External flashes

[annnewjerz]

So next weekend, I have been commissioned to be the "official photographer" of a co-worker's daughter's bridal shower. Exciting stuff, right??

My guess is that I may have to use the SB-600 because even though there is a whole wall of windows, the room itself seems from the pictures to be very dark (dark wood, dark paint, dark carpet, etc.)

My problem is---I have virtually no practice with my external flash. I have slapped it on a few times just to try it out, but really prefer natural light whenever possible. When using it, I have always put on my Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser and have the flash aimed at the ceiling (mostly to make sure the diffuser actually stays on )

My co-worker is not expecting too much, she has seen the photos I have taken and likess them, but just doesn't want to bothered taking shots herself the whole time with her p&s...but I'd still like to do the best job I can for my own personal satisfaction.

So----any tips, tricks, helpful sites, etc. anyone can provide?

 

[Mrs Potato Head]

Have you ever tried bouncing a flash off a window? I've had some good results with this at times. I'm not a fan of the Gary Fong, though.

 

[Mrs Potato Head]

I love my Lastolite Ezy box when I use my SB800 or SB600 off camera - it's a compact size, so easy to bring out (for clients, not for touring travel, though) and sets up really fast. Mine is 15x15, but I think there is a bigger version of it too.

I also use the Westcott 50x50 softbox (umbrella style softbox) with my SB800 and I've also used my AB800 with that one. It's HUGE, but the light is wonderful with it.

For in studio, I use the Alien Bees softboxes - I have the large, the octabox and the strip box. I have also started playing with their grids and barn doors. I'm loving the grids. But I love dramatic lighting, so take that with a grain of salt....

For the speedlights, I have the HONL products - the snoot, the grid, gels and the speed gobo. All very affordable and easy to travel with too.

I am not a Lightsphere fan, I have abandoned mine. I do, though, like the Demb FlipIt and think the results I'm getting with that are nice.

Just my .02.....

 

[wenrob]

Ann, I point mine straight up with the GF Origami diffuser/bouncer and set it to zoom ttl. It will then give the amount of light according to how much your camera is zoomed in or out. (it won't reach 200mm though) If you find your diffuser is sucking up too much light you can manually press the + symbol on the flash to put out more light. For portrait orientation just remember to move the flash head to point up so you don't get nasty shadows. If you don't want to mess with the diffuser, you can always just pull the little screen thingy over the flash head, just remember it won't reach as far so you'll need to physically get closer to your subject. I'm not a pro at using mine yet but I'm comfortable with it and these methods work well enough for snapshot type pics.

 

[annnewjerz]

Ann, I point mine straight up with the GF Origami diffuser/bouncer and set it to zoom ttl. It will then give the amount of light according to how much your camera is zoomed in or out. (it won't reach 200mm though) If you find your diffuser is sucking up too much light you can manually press the + symbol on the flash to put out more light. For portrait orientation just remember to move the flash head to point up so you don't get nasty shadows. If you don't want to mess with the diffuser, you can always just pull the little screen thingy over the flash head, just remember it won't reach as far so you'll need to physically get closer to your subject. I'm not a pro at using mine yet but I'm comfortable with it and these methods work well enough for snapshot type pics.

The extent of me using it has been as follows:

1. Put the flash in the hot-shoe
2. Turn it on
3. Point the flash at the wall or ceiling
4. Take the picture
5. Adjust the exposure on the flash
6. Take another picture.



I feel comfortable using it, I have experimented using the flash straight on with no diffuser, using it bounced on the ceiling, using it with a diffuser, using it with just the little clear thingy over it and generally---I think it looks best with diffuser, no shadows at all, which I liked.

My sincere hope for the shower? That I don't have to use it at all

 

[dmccarty]

Ann,

I think you have it covered. Turn off red eye reduction though. If red eye shows up you can adjust after the photos are taken. I used to have a frame to get the flash above the camera to remove red eye. Having the camera remove red eye causes a delay between the pressing of the shutter release and the actual taking of the photo which for me usually means I have missed the picture.

Some how I had red eye turned on during our last WDW trip at a character breakfast. I just turned off the flash and shot with the available light. I am with you and don't really like to use the flash but of course sometimes its required.

