Chuck,
Thanks for the advice - I really appreciate it.
You guessed right - I was using battery powered flash. I had the big
580EX on a bracket immediately above the camera with a pocket bouncer
and a smaller 430EX on a stand shooting through an umbrella.
The setup was less than ideal. I think I only had about 6 feet in total
from the front of the camera to the background, with a wall immediately
behind me. It was also so dark that the autofocus was struggling. I take
your point about the background colour.
I think you are probably right about the recycling too. I could see the
580 charge light (which recycles faster and was set to less output) but
not the 430 - I remember a couple of times the 430 didn't fire because I
was too quick. I retook shotw when that happened, but I hadn't
considered the "not fully charged" case.
When you say "manual mode" do you mean the camera in manual or the flash
in manual. I have been learning much more about the Canon flashes this
week (more on that later) and I am now more confident with the camera in
manual but the flash still in ETTL mode.
My clients were actually my wife's parents and they understood that it
was my first time doing anything like this and they were pleased with
the results. 40 years ago when they got married, they hired a
professional photographer but he sent his assistant since he had got
double booked. Then it snowed (despite it being April) and exposing for
snow was beyond the assistant so they ended up with no pictures.
While I have the attention of Dr. Flash, could you spare a minute to
offer advice on another situation?
I like taking candid shots at parties, so I'm often working with not
much light. So for Christmas I was allowed to treat myself to the Can*n
24-70 f2.8 - I was given special dispensation to use it on exactly 2
specific occasions before it got wrapped and then not opened until the
25th. The first occasion was my son's nativity show and the second was
my daughter's nativity show.
The two shows were quite different in many ways, but I was quite
disappointed with the results in both cases. I am quite sure the blame
lies with me and not my equipment.
The first (http://photo.whizzkid.co.uk/KGS/SleepyShepherd2006/) I was
sat on the front row, nice and close and I experimented with and without
flash. The disappointment here was the white balance was way off when I
didn't use flash. I haven't experimented using anything other than auto
WB yet. This disappointment was further compounded when I got home and
realized that I hadn't been shooting raw (I always shoot raw). It was a
strange light - it was in a gym which had florescent lights and also had
translucent yellow panels in the ceiling which obviously coloured the
daylight coming in. The white balance for the flash shots wasn't great
either. I was just using the built-in flash for a bit of fill - the kids
are only 3 or 4 years old and I thought the DSLR was probably
intimidating enough without adding a 580EX and a pocket bouncer.
For my daughter's show
(http://photo.whizzkid.co.uk/KGS/HoityToityAngel/) I was around 8-10m
away a sat much higher. The room was quite brightly lit with artificial
light, but not bright enough to not need flash. None of the pictures
were at all sharp - the ones in the gallery have really been over done
with USM. So I am now wondering how I got it so badly wrong. I have come
up with a couple of reasons:
1) Not keeping the camera steady - Camera + grip + 24-70 + 580EX is
quite weighty and I'm not used to such a heavy lens yet. I couldn't have
used a tripod if I had wanted to, but I am now going to buy a monopod.
2) Ratio of flash to ambient - maybe I should have used a smaller
aperture to force higher flash output? Would this have reduced motion
blur I can see in some of the shots? Would it have made the camera shake
less evident?
Any advice or comments gratefully received.
Thanks,
Mike.
Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> Hi, Mike.
> I checked your gallery and liked it. You've got a couple really great
> shots of the kids. Presumably the parents are happy.
>
> But Dr. Flash can't help but offer some advice on the formals for the
> wedding shots. It may be that where you were at simply didn't afford
> the luxury of more room. But I believe you'd get better results with
> your subjects further from the backdrop. At least 4 feet and maybe a
> bit more if you've got the space. I'd also suggest a more neutral
> backdrop (like a gray or soft brown) when you have to take lot of shots
> with people who are going to be in clothing with an unknown but
> guaranteed mix of colors.
>
> Now to exposure and lighting. I don't know what you're using for lights
> but I see the camera is set to program mode and that the exposures vary
> quite a bit from shot to shot. The program mode may be partially
> responsible for that but I have a sneaky suspicion that you're using
> battery powered flash and you may be outrunning the recycle time; ie,
> the flash wasn't fully charged when you fired the shutter. If that's
> not the case then the program mode on the 350D doesn't work as well as I
> would have guessed.
>
> Whether it does or not I would recommend that you abandon the program
> mode and (at least for the formals where things are slower and more
> under control) use manual mode only. Ideally you'd have a flash meter
> but a real cheap substitute can be had in the form or a white card or a
> collapsible reflector or even a piece of A4 size paper. Have someone
> hold it at chest level in the position where your subjects will be
> relative to the background and make a few test shots. Adjust the
> exposure with the aperture until you get a good histogram and you don't
> get any over exposure "flashies" on the white card in the picture. If
> you have to go smaller than f/8 or larger than f/5.6 then adjust the ISO
> or move the flash units or adjust their power level. That's to keep
> within a reaonable range for depth of field without sharply imaging the
> backdrop. With a 350D maybe even f/4 is OK due to the small sensor. A
> little experimentation with a willing subject should answer all your
> questions. Once you get the exposure set there will be no further need
> to worry about it for that setup and all your shots will be perfectly
> exposed... assuming you don't outrun the recycle time on the flashes.
> Just keep in mind also that the spec sheet for recycle time is likely a
> big lie. Give it at least 50% more time than it says.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
>
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|