Susan and Greg

tenoverthenose · May 9, 2011

Susan and Greg are an older couple that have each been married before, but found something in each other that they never found before. I love weddings like this where you can really tell that couple finally found their other half. It somehow means more to them. Anyways, on to their wedding photos...

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

KA0TVO · May 9, 2011

Really like those. Is #3 a Lensbaby??

Agnieszka · May 10, 2011

#5 is definitely my favorite ... you got some really harsh light in #2, not a big fan of that one ... and #3 doesn't do it for me either ... looks like it would be fun when you use it in some shots in a more urban area .. but out in the nature .. hmmmm, don't know ... my 2 cents

Oh, and #6 is gorgeous. Kinda surprised by the shadow in front of them (in the grass). Kinda looks like your flash / light was stronger than that ... not a critique, just an observation

Hey, btw. Will you post a photo of your set up sometime? I'd loooooove to see

Thanks for sharing!

Matthew Saville · May 10, 2011

So, you have gone down the (distorted, tunnel-y) path of the lensbaby, have you? :-P

tenoverthenose · May 10, 2011

Thanks everyone for your thoughts! Yep, I pulled the lensbaby out of the bag. I've had one for almost five years and rarely use it (thankfully it's small). I figure I don't need to shoot everything a f16.

Matt maybe the lensbaby is just and expression of my distorted tunnely path

Thankfully I have enough restraint not to use it all the time, but I do like it for portraits.

Angie #2 is hard light for sure, most of these are. The wedding was at 2pm and it was windy, so no softbox/umbrella. I think the combo of hard light (plus sun as back light) and f16 make it look a bit too crisp. On #6 I was blasting light at them to see them, but since it was such directional light it doesn't touch the shadow that the sun burned into the ground. What is it from my setup that you would like to see? I'm an open book

Agnieszka · May 10, 2011

tenoverthenose wrote: »

On #6 I was blasting light at them to see them, but since it was such directional light it doesn't touch the shadow that the sun burned into the ground.

Oh I see ... makes total sense now

tenoverthenose wrote: »

What is it from my setup that you would like to see? I'm an open book

Just a pull back photo of the couple and the lights you use ... Just curious ... I think I'm pretty good at guessing most of the time, but it would be just nice to see .... learning from the pro

tenoverthenose · May 10, 2011

Agnieszka wrote: »

Just a pull back photo of the couple and the lights you use ... Just curious ... I think I'm pretty good at guessing most of the time, but it would be just nice to see .... learning from the pro

Here's the best I've got from this session (be sure to tilt your head). I always forget to take a pull back - this is really nothing more than a shot from the hip testing out my light power. For lights I'm using 4 550ex's on a Foursquare light bracket on a lightstand to camera left. Working outdoors in the middle of the day I need lots of power, but I also like to not have a car battery to carry around. When adjust properly, the result is #4.

Agnieszka · May 10, 2011

tenoverthenose wrote: »

Here's the best I've got from this session (be sure to tilt your head). I always forget to take a pull back - this is really nothing more than a shot from the hip testing out my light power. For lights I'm using 4 550ex's on a Foursquare light bracket on a lightstand to camera left. Working outdoors in the middle of the day I need lots of power, but I also like to not have a car battery to carry around. When adjust properly, the result is #4.

Thanks! Ok ... would have not guessed the 4 550ex's.

Is that because you wanted to have more directional light? How does that compare to an alien bee? (Sorry if that's a stupid question, I just haven't ever used 550ex's) I thought you had one alienbee with probably even a small softbox attached to it.

tenoverthenose · May 10, 2011

I really love the Alienbees for what they are, but it's just way to heavy for me to carry around on a regular basis. A lot of the time, I will keep the AB in my car for when I need it but it just isn't practical for me to work with when I am by myself. The AB's can just blast light and almost necessary with modifiers, but they slow me down.

I've gone with the 550ex's because; with 4 of them I can get the power I need (though it probably means no modifiers in mid day), they are scalable (I can separate them into a pair, or 4 separate lights as needed), I can carry them in my camera bag, they use AA batteries which I can easily keep spares of, with the new Pocket Wizards I can use HSS. Also with the foursquare bracket, the flashes are placed a bit apart so that it sort of emulates a beauty dish - sorta. It has holes in the bracket for umbrellas and sets up as a softbox easily too. Also with four lights it keeps the recycle time down.

