Why would you use these settings? Am I missing something

[texasreddirt]

I was sent some pictures by a friend of mine. She had them taken a while back and the photographer has been dragging his feet on the PP of her pics. Well she is needing them ASAP for something for work. So she asks me if I can PP a few for her so she can use them.
So I get one of them and open it up. The first thing I notice is the W/B is off (taken in jpeg). Then the second thing I notice is it is cropped very poorly. Then to top it off it is OOF. So then I look at the exif. Keep in mind this is a glamour style portrait. This is what I found.

Canon 5D

1/128
F14
Focal length 55
ISO 400

The photo is from mid stomach up

Can you think of any reason to shoot at these settings? I haven't done a lot of studio work yet. But I do a lot of outdoor work with strobes. Wouldnt F8'ish ISO100 with a higher strobe setting yield much better results?

[zacker]

cheap ebay lighting kit?

[texasreddirt]

cheap ebay lighting kit?


I guess it could be. But shooting with a 5D I would tend to think not. I guess I could be wrong. But hell even a sunpak 383 or vivitar should have enough ass to get it done.

[evolved]

maybe he wanted the deep dof so to get f/14 he had to shoot @ iso 400...

[Alexajlex]

f14 for what? Landscapes.

[Lotto]

With the 5D and up close, f8 is not enough keep both eyes in focus if the subject does not face the camera straight sometimes. But iso400 seems high if it's a studio shot.

[jbergdoll]

So is this guy a pro, or a "pro?"

[pcunite]

Canon 5D

1/128
F14
Focal length 55
ISO 400

The photo is from mid stomach up

Can you think of any reason to shoot at these settings? I haven't done a lot of studio work yet. But I do a lot of outdoor work with strobes. Wouldnt F8'ish ISO100 with a higher strobe setting yield much better results?

Strange for sure... Sounds like someone used green box mode!

The give away is the 1/128 and ISO 400. It should be around 1/200 for the shutter (highest flash sync on the 5D).

[texasreddirt]

I'm not sure what level "pro" this guy is but she paid for these pics. The background was what appears to be black paper. I could be cloth its hard to tell. I told her I would be more than happy to redo them and see what I can come up with.

[amonline]

...This is what I found.

Canon 5D

1/128
F14
Focal length 55
ISO 400

Can you think of any reason to shoot at these settings?
Not without seeing the image. ;)

Does it look like strobe or continuous?

[nadtz]

Without more info its a bit rude to assume so much (or in fact anything) about the photographer. The real question is (or should be) how did the resultant image come out?

[texasreddirt]

Without more info its a bit rude to assume so much (or in fact anything) about the photographer. The real question is (or should be) how did the resultant image come out?


It came out very poor. And the reason I'm not posting the picture is for exactly that reason. Just incase he is a member here I wouldnt want to hurt any feelings.

[texasreddirt]

Not without seeing the image. ;)

Does it look like strobe or continuous?


It looks like strobe to me.

[amonline]

Well, I don't think anyone can give you even a close answer without seeing the image. Regardless, if you think it's strobe, they must be set really low. That in a dark environment on JPG is basically hell and you're not going to get a great shot. Personally, I'd never shoot a studio portrait under 160th. It just sounds like someone that's inexperienced with real lighting.

[jbergdoll]

Green box :O

[Rudi]

Just for the record, there is nothing inherently wrong with the settings mentioned. If the photo did not turn out, that is a whole new kettle of fish however! Because of both aperture and shutter speed being set at intermediate settings, I would suspect that the photographer had the camera set in Green or P mode, and it looks like they were using available light (or continuous lighting). It's likely he/she had no clue what they were doing. :)

[c71clark]

Maybe it's just me, but how do you get a shutter speed of 1/128? That's not on any dial I've ever seen. Maybe in Green mode the camera can pick what it wants?

[cosworth]

With the 5D and up close, f8 is not enough keep both eyes in focus if the subject does not face the camera straight sometimes.

From a recent set of really nice head shots I did:

full frame
140mm
1/50th
ISO 800
F/5.6
Strobe

Settings are always hard to interpret, but the image result is really what counts.

[Curtis N]

Strange for sure... Sounds like someone used green box mode!Highly doubtful. Green box mode in a (relatively dark) studio would have most likely resulted in 1/60 shutter and wide-open aperture (not to mention grossly overexposed images if studio strobes are used).The give away is the 1/128 and ISO 400. It should be around 1/200 for the shutter (highest flash sync on the 5D).It doesn't give away a darn thing. The 5D instruction manual recommends 1/125 with large studio flash. In reality, anything between 1/30 and 1/200 probably won't make a difference.

f/14 is a reasonable aperture for studio portraits with a camera of this format. ISO 400 on the 5D is perfectly clean, and would allow lower power settings on the strobes for faster recycling.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the settings used here. That doesn't make the image good or bad, but the photographer in this case is being unfairly maligned by previous responders in this thread who have not seen the picture.

[pcunite]

Highly doubtful. Green box mode in a (relatively dark) studio would have most likely resulted in 1/60 shutter and wide-open aperture (not to mention grossly overexposed images if studio strobes are used). It doesn't give away a darn thing.

Thanks for sharing your opinion!

[Wilt]

I will take a contrary opinion to Curtis's response, although what he says is not far off. My guess is that the guy had too powerful of flash unit, could not dial down power sufficiently, was stupid about not resetting the camera to ISO 100 rather than ISO 400, metered the scene, set the reading, and fired! 55mm on a FF camera for a waist up portrait?! Much better shot at 70-85mm, further reducing DOF. With 55mm at f/14 there is about 4' of DOF at a shooting distance of 8', so adequacy of DOF was not the reason for f/14...it could have been shot at f/5.6 at that FL, and there would be 2' of DOF. Airhead photographer.