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02-23-2015, 02:45 PM   #1
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First try at flash and event photography
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm 3.5 Camera: K5 Photo Location: Stockholm, Sweden ISO: 200 Shutter Speed: 1/30s Aperture: F6.7 

Hey guys,

I have recently started shooting events, usually in dark venues, as I was named the official photographer of my student club. I've never really worked in that kind of environment, let alone used flash very often. I use a Sigma EF-500 DG Super, which is sometimes confusing to set-up. I am looking at any tips or recommandations!

Feel free to critique the PP too. I am only starting to get a hang of Lightroom for that kind of photography. I was not going for a natural look, as the club asked for a "club" kind of picture, but I did my best.

Shoot, I can take it!



02-23-2015, 07:35 PM   #2
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To me a 'club look' would be a lot more dark than what you have captured.

If your flash is the on board flash I would invest in an external one that has variable power.

It might take a little practice but also try bouncing the light rather than blazing it right on the subject. For example if you have a wall to your back and semi low ceilings try turning up your flash head to straight up or 45 degrees. Try aiming it at the subject and even away from the subject and get bounce light.

Its all a matter of experimenting. I am no flash expert by any means. In fact I am not that good at it at all, but on occasion I have gotten lucky with my various experiments.

The light is used to not only light the subject but to create shadows. Think about that for a minute. A flash to create shadows? Bouncing light around in various ways can surprise you quite a bit.

To me the faces look a little blown out... but analyze why that is....proximity to the flash as well as the type of other surfaces involved... you want more soft flash if you ask me.
02-23-2015, 07:51 PM   #3
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Very nice, Nicolas. Is there anything diffusing that flash? You may want to consider a velcro-ed softbox in a fairly safe environment like that. In a bustling crowd, a reflector like a Rogue Light Bender wlll do a similar job - expand the size of the flash surface to soften it even more. Don't be afraid to turn down the FEC, but there's nice, flattering contrast here.
02-23-2015, 09:29 PM   #4
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On my K5 I tend to underexpose all flash shots by at least -0.7, and sometimes more whether I'm using the onboard flash or an external one. It is much easier to fix dark regions than the recover blown highlights. You've got a touch of that here, especially on the cheeks. And it is worse for the girl on the left than the right, as she was closer to the flash. So as others have mentioned, a diffuser of some sort (or where conditions permit a bounced flash) will work better.

02-23-2015, 10:00 PM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by MSL Quote
On my K5 I tend to underexpose all flash shots by at least -0.7, and sometimes more whether I'm using the onboard flash or an external one. It is much easier to fix dark regions than the recover blown highlights. You've got a touch of that here, especially on the cheeks. And it is worse for the girl on the left than the right, as she was closer to the flash. So as others have mentioned, a diffuser of some sort (or where conditions permit a bounced flash) will work better.
^^ what this person said. If using P-TTL I underexpose the flash a little too for the same reason. Your flash settings were way too strong here. you might also could use a light modifier like a diffuser or a softbox like already mentioned.

For anyone reading this and new to lightroom --- In lightroom, in the top, right corner of the histogram, you should see an arrow/triangle -- click on that. This will show you where your highlights are clipping. Any part of the image that turned red, after clicking the triangle, is blown out. This means you've reached the maximum shade of white and now your data is 'flattened.' If you shoot in RAW format (*.dng or *.pef) you *might* be able to recover these by lowering the highlights slider (moving it to the left) if the levels aren't too high. In the example photo above, the cheeks are not horribly blown out so it likely can be recovered. As MSL stated though it is way easier to correct too dark images than it is too bright. Pentax cameras are great at recovering shadow detail... but to really maximize the functionality you need to shoot in RAW format.

Hope that helps someone out there.. maybe.
02-23-2015, 11:23 PM   #6
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That's good piece of equipment, but try to go with the simplest (default) on-flash setting and make your favourite flash-settings (i.e. slow curtain / trail curtain sync, flash exposure compensation) in the camera body itself, as Sigma does not remember the user settings after turning-off turning-on cycle.
You may want to get StoFen OmniBounce diffuser for the head of your light (Chinese copies of SFOB are very cheap, EU delivered).