Agnieszka · May 10, 2011

tenoverthenose wrote: »

I really love the Alienbees for what they are, but it's just way to heavy for me to carry around on a regular basis. A lot of the time, I will keep the AB in my car for when I need it but it just isn't practical for me to work with when I am by myself. The AB's can just blast light and almost necessary with modifiers, but they slow me down.

I've gone with the 550ex's because; with 4 of them I can get the power I need (though it probably means no modifiers in mid day), they are scalable (I can separate them into a pair, or 4 separate lights as needed), I can carry them in my camera bag, they use AA batteries which I can easily keep spares of, with the new Pocket Wizards I can use HSS. Also with the foursquare bracket, the flashes are placed a bit apart so that it sort of emulates a beauty dish - sorta. It has holes in the bracket for umbrellas and sets up as a softbox easily too. Also with four lights it keeps the recycle time down.

Thank you SO much for that insight + I totally her you about them being heavy and hard to manage. Thank you!

tenoverthenose · May 10, 2011

Granted this route isn't cheap (or anywhere close) and dollar for dollar, you get much more light with the AB's. Thankfully I grew into this. If I had to do it all over again, I would take a real hard look at the Quadra system...

550ex used = $200 each
PW Flex = $220 each
Foursquare = $270

$1950 (aa batteries not included)

Alienbee 1600 = $360
Vagabond = $240
Pocket Wizard = $220

$820

Agnieszka · May 10, 2011

Oh snap! Yeah, I got 2 alienbees not too long ago, and I love them ... I haven't taken them to a wedding yet (I moved out of State, so I'll have to taken them on the plane .. .not sure if it will be worth it to me ...). BUT I love playing around with them. Planning to take them to my upcoming eng shoot ... we'll see how this will go. I usually like doing what I want to do and not be "attached" to any lights ... hmmmm ... well, we'll see ...

Shima · May 10, 2011

I love 4 and 6, very cool to see #4 pulled back too.

tenoverthenose · May 10, 2011

FWIW, here's a shot that demonstrates the use of the lensbaby for a portrait. I think it works quite well here.

Matthew Saville · May 10, 2011

tenoverthenose wrote: »

Granted this route isn't cheap (or anywhere close) and dollar for dollar, you get much more light with the AB's. Thankfully I grew into this. If I had to do it all over again, I would take a real hard look at the Quadra system...

550ex used = $200 each
PW Flex = $220 each
Foursquare = $270
$1950 (aa batteries not included)

Alienbee 1600 = $360
Vagabond = $240
Pocket Wizard = $220
$820

When rocking the hotshoe flashes, I'd prefer to just use one TTL flash when necessary, and the rest can just be "dummy" Ebay hotshoe flashes, like Vivitar etc. You can pick those puppies up for $50 or so...

That, and a set of cheap (but reliable) triggers is just $60 for one transmitter and three remotes...

At least, that's the route I like to go for when traveling light and simple is necessary. Which is quite often for me; I too don't really like to lug around huge power packs and strobe heads...

=Matt=

tenoverthenose · May 10, 2011

Matthew Saville wrote: »

When rocking the hotshoe flashes, I'd prefer to just use one TTL flash when necessary, and the rest can just be "dummy" Ebay hotshoe flashes, like Vivitar etc. You can pick those puppies up for $50 or so...

That, and a set of cheap (but reliable) triggers is just $60 for one transmitter and three remotes...

At least, that's the route I like to go for when traveling light and simple is necessary. Which is quite often for me; I too don't really like to lug around huge power packs and strobe heads...

=Matt=

For sure Matt. Before I grew into this setup, I had three Sunpak 383's that I bought used for $30 each, a pair of pocket wizards, a custom bracket I made, and some radio shack cables to split the signal as necessary. That setup was affordable and amazing - it worked wonders. But I'm really happy with my current setup as I can now adjust flash power from my camera which saves me sooooo much time on location and lets me do more complex lighting setups if I want to.

Blurmore · May 10, 2011

I don't think the angle in the first shot is the most flattering, but it is far enough away. I think with all the rest you did a great job of cropping, and composing to highlight the beauty of this not size 6 bride. Very nice. I'd still love to see how you do with a whole 7-10 girl bridal party of girls this size, or any 7-10 girl bridal party for that matter, you seem to luck out on small bridal parties.

Susan and Greg

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