Off Camera Flash w/ my son

[Ganell Kopp]

I took these of my son on Sunday afternoon. This is using off camera flash. I metered my subject with ambient light, then metered my flash to come in right about 1/3 stop over that. I had my gary fong thingy(mind went blank here) on my flash to diffuse the light.

f/2.8, iso 100(for most of these)

Please CC and help me get better. I really struggle with correct exposure outdoors.

[Marissa Szczepanek]

These look great!

[Jacqueline Myers]

They look good to me. Of course, my son would never let me take that many pics of him! How did you bribe him? lol

[Ganell Kopp]

With letting him play on the playground after we were done. He's 7, so he's gotten better about letting me take his pics.

Thanks for the comments.

[Carri Buchanan]

these are great! my favs are #2 and #6!

[Jennifer Bennett]

I LOVE # 3. But then I am a sucker for "serious" expressions. Your son is so handsome! His lips are beautiful!

[Bob Moore]

Hi Ganell,
Nice shoot, and a nice use of off camera flash. I would make three suggestions . . . 1) Get your flash above eye level. The nose shadow in most cases should be midway between the nose and the upper lip.
2) It looks like you've used a PS action which IMHO is slightly overdone for a young child, especially a boy. Actually, I personally do not like smoothing or smoothing actions on men or children.
3) Also the "fong thingy" maybe over softens the light for children. It is really designed to bounce some light and elininate shadows, which of course isn't applicable out of doors. An umbrella or shoot through scrim would give more definition and pop while still eliminating the harshness of direct flash.

Just my :twocents:

[Ganell Kopp]

Thank you Bob! I appreciate you taking the time to look at these and give me some critiqueing. Just what I am looking for. I plan on getting a small softbox for my flash. Do you have any suggestions? I have the 580EX. I want the bigger catch light.

[Bob Moore]

I have purchased a couple of softboxes for my 550/580 flashes and had little satisfaction with my results.
The larger the light, the better, but larger becomes a problem for being portable. Most "portable" softboxes I've seen advertised are 16 to 24 inches square. They are a PITA to set up and take down, not very sturdy, use interior baffles to overcome the small size so eat up all the light from a small flash . . . and are just too small to be effective.
A shoot through umbrella on the other hand is compact, light, easy to set up and take down, is generally larger (I use 42 inch) and allows the flash to be further from the fabric to spread the light more evenly into the umbrella. This causes the whole umbrella to light up giving a larger "source of light"
Softboxes are great in a studio . . . not in the field. Also umbrellas are much cheaper.

Hope that helps . . .

[Denis Seguin]

For me I'd agree with Bob about the overdone action on the skin and I find the background to bright and making it distracting. You could try under exposing the ambient light (stop or two) I like making the face the brightest part of the portrait if possible. Experiment with that and see what you think.

[Bob Moore]

Hey Denis . . I see you are from my neck of the woods. If you are out Coquitlam way, give me a call at 604-649-8210 and maybe we could do lunch or coffee

[Victoria Arrington]

OK I really dont get what you guys are talking about when you say a stop or half a stop, I use a SB800 on camera for outdoors. I am new to this and the "language" that everyone here uses is killing me. I mean I have probably used this "stop" that you guys are talking about but still dont know what it means.

[Bob Moore]

OK I really dont get what you guys are talking about when you say a stop or half a stop, I use a SB800 on camera for outdoors. I am new to this and the "language" that everyone here uses is killing me. I mean I have probably used this "stop" that you guys are talking about but still dont know what it means.

The opening in the lens is called the "aperature". The size of the aperature determines the amount of light reaching the "film" for exposure, combined with how long you leave the lens open (shutter speed).

An "F/stop" is the measurement of the aperature opening.

To allow double or half of the amount of light to enter your camera you would adjust by "one stop" (F/stop) Standard "F/stops" are F/1.4, F/2, F/2.8, F/3.5, F/4.5, F/6.3, F/8, F/11, F16, F/22.
The smaller the number the larger the aperature(lens opening), soooo
F1.4 lets in twice as much light as F/2 . . . F/8 lets in twice a much light as F/11 . . . F/22 lets in half as much light as F/16 . . and so on.

I'm sure that your logic will tell you that 1/200th of a second shutter speed will let in twice as much light as 1/400th of a second because 1/200th is longer than 1/400th. So F/8 at 1/200th of a second is the same exposure as 1/100th of a second (twice a long as 1/200th) at F/11 (lets in half as much light as F/8)

When Denis suggests underexposing your background by "a stop or two" he was suggesting that if you took the picture at say F/8, he would have taken it at either F/11 (one stop less light) or F/16 (two stops less light)

The following settings will give exactly the same exposure:

F/16 @ 1/100th second
F/11 @ 1/200th
F/8 @ 1/400th
F/6.3 @ 1/800th
F/5.6 @ 1/1600th
F/4.5 @ 1/1200th
F/3.5 @ 1/2400th
etc.

Hope that helps....

[Mark Martins]

Please forgive my potentially stupid comment here as I'm probably wrong. But it seems to me that these outdoor pictures have a touch too much sharpening, making the young boy appear to me as if he is pasted-into the photo. Does anyone agree with me? Like I said, its just my opinion.

[Bob Moore]

Please forgive my potentially stupid comment here as I'm probably wrong. But it seems to me that these outdoor pictures have a touch too much sharpening, making the young boy appear to me as if he is pasted-into the photo. Does anyone agree with me? Like I said, its just my opinion.

I guess it's a preference thing...but this is what we really try for. A background that is way our of focus so it doesn't compete with the subject. That is a result of a long focal length lens and a wide aperature opening. I would think that most people would find it very desireable....but nothing is etched in stone, and no one style suits everyone.
As Denis pointed out, the background is really too bright here and takes the eye away from the subject, so that may be what doesn't feel right to you.

[Mark Martins]

I guess it's a preference thing...but this is what we really try for. A background that is way our of focus so it doesn't compete with the subject. That is a result of a long focal length lens and a wide aperature opening. I would think that most people would find it very desireable....but nothing is etched in stone, and no one style suits everyone.
As Denis pointed out, the background is really too bright here and takes the eye away from the subject, so that may be what doesn't feel right to you.

No Bob, I WASN'T referring to the desire of a strong bokeh to separate the subject from a distracting background. NO, I wasn't referring to the shallow DOF. I just meant that if a person uses too much sharpening, the image begins to look artificial. Nobody has the same monitor. No print-shop is the same either. If we placed our two monitors side-by-side, I'm sure we'd both be surprised at how much different we see the same image. :dizzy:

[Bob Moore]

I agree Mark.....these don't look over sharpened on my monitor, but they do look like an action has been over used on them. Man I dislike smoothing actions on kids and men! To me actions are like the auto setting on your camera. They are there for very limited applications and severly slow down the learning process of using Photoshop or your camera.
Just my :twocents:

[Tabitha Davis]

I personally think these look pretty good, not over sharpened, and I love the bokeh. I do think that just a simple vignette would do wonders for the images, drawing the eye into the brightest part of the subject, his face.

[Paul Corsa]

This is an "old" trick-get a piece of the diamond shaped clear plastic diffuser used on flourescent lights and tape it over your flash head. It may give you the soft look you desire. It will reduce the distance the light carries, so use it for close up portraits. It's cheap too. You can also tape colored Rosco filters in with it to warm/cool the color.