skip to main |
skip to sidebar
This is my second attempt at taking portraits at sunset. The clouds were out in Sacramento and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to catch them as the sun dropped.
The flash was positioned at camera right at about 45 degrees in relation to the subject-to-camera axis. I started off using a shoot-through umbrella. Later I took it off.
My method of calculating the exposure was simple:
1. Set the exposure time to 1/320 sec (the fastest flash sync speed possible with Auto FP enabled).
2. Set the ISO to 200 for the highest possible quality.
3. Take pictures of the sky and adjust the aperture until the sky looked nice. (In the final two shots, it got very dark outside, so I increased the exposure time)
4. Add the subject and adjust the aperture, flash power and position until the subject looked nice.
I encountered two problems:
1. Auto focus had a hard time locking on the face in the dark, so most of the time I manually focused the lens.
2. When the umbrella was on the light stand, it was constantly on the verge of toppling over.
Sorry, once again, I didn't do a good job keeping track of the flash power.
The flash in the following photos was shot through an umbrella:
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/7.1, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/2 or 1/1 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, shoot-through umbrella, 7:02 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/2 or 1/1 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, shoot-through umbrella, 7:07 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/2 or 1/1 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, shoot-through umbrella, 7:09 pm
In the following photos I used a bare flash:
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 or 1/2 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:14 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 or 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:19 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:20 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:25 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:27 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:28 pm
Roughly 45 minutes later, I snapped off these two pictures. Notice that the exposure time increased to 1/50 seconds.
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/5, 1/50 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 or 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 8:17 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/5 1/50 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 or 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 8:17 pm
Setup shots:
Futile attempt to weight down the light stand with my gear bag.
Working hard to get the shot:
Lessons learned:
1. Splay out the light stand legs, so that the legs are nearly parallel with the ground. That way, I can put my gear bag on top of one of the legs and improve the stability of the stand.
2. Try shooting sunset photos from a higher elevation, or away from buildings. As you can see from my photos, I'm on the ground aiming up, because I want to fill the background with as much of the sky as possible. But since I'm in a suburban area, houses and cars contaminate the image. Unfortunately this wouldn't have been practical because my siblings didn't want to leave the house!
See all the photos on my Flickr page.
This is my second attempt at taking portraits at sunset. The clouds were out in Sacramento and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to catch them as the sun dropped.
The flash was positioned at camera right at about 45 degrees in relation to the subject-to-camera axis. I started off using a shoot-through umbrella. Later I took it off.
My method of calculating the exposure was simple:
1. Set the exposure time to 1/320 sec (the fastest flash sync speed possible with Auto FP enabled).
2. Set the ISO to 200 for the highest possible quality.
3. Take pictures of the sky and adjust the aperture until the sky looked nice. (In the final two shots, it got very dark outside, so I increased the exposure time)
4. Add the subject and adjust the aperture, flash power and position until the subject looked nice.
I encountered two problems:
1. Auto focus had a hard time locking on the face in the dark, so most of the time I manually focused the lens.
2. When the umbrella was on the light stand, it was constantly on the verge of toppling over.
Sorry, once again, I didn't do a good job keeping track of the flash power.
The flash in the following photos was shot through an umbrella:
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/7.1, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/2 or 1/1 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, shoot-through umbrella, 7:02 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/2 or 1/1 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, shoot-through umbrella, 7:07 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/2 or 1/1 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, shoot-through umbrella, 7:09 pm
In the following photos I used a bare flash:
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 or 1/2 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:14 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 or 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:19 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:20 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/10, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:25 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:27 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 7:28 pm
Roughly 45 minutes later, I snapped off these two pictures. Notice that the exposure time increased to 1/50 seconds.
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/5, 1/50 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 or 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 8:17 pm
Photo info: 52.5mm focal length, f/5 1/50 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 or 1/4 flash power, 24mm flash zoom, bare flash, 8:17 pm
Setup shots:
Futile attempt to weight down the light stand with my gear bag.
Working hard to get the shot:
Lessons learned:
1. Splay out the light stand legs, so that the legs are nearly parallel with the ground. That way, I can put my gear bag on top of one of the legs and improve the stability of the stand.
2. Try shooting sunset photos from a higher elevation, or away from buildings. As you can see from my photos, I'm on the ground aiming up, because I want to fill the background with as much of the sky as possible. But since I'm in a suburban area, houses and cars contaminate the image. Unfortunately this wouldn't have been practical because my siblings didn't want to leave the house!
See all the photos on my Flickr page.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment