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05-26-2016, 02:07 PM - 2 Likes   #1
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Garden Portraits, 2-Flash Wireless HSS

All of the recent discussions here about how to manage wireless HSS and about balancing ambient with flash lighting, got me inspired to get the gear out and grab some family portraits. This is about 'my photos' but also meant to be helpful and informative for those looking to get their flashes off camera when the light is bright, and you need to take control of the natural light and balance it with your flash exposures. Also if you're thinking about how to place the flashes, the positioning and distances to go for.

It can often be hard to find the right position for portraits outdoors when there is quite high contrast, shadow and sunny areas for example. Using flash can help with this, but can be tricky if we try and get it off-camera and softened (which of course we should do right .... ? ). So I experimented the other day with a small 2-flash set-up. The light levels were fairly high so I had to add into the mix the need for High Speed Sync flash also in order to be able to reduce the background ambient exposure and bring out the subjects.

I use a 2-flash set-up for HSS, one Pentax AF-540FGZ and a Cactus RF60. Both are triggered optically using another on-camera Pentax AF-540FGZII (set to 'wireless control' mode). For more details on the technical side of all this please check out my demo thread .... https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/125-flashes-lighting-studio/311128-pentax...-hss-demo.html

The camera here is the K7 with SMC F35-70 f3.5-4.5

Here's the general scene, with a 'normal' ambient exposure ...... ISO 100, F5.6, 1/350th sec



Attachment 311672


With these settings in order to reduce the background brightness more I'm going to have to use shorter exposures because I don't want to use smaller apertures for these portraits .... So that puts me firmly into HSS territory for my flash working .....

Here's the set up with my 'Practice Doll' .... I always use a static doll or teddy to test the lighting and balance the exposures before my impatient models arrive on the scene ... (well, they're not being paid! ) ...


Attachment 311673


The sun is off behind the subject position to the camera right, so I am using my lights on the subjects right side .... the main light is the softbox and the other light with powersnoot is for a kind of back rim effect to add a bit of depth around the hair and profile ....


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You can see that I have angled the flash bodies towards the shooting position in order for the optical sensors to receive the control triggering signal. The distances here are around 4 metres to the farthest flash. The main softbox is about 1 metre from the subject. The head of the control flash on the camera is turned to point towards the slave flashes and the flash head zoom was set at 24mm coverage to ensure both flashes got a good signal.

The flashes both had a 1/4 CTO gel ('Colour Temperature Orange' ) added to them, in order for me to be able to use a daylight white balance setting. The gels help to balance the flash and ambient colour temperature ...

Without the gels the flashes would produce a cooler, bluer look on the faces. My white balance setting was the daylight preset with a plus 3 orange fine tuning.



Here's the test subject with only the rear rim light firing .... you can see the face mainly in shadow and the background darkened due to the shorter exposure time ....

ISO 100, F5.6, 1/500th Sec


Attachment 311675


And here's a few with the main flash as well, providing my chosen flash and ambient balance .... I aimed for a very soft effect with the softbox close to the subject and the light strongly directional to create contrast across the face ....

First a rather tired model ... (but she had a fairly good excuse ) ...


Attachment 311676



Attachment 311677



Attachment 311678


And lastly a rather grumpy model ... But she had NO excuse



Attachment 311679


I hope you may have found this interesting, especially if you've been joining in recently in the HSS talk. Please feedback and give your thoughts and ask any questions ... thats what its all about !

Nigel


Last edited by mcgregni; 10-05-2016 at 12:59 PM.
05-26-2016, 04:15 PM   #2
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I take it that you metered off the background 1st to get your ambient setting? Did you use a light meter for the flash?

Just think, in a few short years the grumpy model is going to be grumpy if her face isn't in front of some type of camera.

Also, the shots turned out very nicely.
05-26-2016, 10:14 PM   #3
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The grumpiness may have only just begun ?!

Most of the work is in the setup. Once that's done properly then the shots just come easily. The background exposure was fixed in Manual mode first, and I kept it around 1 stop below meter centre. The main flash was manually controlled just from initial 'guesstimates' and then 1/3rd stop adjustments after checking the test shots. The RF60 was firing at around 1/4 power level. The other flash was actually working in P-TTL mode and I didn't need any adjustments for it, but it was not too critical as a backlight.

As the sun fluctuated a bit I had to make occasional exposure time changes to keep the ambient light down around that minus 1 stop level, and then I had to also make a compensatory power adjustment on the RF60 (because when in HSS sympathy mode the 'shutter speed' does affect the flash exposure). The Pentax flash could just be left alone.
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