Practicing with the 4 yr old

lisap · October 14, 2008

I've been trying to get some practice in using off camera flash outside and some practice indoors with lighting as well. I'm shooting in RAW. My post processing skills are still pretty basic. Typically, the things I would have adjusted in these shots would have been contrast (I tend to like to bump it up a bit), levels, cropping and sometimes sharpness and white balance.

I'd appreciate any type of feedback, the good, bad and the ugly.

#1

#2

#3

#4 - Modelling new school clothes for Senior Kindergarten at the 'Big' School.

#5

Thanks for looking!!

-- Lisa P.

Qarik · October 14, 2008

pretty decent lighting overall. I think the outside shots, the subject is a touch over exposed. The only one that I don't like is the 1st one....the subject is very light but the background is very dark. Not really sure how to fix that ..play with the metering spot vs area I guess.

Betz · October 14, 2008

Lisa,
Personally I think you did a great job with these. A few nitpicks that are more personal preference for me I think.

#1 I myself like to have the background a tad darker so that the subject pops but in this case the top of his head/hair gets a little lost in the darkness. Aside from that I really like this one.
#2- I'd crop the lower part of the photo to do away with the blurred foreground. Are you able to turn and avoid having the beam in this shot at all? Not sure how much space you had in your spot.
#3 Love your choice of having him sit on the tree. Minor concern with what appears to be a pipe/pole/small tree trunk protruding out of his shoulder area. You can easily clone that out.
#4 & #5 Great shots. Again.. another personal preference. He's in blues and the backdrop is blue.. I'd have perhaps put him in a white/lighter shirt or changed to a white backdrop.

He's a handsome little man that's for sure and it looks like he loves being in front of the camera. Everyone needs great models like him!

lisap · October 14, 2008

Thanks so much for the feedback Qarik and Betz.

Yeah, in that first one I wasn't sure if I had too much light or had the light in the wrong position.

Probably a bit of both? It's funny how I've stared at these pictures so many times over the past few weeks and didn't notice all of the sticks around his head in that first one! How blind am I?! haha

I'm definitely going to try and do a reshoot of these.

Betz wrote:

...Are you able to turn and avoid having the beam in this shot at all? Not sure how much space you had in your spot.

I think I should be able to. What I guess I should have done was have him put his hands more to his right side. The way they were positioned I was worried about chopping off his left hand from the photo if I cropped off the post. Will definitely have to watch for things like that.

Betz wrote:

#4 & #5 Great shots. Again.. another personal preference. He's in blues and the backdrop is blue.. I'd have perhaps put him in a white/lighter shirt or changed to a white backdrop.

The backdrop is actually a black/gray. It was the first time I used a light to light the background. Maybe it would have been better just leaving the light off of it and therefore it would have looked more black and not blue (assuming I wasn't able to change the clothing or the actual backdrop itself)?

Oh, and yes, he's very patient with me when I want to practice some shots. I'm sure as he gets older his patience will wear thin though.

Thanks again for the comments. They are very helpful!!

-- Lisa P.

Elaine · October 14, 2008

He's a cutie!

I'm not very experienced with flash myself, so take this with a grain of salt...or two.

The first seems a tad cool, and like someone pointed out, the branches behind the head are a bit distracting. Maybe the flash is overpowering the ambient a bit here? Cute pose!

I like the background in #2!

I like the comp in #3. The flash seems a bit strong.

#4 & 5 are somewhat monochromatic. The light seems pretty nice on those!

Thanks for sharing!

lisap · October 14, 2008

Thanks for the feedback Elaine. It's so helpful to get someone else's perspective on things.

I'm going to have to try something different with the background. I think maybe the reason I didn't notice that it looks blue in the photo is that my favourite colour is blue so I found it pleasing to my eye and didn't look any further....

-- Lisa P.

lisap · October 18, 2008

Another try at it.....
OK, so I convinced him to go out with me again so I could give it another try. It was cooler out this time so we had to put his jacket on.

