First attempt at off-camera flash

[kiwinvan]

From last weekend - Furry Creek Golf Course (near Squamish in BC, Canada) has an amazing view of Howe Sound from the First Hole.

Problem is, you can't tell the sun where to be, and the view is direct West. These were taken at about 5:30pm....guess where the sun was.

These are my first attempt at lighting them using a slaved 550EX set to my right and my 580EX as master.

cc welcomed - this technique could be very very useful and I want to get it right! I've got a couple more weddings this season at the same place.

1.


2.


3.


On a side note, I've found my flashes don't recycle fast enough - how many of you use battery packs and how much better are they?

Thanks.

[MrsOpie]

Lovely pictures. I dont like the lense flare in the last one. I think you handled the harsh lighting rather well.

[picturecrazy]

That is nice! From your position there is almost no way to get the background exposed nicely AND fill the couple with enough flash power... hence off-cam light to save the day! I'd say you're well on your way to making great use of this tool!

[tony fanning]

This is a skill I still have to master.

These shots look really good to me.

[ve7clj]

These are nice photographs! yes Furry Creek is a nice place to shoot weddings for sure!

You mention that your flashs are not recycling fast enough. How long did the recycling take? Was it bothering your clients?

[Grace]

I think these look beautiful and your lighting looks great!! those colors are a great subdued look- but the BW is awesome.

good job!

[tim]

I don't like the hard edged shadow cast by the arm. Doubt I could do any better, Lloyd's one of the best people around here at it, from memory.

When I shoot in full sunlight I often use the 580EX on full power, manual, and can get the couple and the background well exposed. One extra flash gets you one extra stop of light is all.

[bcap]

For the first attempt, I think you did a great job.

I agree that off camera flash is a very tricky thing to master. Luck for you, you are able to use E-TTL as you are using a master-slave combo. I have recently ventured into OCF, but have done so with a PW and my 430 off camera, so I didn't have the joys of E-TTL.

I think once you master it though, you can get some great photos. Just take a look at Lloyd's photos or Mike Fulton's photos (of TriCoast). That is where I strive to be.

My only complaint is in the 3rd one, I would have liked to have seen both of their faces.

[gateruner]

This might have been a good place to take a couple of shots from the same spot with no one in it exposing for the background and merge them in PS. Nice shots. I have no room to critique these as I am just delving into off camera and do my fare share of messing it up. Did you have any issues with the slave firing outdoors? How far apart were the master and slave?

[kiwinvan]

Originally Posted by ve7clj

These are nice photographs! yes Furry Creek is a nice place to shoot weddings for sure!

You mention that your flashs are not recycling fast enough. How long did the recycling take? Was it bothering your clients?

I shoot quite rapidly and often I guess the second shot the flash had not recycled to full-power so the exposure is not as consistant as I would like. I could slow down I guess It wasn't an issue for the client and they wouldn't have noticed.

Originally Posted by tim

I don't like the hard edged shadow cast by the arm. Doubt I could do any better, Lloyd's one of the best people around here at it, from memory.

When I shoot in full sunlight I often use the 580EX on full power, manual, and can get the couple and the background well exposed. One extra flash gets you one extra stop of light is all.

The 550EX was on manual on full-power because with ETTL I couldn't get enough power to expose the couple.

Anyone have advice about the shadow? Is it a flash placement issue?

Originally Posted by gateruner

This might have been a good place to take a couple of shots from the same spot with no one in it exposing for the background and merge them in PS. Nice shots. I have no room to critique these as I am just delving into off camera and do my fare share of messing it up. Did you have any issues with the slave firing outdoors? How far apart were the master and slave?

I am going to guess that the slave was about 6 m in front of me and about 45 degrees to my left. No issues at all with firing and it worked well.

[mmahoney]

Beautiful work .. off camera flash makes all the difference. Lloyd (picturecrazy) here is someone you should check out.

The gradations in the mountains are perfect and if you shot RAW you may be able to receover the sky as well.
Mike

[jillybean]

May I ask how you metered for these?? I love the b&w

[kiwinvan]

Originally Posted by jillybean

May I ask how you metered for these?? I love the b&w

I used Manual. I metered for the sky and then put the slaved flash in position and tried it with ETTL first, but even with FEC +2 I could barely get light on them. I switched the flash to M and put it on full power. It was pretty bright out there and there wasn't much blue left in the sky - more thinly layered white cloud. I thought I would have to lower the flash power, but it seemed not.

It's very tricky as it seems to be trial and error until you get used to judging lighting conditions.....practice practice practice I suppose.

[tim]

Originally Posted by kiwinvan

The 550EX was on manual on full-power because with ETTL I couldn't get enough power to expose the couple.

Anyone have advice about the shadow? Is it a flash placement issue?

Yes, but there's not much you can do about it. Off camera flash gives you nicer lighting, but unless it's diffused you get harsh shadows. To use diffused lighting there you'd need a massive strobe, like 500w/s or more. Light placement might've helped, perhaps - putting the light on the other side the shadow would've fallen on the suit and probably not been noticed, but maybe the lighting wouldn't look so good.

[picturecrazy]

Yeah, shadows are just a fact of life for the off camera speedlite user. You can minimize it by doing things like Tim mentioned... casting the shadows onto the black suit. To help avoid huge shadows (you'll never get rid of ALL of them... at least, if you do figure it out, tell me!!) I use a less aggressive angle. You said you put the light at 45 deg. I use about half that much angle. Just enough to bring depth into the shot, but usually not enough to put huge shadows. Actually, the shadows on your shots don't bother me too much. Keep practicing!

Another thing I do sometimes is keep a 580 on camera and a 580 off camera, so your on-camera flash can act as a fill.