Shannon

Travis

Saturday evening I shot some action shots of Shannon, one of the spin instructors at my local Y. At the end of the session, I fired off a quick portrait before packing it in. A single flash with 1/4 CTO gel placed camera left approximately 3 feet from the subject. C&C welcomed. Thanks!

Antonio Correia

I like this picture because of it's DoF, color and composition.
Interesting your use of the CTO. It worked quite nicely.

Travis

Antonio Correia wrote:

I like this picture because of it's DoF, color and composition.
Interesting your use of the CTO. It worked quite nicely.

Thanks Antonio. FYI... This was my first use of the Cactus triggers. I already love the the things. No more wires to string all over the place. I think it was your post that made me pull the trigger (pardon the pun) on them.

MarkW

Travis,

Nice shot! I'm starting to become very found of CTO gels as well. I agree with antonio that the dof, color and composition makes the pic a winner. Keep up the good work!

photogmomma

Wonderful!!!

Travis

Thanks Mark and Andi for the nice comments. I'm still learning gel usage - what colors, when, how dense, etc. but the right combination makes a huge difference.

jeffreaux2

Travis wrote:

Thanks Mark and Andi for the nice comments. I'm still learning gel usage - what colors, when, how dense, etc. but the right combination makes a huge difference.

I am there with ya on the gels!!! BTW I cooked a CTO fiter last night at a concert! I will have to post a photo of that gel in a follow up to my Phoxle filter review!

This is an excellent image in every way. Great job!!

Travis

Thanks Jeff. You must have been blasting the strobe last night for to heat up that much.

Agnieszka

Great shot!!

jeffreaux2

Travis wrote:

Thanks Jeff. You must have been blasting the strobe last night for to heat up that much.

Actually, I had noticed a slightly dark spot on it after that wedding a week ago. I finished it off at the concert!

imonk

Travis that's such a good portrait. Very well executed in every way. I love the pose, the background and the exposure. Can I ask though, you say the flash is camera left but it looks to me that there's a slight blueish light on the subject's left side of her face (camera right). It looks to me like that's where the flash is coming in to provide a bit of separation. Or am I totally wrong and is this the ambient light?

I've recently picked up a few cactus triggers myself and I'm looking forward to trying them out when I get the time

Cheers
Ian

Travis

imonk wrote:

Travis that's such a good portrait. Very well executed in every way. I love the pose, the background and the exposure. Can I ask though, you say the flash is camera left but it looks to me that there's a slight blueish light on the subject's left side of her face (camera right). It looks to me like that's where the flash is coming in to provide a bit of separation. Or am I totally wrong and is this the ambient light?

I've recently picked up a few cactus triggers myself and I'm looking forward to trying them out when I get the time

Cheers
Ian

Thanks Ian. There was only 1 flash unit used and in all honesty, I kind of screwed up with that one. I placed it camera left in front of the subject and the sun was camera left slightly behind the subject. Usually you want to set a single flash opposite the sun. Her husband was standing to camera right and he wearing a light blue shirt that may have provided bounce and the blue you see.

I think you'll enjoy the triggers. I'll post some of the cycling shots I did in the sports forum when I get a chance. I rigged 2 flashes to the back of my truck and fired them with the triggers. Even shooting burst, they didn't miss a beat. I took the mount bracket off of the trigger and "stuck" them to the flash units using a small piece of velcro. I don't trust the flimsiness of the Cactus mount when having the units hanging off the back of my truck and 15 - 20 mph.

Travis

Agnieszka wrote:

Great shot!!

Thanks Angie!!

super star

Travis wrote:

Saturday evening I shot some action shots of Shannon, one of the spin instructors at my local Y. At the end of the session, I fired off a quick portrait before packing it in. A single flash with 1/4 CTO gel placed camera left approximately 3 feet from the subject. C&C welcomed. Thanks!

Hi friend....

Wonderful shot and nice use of single flash... good work and nice composition, colors and BG.... but for me a long stretched shadow behing subject is distracting me.. don't you ?? surely... you can able to remove that by PS... light managed well... I might add bit more of front wheel of bicycle in to the frame...

Good work

-Super star

Travis

super star wrote:

Hi friend....

Wonderful shot and nice use of single flash... good work and nice composition, colors and BG.... but for me a long stretched shadow behing subject is distracting me.. don't you ?? surely... you can able to remove that by PS... light managed well... I might add bit more of front wheel of bicycle in to the frame...

Good work

-Super star

Thanks SS. The shadow is actually a ditch. I may play with it a little to see cloning it out doesn't mess up the image too much.

Antonio Correia

Travis wrote:

Thanks Antonio. FYI... This was my first use of the Cactus triggers. I already love the the things. No more wires to string all over the place. I think it was your post that made me pull the trigger (pardon the pun) on them.

And me, I have not yet bought the gels...D
But I can see you do have them and you are doing a nice work with both, the gels and the Cactus.D
Lately I have been rather busy and I have not been shooting so much ...:cry

Travis

Antonio Correia wrote:

And me, I have not yet bought the gels...D
But I can see you do have them and you are doing a nice work with both, the gels and the Cactus.D
Lately I have been rather busy and I have not been shooting so much ...:cry

I don't about there, but here in the States you can buy sampler packs of Roscolux or Lee gels for around $2.50 US. They're size fits my strobes perfectly. I got mine Adorama. Now get back to shooting!

Antonio Correia

Travis wrote:

I don't about there, but here in the States you can buy sampler packs of Roscolux or Lee gels for around $2.50 US. They're size fits my strobes perfectly. I got mine Adorama. Now get back to shooting!

I hope to be able to go and buy some gels tomorrow.
I think I will have the time.

I don't make the slightest idea of the price here in Portugal.
One think I'm sure: they will not be cheep ! :cry

Please link to the other photos on cycling you have done.

Travis

Antonio Correia wrote:

I hope to be able to go and buy some gels tomorrow.
I think I will have the time.

I don't make the slightest idea of the price here in Portugal.
One think I'm sure: they will not be cheep ! :cry

Please link to the other photos on cycling you have done.

I posted some of the cycling shots in the Sports forum HERE. Let me know what you think.

Hopefully you can find the gels somewhat cheap. If you have to settle on a single gel, I'd suggest a sheet of 1/4 CTO. You can always double it if you need something denser.