Off camera flash tips.

This is my second shoot using an off camera light. Its a 42" umbrella with a Metz flash on manual. I set it up about 30 deg off camera shooting slightly down 10 feet from the subjects. I fastened some cloth over it to soften the light. I think the light is still to harsh. Will moving it back help with that? I have a second smaller umbrella that I am going to shoot through and use a front fill.
Would using a polarizer soften the shot up.

IMAGE LINK: https://ybconway.smugm​ug.com …mily/i-pvVGHNK/A&lb=1&s=A

Joanna Family

Define harsh.

Do you mean hard?

Reflective or shoot through? Have your flash on the widest setting?

Douglas Conway wrote in post #18156200
This is my second shoot using an off camera light. Its a 42" umbrella with a Metz flash on manual. I set it up about 30 deg off camera shooting slightly down 10 feet from the subjects. I fastened some cloth over it to soften the light. I think the light is still to harsh. Will moving it back help with that? I have a second smaller umbrella that I am going to shoot through and use a front fill.
Would using a polarizer soften the shot up.

Assuming you think the light is too hard, moving it back will only make it harder. To soften the light, move it closer to your subjects. Using a polarizing filter will reduce the light, but not soften it.

You say you're going to add a second smaller umbrella to shoot through and use as fill, but isn't that what your flash was supposed to be doing? Your subjects are backlit and the sun is your main light, so your flash should only be providing fill light. Since we only have one sun, providing two main lights (the sun and a flash) would not look natural.

It appears that your flash is coming from the left in this image since the little girl seems to have the most light hitting her and the father seems to be the farthest from the light since he seems darker than everyone else in the image. He's at least 3 feet from the little girl, so light fall off could be the reason he appears darker. One thing I suggest that you do is change the pose. The way they are posed in this image doesn't flatter any of them. You can Google images for "family of four portrait poses" to get some alternative poses. You want all your subjects to be on about the same plane for your lighting and your camera angle. Since you are only providing fill light, both your fill light and camera can be placed in front of your subjects.

Thanks for the comments. Posing is the hardest part of this. I didn't have much room to set up which made for the awkward placement. Thanks for the comments. I'll keep working at it.