BTW how much is a pint of beer in Stockholm club these days?

-----
QuoteOriginally posted by Nicolas514 Quote
I use a Sigma EF-500 DG Super, which is sometimes confusing to set-up.
02-24-2015, 01:43 AM   #7
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Wow, thanks guys! I didn't expect to receive that much feedback in such a short time, this is great!

QuoteOriginally posted by alamo5000 Quote
To me a 'club look' would be a lot more dark than what you have captured.

If your flash is the on board flash I would invest in an external one that has variable power.

It might take a little practice but also try bouncing the light rather than blazing it right on the subject. For example if you have a wall to your back and semi low ceilings try turning up your flash head to straight up or 45 degrees. Try aiming it at the subject and even away from the subject and get bounce light.

Its all a matter of experimenting. I am no flash expert by any means. In fact I am not that good at it at all, but on occasion I have gotten lucky with my various experiments.

The light is used to not only light the subject but to create shadows. Think about that for a minute. A flash to create shadows? Bouncing light around in various ways can surprise you quite a bit.

To me the faces look a little blown out... but analyze why that is....proximity to the flash as well as the type of other surfaces involved... you want more soft flash if you ask me.
QuoteOriginally posted by clackers Quote
Very nice, Nicolas. Is there anything diffusing that flash? You may want to consider a velcro-ed softbox in a fairly safe environment like that. In a bustling crowd, a reflector like a Rogue Light Bender wlll do a similar job - expand the size of the flash surface to soften it even more. Don't be afraid to turn down the FEC, but there's nice, flattering contrast here.
QuoteOriginally posted by MSL Quote
On my K5 I tend to underexpose all flash shots by at least -0.7, and sometimes more whether I'm using the onboard flash or an external one. It is much easier to fix dark regions than the recover blown highlights. You've got a touch of that here, especially on the cheeks. And it is worse for the girl on the left than the right, as she was closer to the flash. So as others have mentioned, a diffuser of some sort (or where conditions permit a bounced flash) will work better.
QuoteOriginally posted by mee Quote
^^ what this person said. If using P-TTL I underexpose the flash a little too for the same reason. Your flash settings were way too strong here. you might also could use a light modifier like a diffuser or a softbox like already mentioned.

For anyone reading this and new to lightroom --- In lightroom, in the top, right corner of the histogram, you should see an arrow/triangle -- click on that. This will show you where your highlights are clipping. Any part of the image that turned red, after clicking the triangle, is blown out. This means you've reached the maximum shade of white and now your data is 'flattened.' If you shoot in RAW format (*.dng or *.pef) you *might* be able to recover these by lowering the highlights slider (moving it to the left) if the levels aren't too high. In the example photo above, the cheeks are not horribly blown out so it likely can be recovered. As MSL stated though it is way easier to correct too dark images than it is too bright. Pentax cameras are great at recovering shadow detail... but to really maximize the functionality you need to shoot in RAW format.

Hope that helps someone out there.. maybe.
QuoteOriginally posted by Prakticant Quote
That's good piece of equipment, but try to go with the simplest (default) on-flash setting and make your favourite flash-settings (i.e. slow curtain / trail curtain sync, flash exposure compensation) in the camera body itself, as Sigma does not remember the user settings after turning-off turning-on cycle.
You may want to get StoFen OmniBounce diffuser for the head of your light (Chinese copies of SFOB are very cheap, EU delivered).

BTW how much is a pint of beer in Stockholm club these days?

-----
So after reading this what seems to dominate is to use a diffuser. What I forgot to mention is that I used the flash with a Gary Fong lightsphere pointed upwards as I didn't want people to have harsh shadows in their eyes. (The ceiling was very high btw and walls were quite far on each side so boucing on a wall, except for the back wall, was not really possible) Maybe that's not the greatest diffuser for that kind of environment?

