Outdoor Family Portraits - June 2010

I found the background for pictures in the backyard. Problematic were light spots in the background and the sunlight coming through the leaves. Problems that could not be fixed with flash, but the best compromise. The front yard was too complicated for the young children & older people.
 
I found the time and the help to move the bench in position for the sitting. I tested the exposure & used 2 flashes (camera right) for faster recyling, at ~¼ power, 35mm spread. D200 on Aperture Priority (didn’t have time for Manual, as I was arranging the group) f7.1 @ 1/60 ISO 200. 
 
The flashes were in the sun, and after a while they started to fire randomly, as they must have overheated. I should use more care on flash placement, or have a Plan B for covering the flashes' backsides with a white cloth. 
 
If I had to do it over again, I would use a huge background cloth to cover the sun-speckled background. That would have reduce post-processing work. Or move to to camera left (but the owner didn’t like that background, so that might not be a good area). I would also aim the second flash to the back row, which is darker than the front row. 

The 4-generation B/W portrait below is my favorite:
 

 

Going to Work - June 2010

He didn’t want to have the picture taken, even though I asked him in advance. After all, he was  rushing to work. I should be more cognizant about not forcing a picture.

I first setup the picture with the D200 on Manual, f10.0 @ 1/250 ISO 100. Flash was probably on ¼ or ⅛ power. First shot was too dark, so I merely opened the aperture ⅔ stop to f8.0. I did not have the room to increase the shutter speed, as it was already at the max for flash, so the only option would have been to increase the flash power by 1 stop, decrease the aperture to f11.0 and decrease the speed to 1/125. I wasn’t fast enough to do that, as my subject had to leave. I could have thought it through beforehand, because I was on CLS on Manual, so that would have been easy to do. Something to walkthru in my head the next time.

After Tacoma Graduation Ceremony - May 2010

Celebrations after the formal graduation ceremonies would always be chaotic. I knew 2 things going down onto the field for the celebration afterwards.

1. The sky was mostly partly cloudy and 

2. Pictures would have to be taken quickly, one after the other. 

No time for Manual settings. So Aperture Priority, CLS and TTL would just be fine. I used my standard formula D200 CLS settings at about -.3 and the SB800 at +.66. Exposures turned out mostly perfectly, with a tweak of +.25 in LR3. The duckbills/head garlands were a problem, but the light on the track reflected up nicely to partly offset the shadow.

This is when my formula A/CLS/TTL works, making sure the background, especially the Memorial Fieldhouse was exposed nicely (1 stop less than foreground).

Family Picture, Fremont - April 2010

Background was dictated by the group size. I first exposed for the background at f10.0, 1/200 @ ASA 200 on Manual. I knew about the impending crop, so I wanted ASA 100, but it wasn’t sensitive enough. Flash was on stand, camera left. Wanted to test flash power, but whatever I set it to wasn’t enough to light the group. Don’t know what the flash power was, but near ½ or full. Then I had to manage the crowd. Gotta allocate and make time to get and manage crowd together. Net-Net was an underexposure of 1.5-2.0 stops. Thank God for RAW Processing.

If I had to do it over again, I would

• move flash nearer and wider,
• open aperture to f7.1 or f6.3
• and test the new aperture. If background were too bright, set speed to 1/250.

Trudy & Pauline - January 2010

I found the perfect background for them, with the circular silver opening, dark center and muted green. I knew what I wanted, to light the people & reduce the background exposure, even though they were close to the wall. I also knew I would have near-specular reflections from the flash on the silver, because I couldn’t place the flash far enough from my camera, as I had to hold the flash.
 
D200 on Manual, flash on Remote & Manual (1/4power?).

New Beginnings

I have not posted on this blog for the past year. During this past year I used many of the techniques that I talked about previously in this blog. 

Going forward I will show you how I implemented the approach and techniques in images, supplemented with diagrams.

