Experimenting in the midday sun

adbsgicom · October 17, 2009

These were all shot around 1-2pm in Texas, which means the sun is still pretty high. Mainly, I was getting ready to head out to the corn maze tomorrow with some friends, and wanted to see how my mid-day shooting skills were holding up. I did some of these with the sun behind her, and some in dappled shade. I played with putting a blue gel on the flash in some, and others were just bare fill flash. The flash was all mounted on the camera (and on-axis -- no bracket).

C&C would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

1. I know the shoulder into the camera here is a killjoy, but I like her smug look.

2.

3. Slight breeze at just the right time.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. This one was just sort of goofing around at the end (her friend was about to arrive)

10. cropped in tight. No extra sharpening here.

Mitchell · October 17, 2009

I like these. You used the harsh light to your advantage.

#1 is my favorite but could be cropped tighter.

I also like #3.

adbsgicom · October 17, 2009

Thanks for the feedback.

Memories by Melinda · October 17, 2009

It's nice to know that once I get to Texas the sun won't be my enemy.:ivar I am going to have to start messing with the high sun here in Virginia, if it ever comes out again, just to figure it all out.

I like her expression in the first photo and I am loving #3 (still trying to grasp that there was a breeze).

adbsgicom · October 17, 2009

THanks for the feedback,

What part of Texas?

The ones other than 1 & 3; is it the pose, color, crop? Still trying to figure out this portraiture thing.

Scoupe · October 17, 2009

Have to echo Mitchell's comment on the great use of the available light source.

#1, #3 and #9 poses work the best for me. I also agree with cropping #1 a tad tighter.

divamum · October 17, 2009

Very nice job on these, and she's proving to be an excellent model! Expression in 1 is indeed terrific, and I also like both 3 and 4. Presumably you were using HSS flash?

adbsgicom · October 18, 2009

No HSS, just straight fill at 1/200.
#1 1/200 f/6.3 ISO200 105mm
#3 1/200 f/7.1 ISO200 105mm
#4 1/200 f/4.0 ISO200 105mm
#9 1/200 f/4.5 ISO100 60mm

Flash is E-TTL and set at -1 to -1/3 EV FEC.

adbsgicom · October 18, 2009

Crop #1 something like this?

Does this help #2 at all, or is it just a bad position (seems like the latter):

Mitchell · October 18, 2009

adbsgicom wrote:

Crop #1 something like this?

Does this help #2 at all, or is it just a bad position (seems like the latter):

On the first, I don't care for your new crop. Try to get the eyes at the upper third of the frame. Your crop has the eyes right down the center. I also don't care for the crop across the chin. Look at this shot as an illustration.

I don't know why, but I just don't care for the pose on the second one.

Spinney · October 18, 2009

Great use of on camera for fill, very nice balance between the harsh sun and fill light it is hard to do and get decent results! You did a great job!

Memories by Melinda · October 18, 2009

adbsgicom wrote:

THanks for the feedback,

What part of Texas?

The ones other than 1 & 3; is it the pose, color, crop? Still trying to figure out this portraiture thing.

My DH is military and we are headed to Fort Hood.

We are originally from South Texas (McAllen). It will be nice to be back in TX but I will miss all of my great photography friends here in Virginia.:cry

I will comment as best I can on these. I am still new to this but here goes...

#2 For some reason with this one I get a maternity shot pose feel. It's probably due to the position of her arm.

#4 Not sure if it's the processing but the light on her face seems flat. I, too, am still working on that one with some of my shots. However, the BG is great and so is her expression and pose. It looks natural.

#5 Her hair is blocking too much of her face. In some instances it does work but for some reason I'm not feeling it in this one.

#6 Feels stiff or forced.

#'s 7 & 8 Seems like she is tired...forced expressions.

#'s 9 & 10 Not sure what it is about them that didn't grab my eye. I do love the light on her hair in 9.

adbsgicom · October 18, 2009

Thanks everyone for the additional feedback that helps. I think I went over my 15 minutes attention span on 'trying something out' with her. We weren't shooting on her terms.

I'll go back to look though these again with a more critical eye. Glad at age 10, I know she's not doing a maternity shot..... At least she'll have the pose right in another, say, 20 years....

Mitchelll, I worry about the crop going the other way seems to add too much of the shoulder that is poorly oriented. In the end, I guess the look is good, but the pose is off, and there is limited ways to get that shoulder de-emphasized.

WingsOfLovePhoto · October 18, 2009

Pretty girl Andrew, You did good with the use of the light! I don't mind the poses at all....the shoulder one I actually like. I often tell my seniors to tuck their chin into their shoulder...tell them to "cutsie up" but usually have them more on an angle. I really like the one with hair movement too. Just a few questions.. Why the high fstops? Portraiture of a single subject I have found generally looks best at f4 to make the face pop off the background. That is on a 2.8 lens but a 4.5 would be pretty good too if you don't have one... then just up your shutter speed to control the ambient light. Did you try without fill at all? Find a way to use the sun at the edge of shade?

adbsgicom · October 18, 2009

So this was more an exercise in shooting in the bright sun, so I explicitly was avoiding finding open shade. One part of the exercise was total open sun and getting her face properly lit.

So part of the answer to your question was that I'm not very skilled at this point of running the numbers properly in my head. I'm still not fully running ISO as a variable. So I didn't want to run HSS, sort of as a matter of principle since it might now work in other cases due to power reduction. So, given HSS was not an option 1/200 was a fixed value. I should have taken the ISO to 100 or the 50 to get from could have gotten in the 4 range. I was playing with an f/4 lens in this case (24-105 f/4L), but do have the 24-70 f/2.8L that I do love for great bokeh.

THe short of it is, that "drop the ISO" wasn't running through my head and hopefully I'm on a path to where it does become the reflex in bright light to get the narrow DOF that I should have had.

Thanks again for all of the help.

DavidS · October 19, 2009

You did a great job. I love the skin tones. I like the tighter crops best. The splotchy shade in the full length poses is distracting (IMHO).

adbsgicom · October 19, 2009

Thanks. Yeah, I think the blotchy sun ones are failures in trying to overpower the sun with a speedlight. I think the ambient needed to be stopped way down, and I didn't go far enough.

lilmomma · October 19, 2009

I love 1, 3, and 4! The shoulder doesn't bother me in 1, and I think I like the latest recrop of 1 better. i have yet to experiment with this, seems hard to nail.

adbsgicom · October 19, 2009

lilmomma wrote:

I love 1, 3, and 4! The shoulder doesn't bother me in 1, and I think I like the latest recrop of 1 better. i have yet to experiment with this, seems hard to nail.

Thanks. Probably not as hard as I'm making it... practice, practice, practice (at least until she says, "Daaaaaaddddd"

kidzmom · October 20, 2009

I absolutely adore #1. SUPER capture. The expression, the crop (2nd one is awesome) and ALSO your managment of light. Man, harsh sun looks easy in these pics! Wish it were that way in reality! Thanks for sharing!

D'Buggs · October 21, 2009

I think what you're not liking about the shoulder is that it seriously competes with the face... If she were only wearing a sleeved shirt.

That said, the final crop, imo, improves this shot substantially.

adbsgicom · October 21, 2009

D'Buggs wrote:

I think what you're not liking about the shoulder is that it seriously competes with the face... If she were only wearing a sleeved shirt.

That said, the final crop, imo, improves this shot substantially.

That may well be it.
Thanks.

Experimenting in the midday sun

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