Hi Michael,

Yes photographing young children can be a challenge--and I hold the most respect for those of you who can do it so well! You are also correct that green reflects [and ironically--absorbs] much more than we realize. Your calculations for the "Sunny 16 rule" were spot on. I don't use ETTL...can you explain what you did? Did you set you flash to a certain output, or does the camera control that when you set the exposures?

I understand about having to shoot fast with kids--but from my perspective, I would have liked to have seen a little softer light for her, but the overall efffect is much better--deeper skies and less green skin tones are always a good combination! Very good example of setting your foreground to match the background.

bodstrup:
This is hardly competition worthy, but I like to get a bit of life here, so this is my first entry:

I was playing around with my daughter Sunday, enjoying the warm sun. I had my camera + a Canon 580 Speedlite with me, and decided to to a quick comparison between a typical snapshot on auto - and a shot with a few adjustments. I was actually quite suprised by on of the differences:



The blown highlights in both her skin and the sky is expected, but look at her skin tone and eyes... The bright green grass was a quite effective reflector. It is not quite obvious in the scaled down picture above, but she is green!

The camera selected 1/60 at F8.0 in AV mode. (ISO 400)

I then changed to manual, used the good old Sunny 16 rule (here 1/200 F8 ISO 400 with a 2 stop polarizer mounted) and turned on the flash:



Even though she did not want to pose, the difference is obvious; a much more plesant image. With a kid this size, constantly moving about, there is no time for metering and manual flash exposure, so the ETTL is an appropriate choice here. The flash was fired directly forward, no diffusion of any kind.

What I like about this is the fact that it only required a few seconds of calculation and a change of camera settings, something that can be achieved by most cameras.

Regards
Michael

Hi Erin,

Nice job. I remember learning that open shade or cloudy skies created great lighting for photography. I have since learned that that is [I]sometimes[I] the case, but more often you get the flat boring light that dominates your first shot. I thnk you learned that using a flash outside is not so scary after all---although frankly you will have trouble getting the results that you want with a sync speed of 1/125.

So, your final exposure was f 5.6 at 1/125th? It looks like the flash added more than 30-40% because the effect would be a subtle fill at the ratio that you are talking about. Your flash definitely looks like more of a main light--but not too harsh. I love the subtle "hair light" that the ambient light provides [I'm guessing that that is the ambient light].

Keep playing with strobe outdoors...you are on the right track...

Oh yeah...nice job with the "little angels!"


Smile:
This was the retake of the "shoot from hell". These kids were the most challenging little "bleeeeeps". Okay, here's the scenerio. I had a partly cloudy day. The sun was bouncing in and out of the clouds. I usually would not use a flash at all (because they scare me, but I'm getting better), but I really wanted to get a bit of a catchlight to liven up the image and to create a little dimension.

I set my light meter to ambient/flash combo and metered from about 10 feet away. I set my 550 EX light, which was on a stroboframe, to manual at 100%as I wanted about 30-40% flash in this image. I set my shutter speed to 125 for two reasons. 1) I wanted to freeze any movement of these two little "angels" and 2) I didn't want my background going too dark (not to mention my camera doesn't synch any faster than 125. I just went with the aperature on the meter, f5.6, to get the 30-40% flash. I also feathered a gold/silver reflector to camera right for a little extra fill. FYI: I will probably never shoot outdoors without a flash again.

Jodi,

I am NOT a wedding photographer...but WOW do I like that 'after' shot! You nailed the exposure [look at the details in her dress--beautiful!] and I really like the design elements--the angle of view, the converging lines, the dress following the stairs, the clouds are exposed to become a center of interest rather than a white distracter--just a well done image. You would score in the "Award of Merit" range if I were judging this at a print competition.

Jodi...I know that I am being a pain in the posterior here--but please get into the habit of putting your name in the photos that you post on-line. One "right click" and the picture is gone without any protection. OK, I'm off my softbox. Excellent job!


jodinewton:
Attached are the before and after shots.

The Sunpak flash (with a Lumiquest ultrasoft lightmodifier attached) and the aperature were set 1 1/2 stops above the ambient light reading-(ambient reading at F11 1/2, flash and aperature set to F22). This allowed the clouds to expose beautifully, while using the sun as the fill and the flash as the key light.

In Adobe Photoshop, the brown dress was lightly burned-in with the burn tool where the sheen of the fabric had picked up too much light from the flash, and a stray hair was removed from the brides' face using the clone and patch tools.

Now that's kind of funny---I meant SOAPBOX...not SOFTBOX!!! "Calling Dr. Freud...Dr. Freud???!"

Hi Jen!

