phamster wrote in post #8474138
respectfully - are you s
erious - the out door photos don't look good? - i know it is all subjective... phamster Funny, I was thinking the same thing he was... just looking at that one batch of wedding photos the indoor ones scream "perfect!" while the outdoor ones are kinda "blah" IMO. I spent much more time looking at and enjoying the indoor ones than the outdoor ones.
Which is not to say you don't know how to do outdoor shots. I've seen your other outdoors work and it looks great. I think one of the problems might be that the outdoor ones from the wedding shoot were all group shots while the indoor ones were all single-person. It is a lot easier to get interesting lighting on a single person than on a group of people. If I had to get specific about one thing then that would be it. It is very easy to tell where the light sources are in those outdoor photos, and by looking at that, it is easy to pick out a few problems. For example, the one with the groom and the bridesmaids all in a row (Eagles reference not intended). A part of the problem comes from the "all in a row" part. The groom and the two girls on the right side all have big highlights on the sides of their heads (which is kind of distracting on its own; the only one that this looks good on is the groom, since he's looking straight at you, while the other girls have their heads turned so it hits their hair more than their face) while the girls on the left side have the light pretty much blocked by the groom so they don't have the same thing going on with their heads. You can also see it on their dresses, the girls on the right side have highlights on their dresses to help separate them from the background while the girls on the left have nothing. You can see the same thing in the photo with the groomsmen and the bride. This could be changed by moving the camera right strobe back towards the camera so it's more in front of their faces, which would make the light strike them all more from the same angle; or by staggering the subjects slightly so that the light hits them all the same. Or by making the light more of a backlight so it catches both edges of the clothes instead of the sides. Given how dark the background is, and the fact that they're all wearing black, this might have been the best option.
Now I just re-read your setup and I guess all I can say is that it's a shame that the unmodified 430EX overwhelmed the AB1600 with beauty dish so much. The front lighting is nice and diffuse, you can see it in the shadows... the side lighting is quite harsh and, as I said above, basically uneven in terms of how it hits all of the subjects. I would try to figure out a modifier system for the 430EX (a small softbox or something) to soften it out. Also some flags or gobos (even just a person holding up a piece of cardboard) to keep all that light from the 430EX from hitting the ground. Or just leave it out altogether on the group shots.
....that makes it, by definition, a good place to see....photos....
