[Eagle94VT]

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A new thread for those interested in seeing and learning through others efforts. I am an utter beginner at flash photography and would love a thread on here to see examples and how they were shot.

I'll lead off with my beginner of beginner efforts:

20140711-_IGP9194 by eagle94vt

One Cactus RF60 in view. Bright sun in the background. Another Cactus RF60 beneath the table aiming up - I was hoping to see if I could power it up to eliminate the shadow and make the hat appear to hover. The table was translucent and only learned later and error in power settings via the V6 transmitter.

And yes, I left the flash in the picture as a send off for this thread...

[fgaudet]

It's funny someone started a thread like this. This weekend I felt like experimenting a bit further with remote strobes. In full daylight, my goal was to achieve subject isolation by creating a very dark background, even thought the scenes were well lit.

Shot with cheapo speedlites (YN460) triggered with an SLRKit radio trigger system.

And yes I flashed a couple of hummingbirds, sorry.

For the flower, one flash, handheld in the lower left, aimed up, at full power. Same with the grass shot.

For the birds, two flashes, one lower left aimed up at 1/4 power and one top center aimed at the bird at 3/4 power.

No award winning photographs, but certainly an interesting effect.

[enoeske]

Here's a few 1 or 2 light shots to show you what you can do with minimal lighting gear

Single light in a umbrella softbox camera right and above


Model: PENTAX K-5
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Focal Length: 85mm

2 lights in umbrella softboxes. Key straight overhead and slightly in front and one camera left for fill


Model: PENTAX K-5
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 3.2
Focal Length: 30mm

Single light behind white backdrop creating a silhouette look


Model: PENTAX K20D
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/180 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 28mm

One light pretty centered through umbrella softbox


Model: PENTAX K-3
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 8.0
Focal Length: 75mm

Single light through white umbrella, centered and above, reflector just below frame.


Model: PENTAX K20D
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50mm

And my main man Buster (as a pirate). Single light though white umbrella camera left


Model: PENTAX K20D
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: 8.0
Focal Length: 55mm

[Culture]

I will really like this thread if it can be made so that more info will be shared. Like diagrams of light positions, or better yet a picture of the setup if possible.

Thanks for the idea as I am also newbie at flash photography.

edit: Is it possible to have this pinned?

[BrianR]

An oldie from the portable studio:




f/22, iso200, 1/125s, 100mm macro, k100d. Flash is an old sunpak 433d in a small homemade softbox, positioned camera left and in front. The frog is inside a small lunch cooler which provides the white backdrop and a wrap-around reflector. A re-enactment is below, but the flash was on the other side for the above picture, and the settings above killed off the ambient light:




f/13, iso200, 1/45s, DA18-55mm@21mm, k100d.

A good chunk of the stuff I put on flickr involves strobes. Most include the lighting info in the description since this is a requirement for the "Strobist.com" pool and I mostly think of Flickr as a learning sort of exercise. The Strobist pool is definitely worth checking out if you want to see many examples with descriptions of the setups (some users are much more descriptive than others!)

[Class A]

Here's an animated GIF showing several stages:

1. Original scene: no flash, subject badly backlit and not very recognisable despite some exposure compensation. Because of the positive exposure compensation, the sky is blown out.
2. Original scene with deliberate underexposure: Negative exposure compensation applied to render the sky with nice colours and to enable a dark/bright contrast with the subject.
3. One key light: RF60 with a CTO gel firing into a reflector, from camera left.
4. Second flash firing into bottle from below added: Another RF60 is firing into the bottle to create the glow. The bottle actually sits on two transparent blocks with the flash in the middle. In the daylight image, you can just about see a black piece hiding one of the blocks in order to prevent the light from the bottom flash to spill into the lens.

Because I wanted to bring out the nice colours in the sky I had to use a pretty high shutter speed (1/750s). I could have closed down the aperture as well, but I wanted to background to be blurred (at f/4.5) so I needed to reduce exposure by increasing the shutter speed.

Normally, one cannot use manual flashes like the RF60 with shutter speeds higher than the flash sync-speed (1/180s) with Pentax cameras, because Pentax chose to not create any trigger signals above the sync-speed.

However, I used an HSS-capable flash (Metz 58 AF-2 in my case) on-camera and used its pre-flash as an optical trigger signal. I also put the two RF60 in to "HSS Sympathy mode" so that their flash contribution was long enough to illuminate the full frame. Actually, in the final image, the Metz 58 AF-2 which I only wanted to use as a trigger, contributes some reflections on the bottle. I like them, that's why I left them in. Otherwise, I would have flagged the Metz or swiveled it away from the scene.

The respective "High-Speed Sync" section in my RF60 review goes into a bit more detail.

