Off camera flash

This is all very new to me! The first time was a complete failure (but a learning experience) and until now I wasn't happy enough with the results to bother sharing. This weekend I finally got my wife and son to sit down with me again for a few shots and I'm thrilled enough with the results to at least share this time around

(I've also been practicing my B&W conversions a little)

1.

I like the color versions

I would lose the heavy vignetting

they good really good to me...gj!

Looks great to me!

What gear / flash are you using?

What did you change from your first "failure", to this time around?

Thanks for sharing!

Brandon,

I prefer the color more than the B+W's.

Vignette, if you purposely did this, doesn't bother me but a little tighter crop (especially on your son) to lose some of the dead space would work.

If I had to find something that I would pass to learn from, it would be: The shadow from your wife's nose crosses her lip. The shadow from your son's fades away at that point (corner of lip). Although your shot is not done in true Rembrandt style, the shadow shouldn't touch the lip.

These are good shots. You and your family should be pleased with the results.

Gart

Thanks for the opinions and compliments so far guys, appreciate it.

ShutterTonight wrote in post #17389783
I would lose the heavy vignetting

Gart wrote in post #17389925
Brandon,

I prefer the color more than the B+W's.

Vignette, if you purposely did this, doesn't bother me but a little tighter crop (especially on your son) to lose some of the dead space would work.

If I had to find something that I would pass to learn from, it would be: The shadow from your wife's nose crosses her lip. The shadow from your son's fades away at that point (corner of lip). Although your shot is not done in true Rembrandt style, the shadow shouldn't touch the lip.

These are good shots. You and your family should be pleased with the results.

Gart

Yes, the Vignette was done on purpose (playing with Radial filter in LR). I realize not everyone likes vignette/heavy vignette but personally I liked it better than without. It was one of the last things I did to the image.

Good info on the shadows Gart, thank you. I'll try and keep a better eye on this next time. I know there are all sorts of "styles" but I don't know yet how to recognize or setup for each. I was just going for something that looked "ok" in my limited testing. I really should be spending more time on the reading part of learning, but it's so much more fun to "do"

Griffey24 wrote in post #17389855
What gear / flash are you using?

I went pretty cheap for the setup because this isn't something that I think I am going to do all too often, but it was still something I wanted to learn to do. Honestly, I'd prefer to be outside hiking and aiming my camera at landscapes, but it's winter, the weather is crappy and I'm lazy.. so anyways...

I'm using a Speedlite 430 EX (I've had for a number of years) and then I picked up the following:

Yongnuo RF-C603 (wireless shutter / flash trigger) - I chose these because they were pretty cheap, had good enough reviews, plus I could buy more and link together, and I liked that they doubled as radio shutter release. I figured if I ever got into this more and needed a better system, at least I'd have these as RF remote shutter that is wayyyy more flexible than my cheap IR one.
Westcott 43-inch umbrella
Cowboy Studio light stand
Cowboy Studio umbrella stand mount bracket

Yes, I am reading The Strobist - Lighting 101

Griffey24 wrote in post #17389855
What did you change from your first "failure", to this time around?

It was the first of a couple trial and error testing runs and really came down to the sync between flash and camera. I honestly still don't know where/why I am being limited, but after some more reading and more testing it looks like I'd limited to 1/160 for everything to sync up right. Once I figured this out, then I was able to concentrate more on where to position the umbrella, power of the speedlite, etc.

Question for those of you that specified you preferred the color versions - is it my conversion that you don't like, or just in general for this type of shot you prefer color? Curious, thanks!

Regarding the question: "Question for those of you that specified you preferred the color versions - is it my conversion that you don't like, or just in general for this type of shot you prefer color? "

Comparing the color to the B&W's: On your son, the greys work good with the background (the yellow not so much but not overwhelming). For your wife, the blue top, color of hair, color in lips and skin is too good to not want to see it (the blue isn't the best color with grey background but it is very vivid).

Also, the lights in your wife's eyes are spot on.

Gart

I just think the colours look great on their own. Especially with your son, I like that his shirt (the grey) kind of blends with the background, but the yellow stands out more. His eyes look good in colour too.

Freestylee30, great job on the pics. For someone is is just learning you are way above the curve. I am taking notes and learning from this thread.

freestylee30 wrote in post #17389993
I went pretty cheap for the setup because this isn't something that I think I am going to do all too often, but it was still something I wanted to learn to do. Honestly, I'd prefer to be outside hiking and aiming my camera at landscapes, but it's winter, the weather is crappy and I'm lazy.. so anyways...

I'm using a Speedlite 430 EX (I've had for a number of years) and then I picked up the following:

Yongnuo RF-C603 (wireless shutter / flash trigger) - I chose these because they were pretty cheap, had good enough reviews, plus I could buy more and link together, and I liked that they doubled as radio shutter release. I figured if I ever got into this more and needed a better system, at least I'd have these as RF remote shutter that is wayyyy more flexible than my cheap IR one.
Westcott 43-inch umbrella
Cowboy Studio light stand
Cowboy Studio umbrella stand mount bracket

Yes, I am reading The Strobist - Lighting 101

It was the first of a couple trial and error testing runs and really came down to the sync between flash and camera. I honestly still don't know where/why I am being limited, but after some more reading and more testing it looks like I'd limited to 1/160 for everything to sync up right. Once I figured this out, then I was able to concentrate more on where to position the umbrella, power of the speedlite, etc.

Question for those of you that specified you preferred the color versions - is it my conversion that you don't like, or just in general for this type of shot you prefer color? Curious, thanks!

Thanks for the info on the gear. I recently got a 430EX a few months ago, but haven't used it that much yet. That gear you listed is definitely in my price range for what I would first look to if I was going to dive more into this. Really useful, thanks!

Gart wrote in post #17390083
Regarding the question: "Question for those of you that specified you preferred the color versions - is it my conversion that you don't like, or just in general for this type of shot you prefer color? "

Comparing the color to the B&W's: On your son, the greys work good with the background (the yellow not so much but not overwhelming). For your wife, the blue top, color of hair, color in lips and skin is too good to not want to see it (the blue isn't the best color with grey background but it is very vivid).

Also, the lights in your wife's eyes are spot on.

Gart

Griffey24 wrote in post #17392895
I just think the colours look great on their own. Especially with your son, I like that his shirt (the grey) kind of blends with the background, but the yellow stands out more. His eyes look good in colour too.

Thanks for replying re: color or b&w, appreciate it. I like the color versions better too. I've been meaning to practice b&w conversion and recently the only thing I've had to photograph has been people/portrait, so that's why I did both in this instance.

ready to snap wrote in post #17392942
Freestylee30, great job on the pics. For someone is is just learning you are way above the curve. I am taking notes and learning from this thread.

Appreciate those kind words, thank you!

I think the color one's look great. They both have really nice colored eyes.
I personally like the vignetting. My only small niggle is maybe cropping some of the left off the boy's photo.

Edit: Gart beat me to it.