Besides aiming the flash at the ceiling aka 90 degrees up, aim at 45 degrees. You may have have covered the 45 degrees when you said aim at the wall but I'm just making sure.

To do flash really right I think it takes a SB Master and a few slaves positioned around the room. But that seems to take the spontaneity out of what you are trying to do. I took some photos at a 70th birthday party that was held in a dark garage at night. I had very little time to setup with a D200 and the SB800. No way I could have staged up slave flashes.... And I don't have them anyway.

Good Luck. Let us know how it turns out.

May The Light Be With You!

Later,
Dan

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

Let me preface this by saying that I am still in the early learning phase of using flash. I am posting this because I have the same setup as you Ann (D90, SB600 & Gary Fong). Ever since I was pointed to Neil van Niekerk's site I want to learn good flash techniques. I admit that I have not done enough experimentation nor have I had an opportunity to attend an event that I have used a flash versus the dirty 30 without flash. But here is what I have found for settings that have worked on practice shots around home. #1 make sure that you firmly secure the Gary Fong on the SB600 not so that it is clinging on. #2 Set auto ISO to max 400 and speed of 1/60 and for me flash -0.7 if I am within 10ft of the subject. I have been trying to use the SB 600 with out the diffuser as much as possible but when you don't have a wall to bounce off of the diffuser works just fine. I don't like bouncing it off the ceiling because of the shadows you get under eyes and noses. Anyway here are a couple of samples I took tonight just to practice again straight out of the camera.

f/8 1/60 105mm -0.7flash ISO 400 from about 8ft away

from about the same spot f/8 1/60 26mm ISO 400

I am very anxious to hear from our panel of experts on what they do. I still think that like most things in photography, practice and learn from your results.

 

[annnewjerz]

Let me preface this by saying that I am still in the early learning phase of using flash. I am posting this because I have the same setup as you Ann (D90, SB600 & Gary Fong). Ever since I was pointed to Neil van Niekerk's site I want to learn good flash techniques. I admit that I have not done enough experimentation nor have I had an opportunity to attend an event that I have used a flash versus the dirty 30 without flash. But here is what I have found for settings that have worked on practice shots around home. #1 make sure that you firmly secure the Gary Fong on the SB600 not so that it is clinging on. #2 Set auto ISO to max 400 and speed of 1/60 and for me flash -0.7 if I am within 10ft of the subject. I have been trying to use the SB 600 with out the diffuser as much as possible but when you don't have a wall to bounce off of the diffuser works just fine. I don't like bouncing it off the ceiling because of the shadows you get under eyes and noses. Anyway here are a couple of samples I took tonight just to practice again straight out of the camera.

f/8 1/60 105mm -0.7flash ISO 400 from about 8ft away

from about the same spot f/8 1/60 26mm ISO 400

I am very anxious to hear from our panel of experts on what they do. I still think that like most things in photography, practice and learn from your results.

Thansks so much for the sample shots---they look great. I think I'll just make DH pose as a test subject some this evening and throughout the week. Luckily, I'm showing up to the shower 1.5 hours ahead of time so I'll have a while to figure out what type of lens I can use, if I need a flash, etc. etc.

Thanks for the tips so far everyone!

 

[annnewjerz]

So...wedding shower is over, I think it went well. Didn't HAVE to use my flash all that much---just waaaaaaaaay overshot to compensate for the sort of difficult lighting.

It was definitely a challenge, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I've only processed about 40 photos but I'm already really glad that I made the switch to shooting RAW months ago because a lot of the shots were underexposed and it was such an easy fix.

Here's a couple I liked so far.

Playing with a Photoshop action on this one that sort of makes everything dreamy/glowy. Applied it to this girl because she seemed angelic.

And finally this one. Not the best pic, but the cake was so cute. It was a wine and cheese themed shower and the cake was a big block of swiss cheese with little mice all over it.

 

[YesDear]

Very Nice Ann!

So when you say you had to compensate in RAW was that because the lens just was not fast enough or the light was too low?

Which lens did you use?

How much did you have to compensate in Photoshop?

 

[annnewjerz]

Very Nice Ann!

So when you say you had to compensate in RAW was that because the lens just was not fast enough or the light was too low?

Which lens did you use?

How much did you have to compensate in Photoshop?