When I had the bottom flash buried below the bottle already, I wondered how the effect would change with a different zoom setting. Luckily, I could remote control the zoom setting of the RF60 via radio. I never thought that I'd use this remote zoom control feature, but actually it came in handy a number of times already.

[MPrince]

Here's a link to my Flickr album of OCF photos. All of the photos include a description of the lighting.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkmurphypr/sets/72157627114657260/

Here's a link to another OCF album. In addition to lighting descriptions, this album also includes a number of setup shots.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkmurphypr/sets/72157628748668423/

[bmw]

I tend toward minimal, mostly flash, both studio and location, all flash as well as mixed ambient and flash.

Here are three, two and one flash setups ...

Cabaret

Three flashes in Westcott Apollo softboxes. A Neewer TT560 in a Westcott Apollo 28" softbox camera-left front; A TT560 and AF540FGZ in two Apollo Strips with 40 degree grids behind, camera-left and camera right. IKEA black curtains background.

Woman seated on a bamboo chair

Two flashes. Westcott Apollo Strip with 40 degree grid and a Neewer TT560 at full-power, above camera-left; bare Pentax AF540FGZ with foamboard barn door on background @ 1/64th power, camera-right. Fashion grey seamless Westcott background. Black IKEA curtains to either side to prevent light spill.

Alt.Portraits of Madame X #1

One flash. One AF540FGZ in a 42" Fotodiox umbrella softbox high camera-right.

[bmw]

Here's the lighting diagram for the "Cabaret" 3-flash shot.

Next to that, diagram for "Woman on bamboo chair", 2-flash shot. Background should read grey seamless.

After that, diagram for "Alt.Portraits of Madame X #1", single flash shot.

[bmw]

Here's one of my favourite uses of flash: mixing it with ambient for the best of both worlds.

In this portrait I was shooting inside the store of an artist who sells clothing and accessories for creative professionals in The Junction part of Toronto. I wanted to include some of her local environment, ie to show a little of what she does. Plus I needed to travel light and I didn't want to carry tons of gear that would take ages to set up in her place.

I used one light-weight stand, one cheap eBay 30 inch umbrella softbox, one AF540FGZ flash, and a cheapie radio trigger and receiver. Small and light enough kit to carry in one hand plus my small camera bag, and no need for a sandbag.

I gelled the flash with CTS (colour temperature straw) to more closely match the ambient light, which is tungsten halogen lights.

I metered for proper exposure of my female subject using a flash meter, then also metered the ambient light of her surroundings using the camera's (K20D) matrix meter. I set the aperture for the flash exposure then the shutter to 1/30th sec for the ambient exposure (also called "dragging the shutter").

The reason for using a flash at all is that the light in the room is dim and from overhead. That would guarantee deep shadows in eyes and a generally crappy look. So the softbox provides a beautiful light on her face, and also attractive catchlights, and the room ambient light provides fill all around.

Below the portrait I've included the lighting diagram.

Camera: K20D, DA* 16-50/2.8 @ 34mm/F9.0, 1/30th sec, ISO 400.
Light: AF540FGZ in eBay 30" octa softbox umbrella, 1/2 power (I think), CTS gel, camera-left.

[Class A]

Here's one of my favourite uses of flash: mixing it with ambient for the best of both worlds.

I like the light you created in this portrait; I personally would not have underexposed the ambient light quite that much, but the key light is wonderfully warm and soft.

I take it, the softbox was very close to the subject?

Do you have a link to the "cheap eBay 30 inch umbrella softbox" you were using?

BTW, you could get yourself a pair of Cactus V6 and remote control the power level of your AF540 FGZ. Try that once and then tell me you are going to do it the old way again.

[Class A]

Here's the lighting diagram for the "Cabaret" 3-flash shot.

I notice you are using strip lights.

I never had access to these. Have you used regular softboxes,umbrellas in the respective positions before? Do you like the strip lights better?

When used as a rim light, I'm not quite sure why a strip light should perform better than a regular sized light modifier as the extra light by the regular modifier should just go to waste, right? Or does it cause too much spill?

My guess is that one really wants to have good height out of strip light and that it would be too expensive and not space economical to achieve the same height with a regularly shaped light modifier.

I'd be grateful if you could let me know if there is another merit to using strip lights.

[Neo_]

this is cool, i do quite a lot of this stuff let's see if I can show and explain something



f5.6 - 1/10 - 200iso

Metz 58 af-2 on the left shot in reflective half closed umbrella (poor man softbox by Zack Arias) at 1/64 + metz 48af-1 with 1/8 speedgrid and blue gel aimed at the smoke on the right side at 1/128, Cactus V6

[bmw]

I like the light you created in this portrait;

Thanks!

