1st ever OCF group shot

[perfarny]

Well, the first ever is behind me, and I learned a lot

Setup: I had one flash setup with a shoot through umbrella, and we were trying a family portrait. Did it in our living room just near a wall, with distant ambient light to the right. Tried to use just a reflector at first, but it blocked out some of the ambient, so I repositioned the reflector to get both light sources into play. Chimping showed it to be the best way.

I can definitely tell that trying to do a group shot of 5 people with one strobe is quite a challenge! I had to go +1.5 on FEC to get enough light to cover all faces, and battling the corresponding shadows due to not having strong enough and thorough enough fill from the right was hard. I was wishing I had another flash to do some fill with...maybe that's the next purchase So, I had to do a couple of Lightroom adjustments where I used the local adjustment brush to take down exposure a bit on my son's face on the left, and also to bring up exposure on the side of my face (Dad on the right) to eliminate some shadows.

I don't have a calibrated monitor at this point (software on its way), and looking at the below on 2 PC's shows me quite different results: this one, it's nice and warm, the other - it looks much more on the overexposed/hot side. How does it look to you?

All in all - it was a lot of fun, and like I said - I learned a lot (and yeah, the photo is off center and I cut off my foot, but all things considered, I'm satisfied with the effort ).

[DerekW]

Great first effort!
Couple tips for ya. Easiest way to offset the shadows is just a simple reflector of some sort, White foam board, or a 5 in one reflector. They're pretty cheap on ebay.
Now, notice that your son's face on the left is quite hot and your face turned out too shadowed as you mentioned. Also notice the shadow on the wall behind you guys... also brighter on the left. If you had possibly pulled the flash farther away, and/or aimed it a little more to the right and feathered the flash more to the right, it might have evened that out.

[jeromego]

Originally Posted by perfarny

Well, the first ever is behind me, and I learned a lot

Setup: I had one flash setup with a shoot through umbrella, and we were trying a family portrait. Did it in our living room just near a wall, with distant ambient light to the right. Tried to use just a reflector at first, but it blocked out some of the ambient, so I repositioned the reflector to get both light sources into play. Chimping showed it to be the best way.

I can definitely tell that trying to do a group shot of 5 people with one strobe is quite a challenge! I had to go +1.5 on FEC to get enough light to cover all faces, and battling the corresponding shadows due to not having strong enough and thorough enough fill from the right was hard. I was wishing I had another flash to do some fill with...maybe that's the next purchase So, I had to do a couple of Lightroom adjustments where I used the local adjustment brush to take down exposure a bit on my son's face on the left, and also to bring up exposure on the side of my face (Dad on the right) to eliminate some shadows.

I don't have a calibrated monitor at this point (software on its way), and looking at the below on 2 PC's shows me quite different results: this one, it's nice and warm, the other - it looks much more on the overexposed/hot side. How does it look to you?

All in all - it was a lot of fun, and like I said - I learned a lot (and yeah, the photo is off center and I cut off my foot, but all things considered, I'm satisfied with the effort ).

you did a pretty good job...how did you trigger your flash?

[perfarny]

Thanks guys.

Derek - yeah, I have a 5-in-1, and mixed it with the ambient...just wasn't able to eliminate the shadow very well; I think too many people for that reflector to do a great job on all faces.

Jerome - I used an ST-E2. I spent a lot of time going back and forth about which remote triggers to get. I'm the type who wants to buy stuff once and have it last forever, so I finally settled on: get an ST-E2 first, and in the future, get radiopoppers Px so I can keep ETTL. This way, I'll also not 'throw away' the ST-E2 investment as the popper transmitter will use it on camera to trigger the remotes, and in the meantime - I'm not spending a fortune (yet) but getting good experience with OCF.

[john123]

Geat photo for a first effort and it certainly is an adorable and happy family.
My only nitpick would be dad's hairy legs with the sandal calling attention to itself.

[perfarny]

lol...thanks much, John, and yeah - agreed this was kind of a trial run, next time we'll get all done up and hide those hairy things...and i'll make sure the leg itself doesn't stick out like a sore thumb..the more i look at it, the weirder it looks to me. thanks for the pointer!

[DogDay]

Great job. Gold star for getting the infant to look at the lens at the right moment.

[tim]

Originally Posted by perfarny

I can definitely tell that trying to do a group shot of 5 people with one strobe is quite a challenge! I had to go +1.5 on FEC to get enough light to cover all faces, and battling the corresponding shadows due to not having strong enough and thorough enough fill from the right was hard.

Looks pretty good to me. One little point though, +1.5FEC would be expected because the frame is mostly white and FEC basically gives the metering hints. Any time you photograph something light toned you'll need FEC. Any time you photograph anything mostly black toned you'll need negative FEC. Assuming no ambient light this would be the same whether you use ISO100 F16 or ISO1600 F2.0 - try it and see

[perfarny]

Originally Posted by tim

Looks pretty good to me. One little point though, +1.5FEC would be expected because the frame is mostly white and FEC basically gives the metering hints. Any time you photograph something light toned you'll need FEC. Any time you photograph anything mostly black toned you'll need negative FEC. Assuming no ambient light this would be the same whether you use ISO100 F16 or ISO1600 F2.0 - try it and see

cool, and thanks. I'll definitely pay attention to that in the future and see what I get.

[perfarny]

Originally Posted by sbierman

Great job. Gold star for getting the infant to look at the lens at the right moment.

gold star belongs to my mom who happened to be visiting, and was standing behind the camera getting her attention