Ahh, backlit situations! I deal with them all the time...they are charming! Your 'before' photograph is a perfect example of when NOT to use Program mode! I think you are really on the right track here. You said that the ambient reading at the boy was f 4 and you had to stop down to f 8 to balance the two. How did you know that you needed f8? Did you meter for the background and then set your strobe? What was the combined ambient/strobe reading at the boy's face? The flash seems a little bright for my taste, but I do like the way you let the sun add some highlights. Nice.

jensmith71:
My entry is from Memorial Day. Setting was 1 pm in the afternoon (12:52pm to be exact), clear, sunny skies with Mississippi River in the background. Sun was to right of subject (left in frame), high in the sky and starting to fall on his right cheek.

Before image was taken with camera on "P" setting and AWB.

For after image: I used my Sekonic L-358 on ambient light setting. Meter reading was ISO 100, 1/125 and f/4.0. Because of reflection off of water I had to stop down my lens to f/8 to get detail in the background. Used ETTL to achieve the fill on the face with the Lumiquest Big Bounce. That's it. Oh - and I used my grey card to custom WB.

Enjoy!

Hi Michael,

Nice entries. I like the thought processes behind your locations and how and why you have to modify them. The logic seems similar on both, but I like the park shot better than the beach shot--it has a softer feel to it--almost like the ambient provided more fill than on the beach. However, the harsher light fits the beach scene too, so it becomes a matter of choice. I prefer the balance between the light sources in the park. The pose and interaction between the subject[s] is nicer in the park too. Nice comment on the color temperature issue.


bodstrup:
Here is my entry - just in time:

Scene 1: Very high contrast, clear sunny day in the garden

I placed my models in the shade of a large pine tree with the sunlit garden in the background and fired a shot in Auto mode. The result was predictable, the light on the faces are too dim and flat, the highlights are blown and the foilage looks fluorescent:

http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/183
f5.0 1/60 ISO 100

I then activated my Bowens 500ws strobe fitted with a 100cm Lastolite Umbrella Softbox. As the sunny area metered 1/160 at f11, I set my strobe to give f11 under the chin of the model

http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/184

The result is much improved, rich saturated colors in the background, blue sky and a warm light on the models.

The warm light is cause partly by setting the camera white balance on flash while using a softbox that reduces the color temperature with about 800K

Scene II - The Beach

Next, I decided to go to the beach to look for another background.

Arriving late in the early evening, I found that the sun was low in the sky and casting a huge reflection on the surface of the quite calm water. Shooting in the direction of the sun was not desireable

About 45 degrees from the sun (of the North - West facing beach), the sky was a uniform light blue with a slight white haze low over the horizon. No nice fluffy clouds to add interest.

I decided to turn 180 degrees and use the nicely illuminated forrest behind the beach as a backdrop. With the sun low, the forrest and dunes get a nice textured look and the light is obviously warmer than at noon.

With a still strong sun in the background argumented by a wide and strong water surface reflection there were lots of light on the background, and placing my model in direct sunlight would cast some ugly shadows on her face - and a very long, unattractive shadow from her body.

This pictures gives an impression of the conditions.
http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/178


Rather than attempting to balance a small diffuser in my left hand taking pictures with my right, I looked for natural shade and found it behind a long boathouse.

I placed my model on a small dune close to the boathouse making sure that her entire body was in shade and took the first picture in aperature mode with an exposure compensation of -1/3 stop to reduce the risk of over exposure:

The dune had some pretty flowers adding some color to the picture, but more importantly, effectively reduced the visible shaded area to a few feet behind the model. This was important for the following flash shot.

http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/179
1/80 at F 8.0.

The image did not turn out too bad, the low sun had a lot less power than at noon (where there would be no shade here anyway). There are no blown highlights in the background or sky, but I don't like the contrast and low saturation. The light on the face of my model is too flat too.

I then set up a 500WS Bowens strobe fitted with an umbrella softbox - placed a little more than 2 meters from the model, on the axis towards the sun.

The sunny background metered f9.0 at 1/160 (ISO 100). I set the strobe to give f9.0 under the chin of my model at took the second shot:

http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/180

The result was much better. The flash gave me a perfect exposure of my model and balanced the visible part of the shade with the background light.

Had I placed the model on a flat area, there would have been a much longer shaded area behind her, out of reach of the flash. Moving her back towards the end of the shade would have put her face in direct sunlight.

Finally, I added a bit of saturation in Lightroom before exporting the final image:

http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/181

I was delighted to see that the EOS 5D did handle the shot in Aperature mode with no flash so well, having enough dynamic range to cover both shade and highlights.

My final observation: You don't always need an expensive, pro strobe set with light modifiers - at close range, the 5D + 580ex handles fill flash very well.

The last image of my daughter on the beach - with her face in direct (evening) sunlight shows no bad shadows or specular highlights:

http://www.prophotoresource.com/gallery/p17_sectionid/16/p17_imageid/185
1/400 f8.0 ISO 100, Exposure Compensation -2/3


Regards
Michael B. Hansen