Outdoor Family Shoot

Did some practice on my friend and his lovely family. I think I'm getting there. All shots were taken with the Sigma 85 1.4.
1.

awesome photos! very very nice set. If you don't mind,what do you do when using flash in conjunction with wide apertures in sunny days like this? I ask because one has to shoot slower than 1/250 with a speedlight obviously but when shooting with a large aperture the SS tends to be around 1/8000 on a sunny day.

I've use a ND8 filter with my 35mm lens and that enables me to shoot wide open with a SS around 1/100-1/250 and get a properly exposed image. But this method is kind of tedious as I have to set the flash manually and change the setting every time the distance between me and the subject changes. I am only asking to see if there is an easier way to use flash+wide aperture on a sunny day thanks.

Awesome pictures and beautiful colors. You have some serious editing skills.

Love #5

RL. wrote in post #12167803
awesome photos! very very nice set.

Thanks RL, I sent u a pm with some tips.

LEoVaMPiRe wrote in post #12168511
Awesome pictures and beautiful colors. You have some serious editing skills.

Thanks Leo!

NY Irish wrote in post #12168534
Love #5

Thank u sir.

They way you used the natural light is AWESOME. Great backlighting on their hair, focus is sharp. This is a very nice set.

Very nice shots.

Nice shots, the family should be very happy with these.

2 & 4 are great, although they are all very nice. Quality set!

I am assuming that you used the flash powered down quite a bit and positioned directly to fill in shadows? I've used that in the past and it has worked very well for me. I'd love to hear what you did - feel free to CC me on the PM to RL!

#2 and #5 are my favorite - would love to know how you handled lighting/fill - going to be doing a shoot in what appears to be a similar setting in a couple weeks.

Thanks guys! Since I'm getting a few pm's regarding the set up, I'll go on and share it here. Here's what I use for what I call my "bokeh" shots:
1. 1 Manfrotto monopod, 1 flashzebra umbrella adapter
2. 1 Calumet 42 inch umbrella
3. 1 PW Flextt5, 1 Minitt1
4. 1 580ex flash set to HSS, 24mm, ettl
5. 1 willing assistant to hold light stick (in this case, my 15 year old daughter)
6. camera body set to Aperture Priority, ISO 100, One shot, Raw, spot meter
7. 85mm, or 135L, or similar very fast lens

When shooting these, I position the flash to shoot thru the umbrella.

My flash is set to ettl, and HSS is enabled. I usually meter for the BG, because I don't want to blow anything out, and let my flash do the fill. In my shots, I want nice rich colors in the BG. It may be a personal preference, but that's what I like. I don't want a strong flash, so I take a test shot relying on ettl, which is usually spot on for me, if not I adjust up/down from there.

My assistant (daughter is usually 5-7 ft away holding light stick with the flash/umbrella angled high and down towards the subjects camera right. I like to shoot wide open or next to wide open depending on the subject and distance to the subject(s). Outdoors, my iso is always at 100 for nice clean images.

In post, I just bring out the BG colors, I do most of my post in LR including skin work. Hope that helps guys!

Thanks so much for the detailed description! That helps out a ton. I also added you on Flickr - you've got some great stuff on there.

Thanks again!

Theo

These are ridiculously good.

I so need to get myself a copy of that Sigma 85mm f/1.4. Everyone I know that has used one raves about it! Great photos

Aressem wrote in post #12171121
I so need to get myself a copy of that Sigma 85mm f/1.4. Everyone I know that has used one raves about it! Great photos

No kidding. Add that to the (long) list of other stuff I want!