Practice makes perfect...

heatherfeather

I have decided to hit it head on.... that evil harsh light.

My sister's wedding is this weekend and she has decided to get married out doors with no shade (despite my protests) and I need to be sure to know how to combat the bright side/ dark side of the moon thing.

So I took my daughter out in the sunniest part of the lawn on the sunniest part of the day (same time as the wedding) and threw a few shots down the range.

What I did: Sun behind her (obviously) set up the OCF on the ground at the opposite side from the sun- basically at my feet. Dialed the flash to about +.75 and messed around with that number for a few frames. I did get a couple of keepers. Let me know if you think they are just mommie favs or if a client would think it was good enough. Those highlights are very blown- don't really know what I could do about that without getting her into the shade. CC not only appreciated, but welcomed! (oh, and don't you think my daughter is just the cutest thing? :nod )



1:exif: 1/100; f9;ISO 160; 97mm; compulsory flash mode



2: That green grass really reflected into her eyes a lot in this pic- She has green eyes, but they aren't usually this vivid. Could be a plus for this technique...:dunno
exif: 1/100; f9;ISO 160; 97mm; compulsory flash mode



One other question: I just got the spyder and recalibrated my monitor. I am not sure about the colors anymore (I went by the numbers, but still the colors appear quite different than I am used to) .... how do they look to you?

ChatKat

Good but a bit of practice is still needed
I took a class on weddings and a part of it was on using that harsh light constructively in March.

These are pretty okay - except they still need some tweeking on exposure and the color is off too. We used a lot of natural ambient light. Focus on the person's eyes - always. Meter the sun and the person. These are a litte too bright. Everything else is almost perfect.

I'd love to see the exif data.

heatherfeather

Kathy: I edited the exif into my original post so I can glean from your expertise in that regard... (and erased that other image- it was just to out on a limb for me...)

Would you care to risk saying which direction my color is off? With my monitor, it looks about right, but then like I said in my post, I am having color managment issues this week.....

Also, is it your impression that the eyes are oof? I should have had plenty of DOF at f9- and did focus on the eyes- they looked pretty great at 100 percent, so perhaps it is because of the upload/ resize thing.

As to the brightness I don't really have a clue what to do about the blown areas...Other than move into the shade. But we are stuck in that bright sunlight! Maybe I should pray for an overcast day for Saturday... (Sacreligious thought for us Alaskans! Sunshine is precious!) Perhaps some guru will weigh in and school us on how to deal with the harsh light in situations like this.... Do you think that as a whole the images are overexposed?

I really do want to learn!

ChatKat

Yes - I think they are over exposed. The color on these looks much better. The highlights are blown. Did you shoot RAW? Do you have Lightroom? Have you used DPP -(assuming you are a Canon Shooter)

The technique I learned is to shoot wide open with your fastest lenses and then use a very fast shutter speed - shoot in AV mode and fill your screen with the subject and little background so that you do not get all the overexposed. It's very hard to do so practice as much as you can.

heatherfeather wrote:

Kathy: I edited the exif into my original post so I can glean from your expertise in that regard... (and erased that other image- it was just to out on a limb for me...)

Would you care to risk saying which direction my color is off? With my monitor, it looks about right, but then like I said in my post, I am having color managment issues this week.....

Also, is it your impression that the eyes are oof? I should have had plenty of DOF at f9- and did focus on the eyes- they looked pretty great at 100 percent, so perhaps it is because of the upload/ resize thing.

As to the brightness I don't really have a clue what to do about the blown areas...Other than move into the shade. But we are stuck in that bright sunlight! Maybe I should pray for an overcast day for Saturday... (Sacreligious thought for us Alaskans! Sunshine is precious!) Perhaps some guru will weigh in and school us on how to deal with the harsh light in situations like this.... Do you think that as a whole the images are overexposed?

I really do want to learn!

Seneca

Sun behind is ok. I would also invest in an 86' Westcott umbrella...and have some one hold it for you...with a reflector on the opposite side of the umbrella reflecting light to the umbrella bouncing to your subject. Did that make sence? If not I can show you an example.

heatherfeather

Seneca wrote:

Sun behind is ok. I would also invest in an 86' Westcott umbrella...and have some one hold it for you...with a reflector on the opposite side of the umbrella reflecting light to the umbrella bouncing to your subject. Did that make sence? If not I can show you an example.

Do you mean have a silver/gold reflecting umbrella bounce ambient light to the subject? Or do you mean have a reflector and an umbrella and shoot the light (from flash? ambient?) from the reflecter to the umbrella to the subject? I guess I need more clarification...
But I think a 86' umbrella may not be the best choice for a wedding- it would block the guest's view of the ceremony. Portraits for after/before the ceremony, I have total control (insert evil laugh) of where we will be shooting. For the ceremony, the sun will be behind the bride... so that is good (no squinting, at least from them- we'll have it from the guests, though)

Seneca- thanks so much for your help! I gotta get this!

darkdragon

Seneca wrote:

Sun behind is ok. I would also invest in an 86' Westcott umbrella...and have some one hold it for you...with a reflector on the opposite side of the umbrella reflecting light to the umbrella bouncing to your subject. Did that make sence? If not I can show you an example.

you mean 86 inch not 86 foot i think.

I was going to suggest something similar. My idea was to have someone hold up a diffuser of some sort to give shade, but I don't think that will work during the ceremony - and it would upset the guests too.

What about running on manual and forget the exposure the camera wants, just underexpose (to the camera meter) and up the flash a bit more - that should take care of balancing out the light so that the subject is perfectly list - the background will be blown of course.

Tough conditions, you are very smart to try practicing beforehand - I think a lot of people just forget that part and figure they "can do it right" at the moment they need to.

heatherfeather

you mean 86 inch not 86 foot i think.

Ha Ha! That is funny! I didn't catch that because I always get them mixed up too! So I just assumed it was right!

What about running on manual and forget the exposure the camera wants, just underexpose (to the camera meter) and up the flash a bit more - that should take care of balancing out the light so that the subject is perfectly list - the background will be blown of course.

Now this I think I can do.... Blown out backgrounds are a bummer because we have the BEST view of Pioneer Peak from here... But I can deal with that...

DavidS

Good luck with the wedding. Yes your daughter is the cutest thing. I love the green eyes.

Seneca

Yes 86 inch umbrella...sorry guys for the huge mistake...