I personally would not have underexposed the ambient light quite that much, but the key light is wonderfully warm and soft.

I am all about contrast. By underexposing the background the viewer's focus is put squarely on my subject's face and features. And shadows and darkness especially suits this portrait subject who is into the macabre and all things mysterious and goth.

I take it, the softbox was very close to the subject?

Somewhere from 1.5 to 2 meters; I don't recall exactly. The little drawing is not to scale.

Do you have a link to the "cheap eBay 30 inch umbrella softbox" you were using?

Sure. Photo 80cm 31 5" Octagon Umbrella Flash Softbox Brolly Reflector | eBay

It's probably the best $25 I've ever spent.

BTW, you could get yourself a pair of Cactus V6 and remote control the power level of your AF540 FGZ. Try that once and then tell me you are going to do it the old way again.

Sure I could. But I've got better ways to spend my money right now.

You know how many times I changed the power of the flash during this shoot? Once: at the beginning when I set up the softbox. After that even though I moved the light several times, each time I placed it by estimating the distance I wanted and then I simply metered the light -- one pop for the meter. No remote power control necessary.

---------- Post added 07-31-14 at 11:08 AM ----------

I notice you are using strip lights.

I never had access to these. Have you used regular softboxes,umbrellas in the respective positions before? Do you like the strip lights better?

When used as a rim light, I'm not quite sure why a strip light should perform better than a regular sized light modifier as the extra light by the regular modifier should just go to waste, right? Or does it cause too much spill?

My guess is that one really wants to have good height out of strip light and that it would be too expensive and not space economical to achieve the same height with a regularly shaped light modifier.

I'd be grateful if you could let me know if there is another merit to using strip lights.

I'll answer this by stepping back a bit. When I am lighting a subject in a studio I am thinking creatively. I'm imagining the subject is an actor in a play, on a stage, and I am the lighting director who is tasked with lighting the actor. I must consider the brightness of the actor relative to his surroundings; shadows that will be cast; the colour of the light; the hardness of the light. At least these things.

So with a mental picture of how I want my subject to look I start considering how I'm going to achieve that. In a small room with reflective walls I will have issues of reflected light. If I am applying light to specific parts of the subject, eg some extra brightness on her face, I have to consider the possibility of light spill, or unwanted light falling on other areas.

The tools I have to get the control I need include white and black foam core boards and curtains (especially black) to absorb stray light. I can attach barn doors to lights to prevent stray spill. I can attach a Honl speedgrid or a snoot to a bare flash to get a small circle of light.

Then to really accurately place light without spill I have strip lights with grids. These act very much like spotlights: all the light is directed forward in a narrow beam, shaped like a slot; tall (or wide) and narrow. This is perfect for rim lighting of a subject's body (as in "Cabaret") while avoiding spill onto the subject's face. That face spill creates undesirable shadows and hot-spots that have to be laboriously retouched out.

Of course this is all stuff I need to worry about most if I'm doing low-key or chiaroscuro lighting. If I'm doing high-key the considerations are different: I actually want to bounce light around all over the place. In that case I can use umbrellas and large white reflectors. I don't have to worry as much about spill; maybe not at all.

Yes, of course, I've used regular shaped softboxes, umbrellas, v-cards, reflectors ... all the light shaping tools. Each one has its use and place in the toolbox.

BTW, my use of a strip light in the 2-flash shot (Woman seated ...) was as a sort of beauty dish. Highly directed yet soft at the same time. I wasn't using it as a rim light in that case. Nothing wrong with breaking the rules and using lights in creative ways.

[Class A]

Photo 80cm 31 5" Octagon Umbrella Flash Softbox Brolly Reflector | eBay

Thanks a lot.

Do you have a trick for mounting a flash inside?

The way it is mounted above the umbrella shaft in the sample image, it is not firing into the centre of the box. It may not matter terribly, but I'd prefer a more symmetrical illumination.

Also, it seems you cannot tilt down the box much. Has that ever been limiting for you?

You know how many times I changed the power of the flash during this shoot? Once: at the beginning when I set up the softbox. After that even though I moved the light several times, each time I placed it by estimating the distance I wanted and then I simply metered the light -- one pop for the meter. No remote power control necessary.

Sure, that's one way of doing it.

I prefer not to work this way because then the flash power is dictating your f-stop and I prefer to determine the f-stop I want based on DOF considerations and then adjust the flash power accordingly.

Moving the whole light to adjust the power is not ideal either because

• by changing the distance to the subject you not only affect the illumination level, but also the harshness/softness.
• It takes longer than just turning a dial.

In particular because of the first reason, I'd rather adjust the flash power than move the flash.