Cross-Lighting Near Sunset

I decided to use the setting sun and a single flash for a cross-lit situation. I've been playing around with this scenario, but this time I tried to get it right, using a Nikon d200 with an 80-200mm zoom, shot mostly at f4.0. Why not f2.8. In this instance I had 2 reasons. First, the sun would not allow f2.8 at 1/250 or less; I didn't want to use FP High Speed sync. Second, my zoom is not quite sharp at f2.8; shoot with such low depth of field is difficult in a self-portrait. I've always had problems focusing (in manual mode) then runing back to hopefully get into the picture, in focus and withing the frame!

Here's the first photo, with no flash.

Then with flash & diffuser dome, racked out to 70mm.

I decided to go with hard flash (no diffuser) and fully racked out to 105mm. I didn't do this at first, because, being a self portrait, it was not easy to get fully into the frame. This third shot was my favorite, because the setting sun nicely acted as a ring of light, separating my portrait from the background. In this third portrait I set the shutter speed to make the background -1.7 EV, darkening it.

BTW, this last portrait is looking the other way, because as the sun set my flash gave me "frog eyes." So by turning & using broad lighting, those spot of light on my glasses disappeared. I needed to be quick, as the nice sun rays were fading & my thought was to go for a quicker pose change, rather than trying to adjust the flash (which may have taken a few tries--I need a model next time, that would have reduced the # of tries).

The background has a shimmering wind chime that I saw, but decided not to change the camera position, because, again, of the setting sun left me little time for tweaking. Yeah, I need another person to become slightly faster. But notice the light warming my right shoulder and head--almost as if I had a flash there. Natural light can be really nice.

Next Time: 

I will make the exposures more like the second exposure on top. I did change things around, tweaking settings. I should  have just moved the camera. I will also experiment with CTO filters during a setting sun.

Using Umbrellas with Flash

I've just started to experiment using an umbrella with strobes. I learned a lot; that is, I made lots of mistakes. Luckily, I had a patient model (myself). So I had to hang out throughout the experience.

Some Background

In the past I used the plastic dome that came with Nikon flashes, rather than other diffusers. The reason was simple:  I liked the diffusion, and could control the entire portrait shoot with modifiers or the built-in zoom of the flashes. Also, since I was using Nikon's CLS system, I could trigger my key Off Camera Flash (OCF)with the built-in flash of the Nikon D200. My main use of the CLS for portraits has been in Manual mode, for both key and fill lights. CLS has been used with only my SB800 to modify its flash exposure from the D200. When I use other flashes, including the SB80-DX, I use Manual flash settings all around. If I use, in addition, my Sunpak 422D I use a Wein manual flash trigger.

This shoot was only with one flash, the SB800, using CLS in manual Mode. My built-in flash was in "--" mode, which meant it added nothing to the exposure, but did trigger the SB800. The D200 was also in manual mode for aperture and speed. Note, this shoot was typical David Hobby "cross-lighting" setup.

Step 0:

Manual exposure made with Matrix metering, without flash. Note background is same exposure as portrait (of course it appears slightly darker, because of the color--and it was in shade.

Step 1:

Figure out manual exposure of background, which I wanted to be at -2 EV with Matrix metering. I was not concerned with depth of field, so the f-stop was f9.0. BTW, the background is ugly--dark and unfocused, because camera was on manual focus for my self-portrait. Nikon D200, if on auto focus, would focus on the background before I would have time to get into position for the picture to focus.

Step 2:

Figured out the manual flash power with SB800 and dome on the stand. I positioned the flash with broad lighting for my face to ameliorate the reflections from the flash in my glasses. Normally I would use short lighting. If my subject did not have glasses, the position of my main would be more flexible. Flash angle from the camera was about 40 degrees, and the flash was placed at about 6 feet high, with flash pointed at my head (to taper the light on the rest of my body--so that the focus of the picture would be on the face. 

First exposure guess was slightly underexposed. Note background is -2 EV, but there is slight spill in each of these Steps. I did make sure the background was about 8-10 feet from my portrait, so that it would not be affected much. The spill did not affect the background that much, due to square root law. Flash on portrait is good (near 
0 EV):

Step 3:

Set up the umbrella. Whoa, it wasn't quite as easy as pulling out an umbrella to shield me from the rain. The Wescott double-fold umbrella has a black cover on a white umbrella, to better direct the light, with no reflection of light to walls; this is especially useful indoors. The best exposure seemed to be +1 EV from the exposure of the non-umbrella'd SB800 w/dome.