I will try to change the settings inside the camera instead of on the flash next time and see how that goes. As for proximity to the subject, that's one of the challenges of being in a crowded location, so is there anyway I can avoid one person being brighter than the others?

I shoot RAW and I check the highlights in Lightroom and in this one I had these settings, I think the biggest culprit is me in PP so here you have the original picture, cropped with only the basic PP (white balance and sharpening) applied. Any thoughts on how I could have done it better to still make it look glitzy and fancy without overexposing too much?

Finally, I used f6.7 because I wanted to capture a good amout of detail on the people and focus can be hard to get right in that environment, but i noticed that the background is a little distracting. Any thoughts on that?

Once again thanks for the help, I appreciate it a lot!

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02-24-2015, 03:53 AM   #8
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Regarding your questions, flash shooting is not an easy task.
Deep of field, ambient light, colour temperature, white balance, shutter speed, number of lights, master/slave, bouncers, diffusers, red eyes, shadows, ...
I.e. you see some flash-shadows under people noses, some people may not like it (I'm not concerned about your particular photo).
Shooting is like a fashion. I was watching a TV film about contemporary club-photographer (I do not remeber if that was a local or world TV programme). The guy was shooting casually, with short lens, from low angles, with his camera in one hand and wireless flash in other hand, being the part of the party.
Actually I believe now the club life (esp. students' club life) in my coutry differs from gentle pace of club life in boring Stockholm capitol of Sweden
BTW one of the best disco-clubs I were in was in Visby (Gotland) in high-season
Get your own style

-----
QuoteOriginally posted by Nicolas514 Quote
Wow, thanks guys! I didn't expect to receive that much feedback in such a short time, this is great!
02-24-2015, 05:37 AM   #9
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Nicolas514, it seems you removed highlights too much. First play only with black and white sliders to find the ratio. Then highlights, shadow, exposure if needed.
02-24-2015, 06:21 AM   #10
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I do a lot of post processing in FastStone, which only gives me access to basic sliders, but they can be very good at recovering an image. Based on the second image you posted, you need to bump up the overall lighting/contrast, but bring down the highlights slightly in order to avoid the blow outs of the cheeks that you showed in the first photo.

If you get comfortable with the flash you can switch to more manual shooting and use a lower power level, which will more evenly light the subject.

QuoteOriginally posted by Nicolas514 Quote
Gary Fong lightsphere pointed upwards as
I don't know the Gary Fong, or whether pointed upwards means you were using a bit of bounce for the flash, or you were using a vertical reflector and the flash pointed straight up. Either way, for a setting like this one you have the added challenge that any bounced flash is going to reflect off of a very uneven ceiling. I did some shooting like this indoors and from one shot to the next the color of the wall radically changed and I suspect it was because sometimes I was reflecting off the ceiling and sometime off the ceiling light fixture and all it would take to go from one to the other was a step this way or that.

For these situations I wonder if an octagon or rectangular diffusion (bigger effect than a softbox) pointed at the people might work better. It is something I need to try the next time I'm shooting at that same location.
02-26-2015, 08:50 PM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by micromacro Quote
Nicolas514, it seems you removed highlights too much. First play only with black and white sliders to find the ratio. Then highlights, shadow, exposure if needed.

Obviously aesthetics are involved.


Personally, I don't mind the look of the original shot where light sculpts the face, with lost data in the shadows and highlights where they don't count. The second has lost some contrast by retrieving those pixels.


An example of that kind of style, even if I did completely miss the focus on the eye! :


02-27-2015, 04:36 PM   #12
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I prefer the original image!

There's a lot of mention about diffusing/bouncing the flash; I'm not saying use bare flash, but my interpretation of "club style photos" is using a relatively hard light on the subject and having a dark background. Preferably with dancing/spontaneous poses and disco lights in the background...

I think the idea about having the camera in one hand and the flash in another is worth exploring. Increasing shutter speed (can't see Exif on ipad) to darken background could be an option. You want to darken the background to remove distraction, but leave enough so that you can tell where the pictures were taken.
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