I'm guessing it was a combo of slow lens and bad lighting. The room was dark, except for close to the wall where there was a whole wall of windows---which put everything I wanted to shoot in silhouette unless I really worked hard, and even then the pics were still a bit underexposed.

The ceilings were vaulted in most areas, so bouncing really an option and I wasn't close enough to all of the action to allow the flash to do much anyway. After looking at a few pics with it and seeing that if I boosted the ISO a little higher than 400 (I think I went to 640 max) I decided to scrap the flash.

I used my 18-200 most of the time, the Sigma 30 for the other part of it. I would have loved to keep the Sigma 30 on for the whole thing, but I wasn't seated in an ideal location and since we were indoors, I felt like the various focal lengths of the 18-200 would prove more helpful than the slightly lower aperture of the Sigma.

Didn't have to compensate too much, there were just a handful of shots where the background was all windows and what I wanted to shoot was dark in comparison---so it was either underexpose the table in hopes of not completely blowing out the background, or expose for the table and try to fix the background in PP.

Not sure if I made the right decision(s) or not---but live and learn!!

 

[handicap18]

Nice job Ann. I like the look of those photos.

Do you have a diffuser for the flash?

 

[annnewjerz]

Nice job Ann. I like the look of those photos.

Do you have a diffuser for the flash?

Thank you!

I do---I have a cloud and a clear Gary Fong Lightsphere with the domes. For the few pictures that I used the flash for, I did use them and was very happy with the results (no harsh shadows, etc.) but since most of the shower was in a huge open space with tall ceilings, for the most part I found that the flash was just a little cumbersome. I was lighting up the people in my immediate space, but the bride and groom were just too far away to reap the benefits of the flash.

 

[handicap18]

You don't have to always have the diffuser in the up position. If you find yourself not getting enough light, put the flash with the diffuser on in the "normal" position (use the clear top, not the cloud).

Also with high cellings, if you want the bounce, take the top off the flash. You'll still get the straight on light diffused, but you'll get more bounced light. If the celling is angled, take a look at your position, you can always bounce the flash backwards a little to a better bounce.

 

[Todd_H]

I was lucky enough to find myself in Orlando for business this week and had some free time, so I hopped over to the MK for a couple of days of photography.

1/30 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority

1/30 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority

1/30 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority

sorry, this one has a minor "spoiler" in it that needs to be removed in CS4

1/40 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority

this is not a great shot by any means, but I just barely captured a couple of the skeleton heads that come out of the organ pipes (Disney needs to crank up the projection on those heads... I've always loved that effect but you can barely see it now)

1/40 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority

I have many more that need to be PP'd so I will add to this thread over the next few days.

I have also posted some from Pirates of the Caribbean here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2171946 and Peter Pan's Flight here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2171950.

Hope you enjoy them!

 

[Todd_H]

I was lucky enough to find myself in Orlando for a couple of days this week, so I hopped over to the MK for a couple of days of photography.

1/30 sec., f/2.8, 60mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority (don't know why i used shutter priority)

1/8 sec., f/2.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, aperture priority

1/8 sec., f/2.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, aperture priority

1/50 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 6400, shutter priority

1/50 sec., f/2.0, 50mm, ISO 6400, shutter priority

I'm also posting dark ride shots from the Haunted Mansion here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2171942 and Peter Pan's Flight here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2171950.

Hope you enjoy them!

 

[crazydadguy]

Hey Nice shots! What camera and lens were you using?

 

[Todd_H]

I was lucky enough to find myself in Orlando on business this week and I had time to hop over to the MK for some photography.

1/50 sec., f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 12800, shutter priority

I'll upload more in this thread once I PP them. I'm also posting pictures from The Haunted Mansion here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2171942 and Pirates of the Caribbean here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2171946.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy them!

 

[annnewjerz]

Very nice---looking forward to seeing more from Peter Pan---haven't been on that ride in SO LONG but from what I hear, it's a really tricky one to get good shots on.

A small request (if you have time, and if not, I'll just look on your SmugMug)---can you post EXIF with them???

I have 7 months to study up before our trip in December and if DH has anything to do with it, it'll be our only trip to Disney for quite a while so I need to make it count!!

 

[Spectro is #1]

These are great. I recently posted a help request for POTC. My D90 was delivered yesterday and have been practicing.
Please post your settings.