But I was outdoors, and tried the SB800 w/ the dome, flash set at 28mm. This wasn't the widest, but I was experimenting. What I learned is that the flash from the umbrella, when setoff in real time, was not quite bright. Looking at the flashing light, I could not imagine the image would have been soft. But it was. Note, the exposure was about a stop more than with the dome, only, w/o the umbrella.

I also did a picture w/o the dome:

Hard to tell which I liked better.

Step 4:

I finally had to figure out how to take off the black cover on the umbrella so I could take shoot-through (the white) umbrella portraits. Here's where the setup/takedown instructions failed to mention the effort needed. I had to take off each of the 8 tips (on the black cover) from the spines of the white umbrella. PS: it's easier to do when the umbrella is semi-folded, not stretched out. At least these spines were attached (sorta permanently to the black cover, so they don't quickly fall out; with much use, they probably will be lost) I also had to unscrew the middle of the black cover from the umbrella. This screw was plastic, and not attached to the black cover. Wow, this will probably be lost after my first real shoot.

Figured out the exposure to be 0-1 stops less than with the black cover on. Remember, this is shoot-through the umbrella, not reflecting it off the umbrella. 

Note, the SB800 sits above the middle of the umbrella, and positioning it toward my head was challenging. I think it will be much easier when I'm not doing self-portraits.

Step 5:

Tried this w/ SB800 w/o dome, which I like better because it seems to focus the soft light (at 28mm). 

Finally, I shot w/dome and at 70mm, rather than 28mm. Of course it was less soft, so I just gotta play with flash focal length to see what I like about it. Wider focal is softer, longer focal is less soft (but still softer than the dome only, w/o umbrella.

Ending the shoot.

I had to retrace my steps with putting the umbrella and black cover back together again. When I do a real shoot, I will not put the black cover into each of the 8 spines, again. Anyways, they come out after I folded the umbrella back together again. Also, weights on the light stand will probably be necessary. A previous learning was that I had the SB800 pointed in the wrong way into the umbrella. I need to make sure in my "standard" mode, that the light end of the SB800 is facing into umbrella, with the back of the LCD facing the other way (so I can read it more naturally). The one exception is that if I need the SB800 sensor to be on the other side, then I would have to have the light and LCD both facing into the umbrella. This is one reason for my needing radio activated flashes. With radio-activated (rather than IR CLS-activated) flash, I can always use the SB800 in "standard" mode. The radio-activated flash can work anywhere, even behind corners.

Main Learnings:

• When I shoot and chimp with flash in manual, I seem to underexpose--and not realize it. This means I should always make another exposure that the +1-2 stops more than the first "good" exposure--and then to compare.
• Umbrella is nice, but I must be very near subject, like 2-4 feet near. I think I really like the SB800 w/o dome better. 28-35 focal length is good. 
• If I've got the exposure nailed down w/o umbrella (and SB800 w/dome), then if I switch to umbrella it is best w/o dome, and about +1 EV more exposure! But this doesn't account for the fact I would have to move the lightstand nearer to the subject--at least 1-stop nearer!
  

Next Steps:

I am still not sure about focal length. I need to experiment w/ a new set of batteries, and these started to fail (take longer than usual) about the time I was doing the shoot-through, especially when changing the focal length.

Next I need to figure out how to use the fill light, as the shadow side of my face is too dark. This would require a reflector (best bet), but I would need another lightstand. Or another flash, also requiring another lightstand, and working w/o CLS but manual flash all-around, including the built-in.

BTW, the final learning from this project is that I planned to have the sun as my 2nd flash. By using manual, I was able to have the sun backlight my outline, to separate myself from the background. It was nice being able to use something natural for a change.

Manual Mode with Different Flashes

I've been experimenting with Manual mode on my SB-800 & SB80-DX and Sunpak 422D with Nikon's CLS (for the 1st two flashes), and with optical Wein slaves for the third.

