First 7D Portraits w/ Off Camera Lighting

Who says the 7D isn't capable of quality portraits?

Just recently started getting more into off camera strobes, so I rounded up the usual models for practice.

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These are great! The little girl in photo #4 with the green shorts has an adorable face!

They look nice. I think bringing the strobes down a little bit so they would be facing the kids more directly would help out tremendously. The pics look kind of dark but that should be able to be fixed in PP.

Can you share how you set it up for a noob? I like the shots, BTW!

To me the look a bit un focused, and not very sharp, and to shadowy.

love the expression in #1!

I agree they are a little dark/contrast. Kids seem to do better with softer light.

I think just a hair too dark. And anyone who says the 7D can't take a good portrait is not too bright themselves.

Cute pics!

Love the expression of the kids, but they all are underexposed. Lower the light source so you can get some light in their eyes and face. In all the photos, the child in the middle has raccoon eyes. They are too dark and just need a little more light to bring them to life.

someone said the 7d can't take portraits?!?! HAHAHAH. wow.

Portraits by 7D?? Who said it can't??

See mine here ---->> http://500px.com/Adell​e

Adelle aka Canon Angel wrote in post #12836325
Portraits by 7D?? Who said it can't??

See mine here ---->> http://500px.com/Adell​e

Very nice.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I just picked up a couple stands and a shoot through umbrella to play with. As this was my first go around with off camera strobes, I went for the dramatic lighting effect with the umbrella high and camera left almost pointed straight down, with a white reflector on camera right. I tried to use another strobe coming from behind me to light up their eyes a bit, but it's an old strobe that only goes down to 1/16 while the umbrella was at 1/32 so it was a bit useless.

I learned a lot from that session, then even more from laying in bed last night thinking about light fall off, and other important things. Next time I'll lessen the dramatic effect with the kids, and save it for adults mainly.

MattinVA wrote in post #12834197
These are great! The little girl in photo #4 with the green shorts has an adorable face!

Huh? Either your monitor needs calibration or mine does I see yellow shorts.

You can also use your on board flash for fill. I was hesitant to do this at first but have gotten some really good results with it on a very small ratio.

Dustin Mustangs wrote in post #12836541
You can also use your on board flash for fill. I was hesitant to do this at first but have gotten some really good results with it on a very small ratio.

Good idea, but my radio hotshoe trigger won't allow the flash to pop up.