Day 177 - I messed it up!

I couldn't believe how I could mess up the focus so completely today despite being on a tripod.  I know I'm feeling exhausted, but that's not an excuse! :(

I was trying directional flash today, and again failed at getting the right amount of flash from my YN460.  Finally, resorted to using mixed light sources - the overhead tungsten with the flash at around 45 deg to the subject to camera right.  I used a white foam board to camera left in an effort to bounce off the flash onto the left flower which was in the shadows.  I don't think that really worked well and in the end the overhead light came to the rescue.

I didn't see any point in processing the shots at all, so just adjusted the white balance and blacks.

135 mm, f/5.0, 1/2s, ISO 100, flash as described above.  

Day 173 - Another shot at flash photography

The more I play with the flash, the more it scares me!  I keep telling myself that I need to just play and make friends with it, but I seem to be developing an intense fear/mental block for it - just like I did for math in school.  What's going to become of me! :(  What's winter without a few flashes of light?

I have adopted a new mantra - I can only keep practising and wrap my head around it.  Maybe someday, some day, I will get it, after all.

I had this image in my mind this evening when I stumbled upon my son's sudoku board and counters.  I had planned to use the overhead light and then use fill-flash.  But I did learn something though - my YN460 for some weird reason, flashes optimally when it's powered down to about 1/8.  When I need full power, it somehow drops off at the back!  That's kinda strange, or I am missing something, somewhere.

Anyhoo, I tried different power levels, with the overhead light and without it.   I honestly think that I prefer the images with the tungsten glow in it, rather than with the flash.  In fact, the one with the fill-flash is possibly one of the better shots.  Out of the 60 odd shots I had, I came down to keeping about 15 just so I could study the settings later.  But the ones I handpicked for this post were 4 - just for records.

 This first one is taken only with the overhead light.  I couldn't get rid of the beige colour cast and it's really irking me.   55mm, f/36.0, 10.0s,  ISO 100, Aperture Priority, no flash.

This one is SOOC - no overhead light 

55 mm, 1/200s, f/16.0, Manual exposure, pop-up flash at +2/3 stops, ISO 100,  external flash at 1/8 power, above camera to right of frame

SOOC - overhead light with fill-in flash

1.0s, f/29.0, EV -1, pop-up flash +2/3 stop, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, external flash at 1/8 power held just above camera about 2 ft. above the subject

Selenium Filter applied in LR3 - lit with overhead light only

55 mm, 1.6s, f/13.0, ISO100, Aperture Priority

I'm glad I could get rid of the colour cast in this last one!  Phew!

Day 156 - Guilty of too much indulgence

This is my new trinket!  Did I need it?  Of course not!  Did I want it?  Well, d'oh!

Ok.. that has been my conversation with myself for the past few hours - ever since I walked into the store I dread walking into.  Anyway, too late now.  I've been feeling really unwell all evening, and I'm consoling myself that it's not the guilt, but probably the 'flu that's killing me.  (Let's hope it's not the 'flu;  I have places to go tomorrow.)

So down to the photoshoot - I was experimenting with my flash again.  I set it to full power about a foot and a half away from the subject to camera left.  I used a white foam board to bounce the light of the flash onto the watch.  All other light sources were turned off.  I held the board just in front of the on-camera flash (powered down to -2 stops because I was using it to trigger the slave flash), so it wouldn't fire directly on the subject.

I used my 90mm lens and shot them all on manual exposure.

The first shot is SOOC.

F7.1, 1/200s, ISO 100

The next one here was without a flash.  When I was processing this, I realized that I could see the colourful reflections of my jammies (see the shot above) on the watch dial, and therefore decided to turn this into a B&W.  I think I like the B&W better.

f32.0, 10s, ISO 200

This next one was flashed with the reflector bent at an angle towards the subject which added that darker part at the top half of the image; I only added a little clarity and luminance in post.

f9.0, 1/200s, ISO 200

This last one was shot with the on- camera flash powered up now to 0, and then covered with the hand.  

f7.1, 1/200s, ISO 100

Day 149 - Bailey's filled chocolates

I am starting to get into indoor mode already.  So, the first thing I did was to dust off my external flash that I had bought a few months ago and started experimenting with it.  I recently bought a few coloured bristol boards to use as backdrops, so along with my backgrounds, flash, and a steel serving tray that I use as a reflector, I got to work.

I used my 90mm lens for this shoot as the weather was pretty gloomy and I needed a faster lens to keep the ISO as low as possible.  I still had to have it at 400.  Most were shot in manual mode with the exception of the last one that was shot on AV.

With flash at a 60 deg angle to camera right at 1/64 power.

 Same set up but with flash at 1/16 power. 

 Off camera flash was pointed at the ceiling at 75 deg.  The on-camera flash was covered with a piece of paper to filter off the light since the camera was barely a foot away from the subject.  

This one is SOOC, shot only with ambient light. I think this is by far my favourite shot.

The top one was shot with the flash to camera right, at 1/16, and the steel tray used as reflector to cast a kind of rim light on the chocolate to the right at back.  The bottom shot was with ambient light and the reflector at camera right.

One of the last shots of the evening, I had a really hard time exposing the chocolate in focus.  I intentionally kept it away from the window side so I could use my flash/reflector to see how that would work.  I can't say I like this one much at all, but it was a good exercise to see how I could work with it. 

A fun shot - I seem to like doing this a lot lately! ;)

This was actually the very first shot that I used as the basis for the rest of the shoot.