These two pictures confront different scenarios that I shoot a lot.

The first pictures is one taken in shade. I made sure my manual setting was -1 for the background, and then I placed the SB-800 on camera right. This meant I had to switch the SB-800 so that the sensor was on flash left. This placement allowed my on-camera flash to pop the SB-800. With a difuser on the SB-800, I dialed the CLS Manual so that the on-camera flash was at "--" (no flash, but controlling the Sb-800), and the main SB-800 on Manual about 1/8th power. The difficult aspect was to make sure I didn't have flash in my glasses (I had to switch viewpoint 180 degrees), and that my shirt was not over-exposed. The later was done in Lightroom with the recovery feature. I liked this picture because it looked natural, with hardly any flash.

The second picture features David Hobby's cross-lighting. The setting sun was coming off my right shoulder. Manual exposure for the background at EV -1.7. I placed the diffused SB-800 on camera right, again switching the SB-800 so that the sensor was on flash left, about 50 degrees and well-above my head.  At ASA 400 that meant the flash was set at 1/8 or 1/16th. I tried flash from the on-camera flash to moderate the shadow on my right side of the face, but that lit up my glasses frog-eyed. As it was, I had reflections in my glasses. As a self-portrait that could not be helped, with out more exposures. But alas, the sun set too quickly (or maybe I was too slow!) A better solution would have been to use a reflector, but I had no one to hold it. I really wanted the waning sun's rays to backlight my back, to separate myself from the background--that's why no 2nd flash. You can see the effect of the sun's rays on the car's rear view mirror next to my right elbow. Next time it will be with 2nd or 3rd flash.

Strobist Exercise 102-3-2 Cross-Lighting Flash in Sunlight

This exercise is to figure out how to cross-light flash with sunlight, using one main flash. I finally got off my duff to continue the Strobist 102 exercises, so I took about 20 minutes to do self-portraits (oh yeah, I'm always available...)

The first picture is the D200 on Manual, exposure figured out at ASA 100 F9.0 & 1/250. Internal flash on Manual at 1/128 power. SB-800 to camera left on SU-4 mode at 70mm & 1/4 (minus 2/3 stop) power (camera lens was 17-55mm f2.8 Nikkor set @ 50mm (75mm by 35 mm stds). Of course the background is nice, and I'm in the dark.

I don't show the next picture, because it is of me in the dark again, because my SB-800 flash could not fire on camera left, because there was a lemon tree blocking the signal from the manual flash. So it looked the same as above. Yes, this was all it took for me to desire a wanna-be Pocket Wizard from Hong Kong. I knew outdoors would be hard w/ the Nikon CLS system, and this exercise shows why. I have Wein triggers from long ago, but they might not have worked in this case.

After moving the flash so that the lemon tree didn't block the signal, the next picture is nicely done. The pose is not great, but I was more concerned about the flash on the face, not considering the shadow made by my nose.


I figured I would change the speed, so I went to 1/60 with the same setting, but the ambient light overpowered both the background and my face. Yuk, I'll have to do a sunset show for 102.3.1 to do the bit about lengthening the speed to make the background lighter.


I now wanted to try the flash with Commander mode, making my internal at 3 stops under and my external at +0.7 over. Camera still on Manual at f9.0 and 1/250. I had to play a bit to get the exposure right, but as you can see, it can work. However, the shadow side of my face is much lighter, more like 1:2.5/1:3.0 lighting ratio, if you're into that. Maybe it's luck, but strangely, I felt more comfortable with full Manual cross lighting, as I was in more control of the variables lighting myself and the background.


On the other hand, when I changed to Aperture priority (speed automatically set to 1/60) and the Commander mode above, even with the sun hiding behind the clouds, the shot is Nikon CLS-balanced, with no lighting features as in the previous shots above. I wanted to have some modeling of the face, so I was disappointed with this rather bland shot. It was okay, but the main flash (SB-800) turned off much too soon, as the shutter speed was 1/60th at f9.0. Control is better, even if it takes longer.