I've been using my SB600 off camera on a bracket (not sure of the proper term) and I have it above the camera maybe about 6 inches or so. I have a plastic white diffuser thingy on it (I know....again with my non-accurate terminology) I still struggle with getting the light to be at the right level.

#1A - I know his hair is horrible. Unfortunately I'm not good enough yet to get rid of it without making the background look weird. I'll be practicing though.

#2A - I was able to get close enough to get rid of the railing that was in the first try.

#3A

He wanted me to take a few of his own poses, so here they are.

#4A

#5A

#6A

Feedback greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

-- Lisa P.

jasonstone · October 18, 2008

Hey there, I'm also experimenting with off camera flash - but i'm taking it totally off camera.
Mount it like 45 degrees away from you and pointing down at 45 degrees to the subject.
Use the inbuilt pop up flash in commander mode to trigger the SB-600.

I don't know what equip you have but i'm using Nikon D80 + SB-800 and the results are dramatic

It doesn't hurt to give it a go for comparison.

It sure is fun learning for me

Cheers, Jase

lisap · October 18, 2008

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the tips.

I'm using a Nikon D80 and the SB600. I'm using it in commander mode with the flash off camera and the bracket I have seems to be able to be repositioned in a variety of crazy positions, so I'll definitely see if I can get it at a 45 degree angle instead of right in front.

I love the experimenting. It's tough sometimes to get the subjects to practice on as much as I'd like to, unfortunately. Usually I can bribe the little ones though.

Thanks!

-- Lisa P.

jasonstone · October 18, 2008

lisap wrote:

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the tips. I'm using a Nikon D80 and the SB600. I'm using it in commander mode with the flash off camera and the bracket I have seems to be able to be repositioned in a variety of crazy positions, so I'll definitely see if I can get it at a 45 degree angle instead of right in front.

I love the experimenting. It's tough sometimes to get the subjects to practice on as much as I'd like to, unfortunately. Usually I can bribe the little ones though.

Thanks!

-- Lisa P.

I know exactly the situation you're in - I have a 2yo and 4.5yo

I can never get them to stay still for more than 2 secs (both boys)

I've been using a Gary Fong Lightsphere 2 cloud when on the camer

To get the flash far enough away I've even been holding it out at arms length with my left arm and then trying to aim it more or less right - get some funny looks but it seems to work alright

Oh and one more thing - if you want to block your on camera flash's light get the Nikon SG-3IR - it blocks the flash light but allows the infrared through which is what triggers the remote flash

I just bought one on Friday and haven't played with it yet

Cheers, Jase

lisap · October 20, 2008

In looking back at the new ones I did, I'm thinking that they look a bit orange?? Especially #4a and #6a???

-- Lisa P.

lisap · October 23, 2008

Just checking to see if anyone has any feedback

I think I love the sun and I hate the sun! haha

Thanks

-- Lisa P.

jasonstone · October 23, 2008

Hi Lisa,

I don't have any extra feedback but one thing you could do to balance the sunlight is to use a CTO (orange) gel on your flash??

I've not got any experience with that - simply what I've read from www.strobist.com

Cheers, Jason

lisap · October 23, 2008

jasonstone wrote:

Hi Lisa,

I don't have any extra feedback but one thing you could do to balance the sunlight is to use a CTO (orange) gel on your flash??

I've not got any experience with that - simply what I've read from www.strobist.com

Cheers, Jason

Thanks Jason. I'll have to read up on that

-- Lisa P.

angevin1 · October 23, 2008

to help control the darkness...you have to slow your shutter speed down to allow more ambient into the shot. Flash is Wb pretty close to Sunlight anyway, and usually doesn't show up as different, IMO... I like the poses and the photos over all..nice looking little fella~~

cheers, tom

lisap · October 25, 2008

angevin1 wrote:

to help control the darkness...you have to slow your shutter speed down to allow more ambient into the shot. Flash is Wb pretty close to Sunlight anyway, and usually doesn't show up as different, IMO... I like the poses and the photos over all..nice looking little fella~~

cheers, tom

Thanks for the feedback and tips!!

-- Lisa P.

Practicing with the 4 yr old

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