then oversaturated. Sometimes this only appears in a resized image.

evoryware

Only thing I can add is I'm shocked at how orange #3 turns and the last two could have benefit from a different view and full body. For instance I'd love to see the shoes of the girl in the middle in the last one (all of them really). In the one above it she looks like she's falling forward.

Flash is not a crap shoot, it's just not the easiest thing to learn about photography.