What do you think of this?

For me, there seems to be two subjects- the model and the sun- which are both of the same light level and so compete with one another.
Split the pic right down the middle (or hold a card over one half) and you'll see what I mean.

Two pics for the price of one!
 
•
• In such a decor, she should have an opened posture instead of a closed one
• the light is quite harsh but the two less desirable features are the directionality
and the far too hot level.
• the scene is registered a tad overexposed but the girl, mainly because of the too high key, is
not fitting into it.
 
I am not happy that the apparant light source the sun, is not the main light on the girl and we can not see where thismight be coming from.
It is not usual to have disembodied lights in the sea, so it gives an uncomfortable feeling.
 
She's "hot" :D.

Joking aside, she's overexposed. If I'd been shooting this, I may have panned right and kept the sun out of the image so she was back-lit and OCF camera right.
 
I would say the light looks quite unnatural too, where is that main light on the girl coming from?
 
Thanks for your replies.

I agree the light is harsh. I was having real trouble with the lighting. I was alone with the girl and struggling to find a place for my speedlight. I was losing light fast and frantically just dumped my light stand in the water. I removed my soft box out of fear of it blowing over and left a bare speedlight.

I left the sun in as this is what she wanted. I have others where I left it out of frame.

I am really annoyed with myself for the way things worked on on this photo shoot. Would you keep this image, or bin it?
 
This whole the main light source is not the sun thing doesn't bother me in the slightest. People have been overpowering daylight with flash for years and having the main light source from a different direction, independent of the sun. What bothers me is that it's over exposed and obviously not metered correctly.

I'm tempted to ask "Why?" It seem entirely contrived. Why sit her on a rock in the water? Because she's a fairly small element in the shot, and a great deal of the environment is included I'm trying to make sense of it, and am assuming that there's a point to this I'm not getting. She looks awkward and scared, and is clearly using her right arm to merely support herself.. the pose makes it feel uneasy and tense.
 
Some great points here most of whch I would not have noticed. Like the location and time of day. If the lady wasnt blown out so much and posed a bit better "Wouldnt have a clue on that though" I think you would have been much happier with the image.
Thanks for sharing.

Gaz
 
The lighting is harsh, I realise this. It didn't look so bad in the back of my camera. In the heat of the moment I had a lot to juggle. The sun was going down and I was losing light fast, I couldn't find a good place for my light stand, I panicked and just tried to get the shots in.

What would you do in this scenario? How would you light your subject. Remember I removed my softbox because I chose to place my light stand in the water and was afraid it would blow over. I was working with a bare speedlight.

I could have shot with ambient light but to get good exposure on the model I would have to blow out the sky. Then what's the point in shooting at sunset, right?
 
I like the second shot better.

Her hair looks nice with a touch of orange from the sun so maybe a CTO gel would have been beneficial.
The light from the flash looks to be coming from a more complimentary direction as well.
 
nickdancona said:
The lighting is harsh, I realise this. It didn't look so bad in the back of my camera.
Click to expand...



Dude... stop doing that. What do you think we did when there were no digital cameras? The view on your camera is not accurate. If you MUST use it, then stop looking at the image, and start using the histogram. However... the problem here isn't necessarily exposure, but the lighting ratio between background and main light... a histogram won't really help you with this either. What you need is good flash metering, or if you are using TTL, then dial down the flash compensation.


I think the lighting in the first is better. This shows how hard and unflattering it is. That shadow across her own body is hard and ugly. You using a bare flash head or flash gun? Try bouncing off a reflector, using a beauty dish.
 
Hi there. These guys are much better qualified than me at this. I would have been just like you. Needless to say in my eyes if the light was less intense this would not look bad at all. Like I say I am not a photographer but enjoy using the camera.


Gaz
 
nickdancona said:
The lighting is harsh, I realise this. It didn't look so bad in the back of my camera. In the heat of the moment I had a lot to juggle. The sun was going down and I was losing light fast, I couldn't find a good place for my light stand, I panicked and just tried to get the shots in.

What would you do in this scenario? How would you light your subject. Remember I removed my softbox because I chose to place my light stand in the water and was afraid it would blow over. I was working with a bare speedlight.

I could have shot with ambient light but to get good exposure on the model I would have to blow out the sky. Then what's the point in shooting at sunset, right?
Click to expand...

They both nearly work, so don't beat yourself up. I think the first may be improved by a closer crop, the reflections are great.
The thing to do is weight the stand down. I use a pair of 5kg ankle weights but my bag also contains bungee cords and tent pegs.
Or.. use a larger light source further away on dry land, something like a 5-6 ft reflector brolly.

I've been playing with bare speedlights a fair bit just lately. If I was absolutely stuck with bare flash I'd either snoot it so it didn't light the much beyond the face - pringles tubes actually give quite a large spot with a nice fall-off unless you line them with black card.

Another thing you could try is to move the flash to the side, probably camera left, and have the model look that way. I think hard light often works best from the side 'cos you still get some graduation across the face and body. Combined with a snoot that could be a bit special.

Lastly you could try zooming the light out a bit and aiming it to skim across or above the model so she's not being blasted by the full glare. It's not really feathering like you would with a softbox but it can help to introduce a bit of graduation and subtlety.

(I learnt a lot about using hard light by attending a workshop with Frank Doorhof.. he's really good at it. This was from a <2 minute shoot with a model during the workshop. Not taken with speedlights and please excuse the dodgy processing - but it shows what I mean quite well).

 
Thanks Juggler for the informative response. I follow Frank Doorhof on facebook, I also like his work.

I am re editing my images to soften them up a bit, I think I can make them look a bit better. I like your ideas of a snoot and reflective brolly, I will study up on these.

I've learnt a lot from my errors and I'm glad I posted on here.
 
nickdancona said:
Thanks Juggler for the informative response. I follow Frank Doorhof on facebook, I also like his work.

I am re editing my images to soften them up a bit, I think I can make them look a bit better. I like your ideas of a snoot and reflective brolly, I will study up on these.

I've learnt a lot from my errors and I'm glad I posted on here.
Click to expand...

It's worth remembering that while a brolly is more efficient than a softbox, you may need more than a single speedlight in a large umbrella at any distance, and that it's more likely to catch the wind.
 
I think the light on the subject is too harsh in both at similar levels. They are both only a bit over though. :)
 
Hi, on #1, as said her right arm looks a little rigid, bit the reflection works well and the light on her is just about right.

She looks more bored than scared to me.

I'd much prefer her in isolation.mit has a kind of nymph like quality.

Cheers.
 
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