Family Picture (greyflash's CLS Setup)

[j_b_l]

Well, I tried to duplicate Gordon's outdoor setup with the CLS system. I didn't do quite as well as I wanted, and got a little flustered. Here's what I did:

Camera was mounted on tripod, M Mode, ISO100, 45mm FL. SB800 attached to camera, set to Master, Manual mode. 2 SB600s (diffuser domes attached), one at 45 degrees left and the other at 45 degrees right, both on light stands (didn't have any grandkids to help :wink: ). I metered for +.5 EC (dark background) (as compared to Gordon's -1 for his bright background), keeping aperture above 4 for DOF. It wasn't enough to bring out the background, but I didn't want to overdo it (I had to fix with PSCS2's shadow/highlight tool). I had the SB600s both in Group A, with Group A set to TTL. I think this was Gordon's setup...

First shot was *WAY* too hot. So I moved the flashes back about 3 feet, and tried again. Still way too hot. So I switched them to Manual and set them to 1/16, and set the main SB800 to 1/64. Finally looked OK. Got all the folks gathered, posed, and took the shot (Couldn't get Grandma to smile no matter what I said...she just got more )

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Comments and critiques enthusiastically welcomed.

Thanks!

 

[Ottrott's Human]

John,
Sounds like you had to jump through a few hoops and do some trial and error, but the end result seems pretty darn good to me. I haven't tried any multi-flash set ups like this yet. Sounds difficult and daunting!

Nice shot of your family though........never can get my Grandmother to smile anymore either!

 

[PGB]

John,

I think this is a very nice family portrait.

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[vieri]

hey John, very good family portrait and very balanced fill - good job! The only thing, if I may, that I would take care of in PP is that huge hot spot on granma's forehead - I find it quite distracting in the overall smoothness of your lighting :smile: other than that, a great family portrait: I am sure they all love it and will treasure it for many years to come :smile: thanks for sharing,

 

[Graeme]

John, this is an excellent effort........... one your family should be proud of......

Very well done.............. :smile:

 

[Ottrott's Human]

John,
What kind of diffuser domes did you use on the SB600's?

 

[j_b_l]

John,
What kind of diffuser domes did you use on the SB600's?

Simple Sto-Fen Omnibounce diffusers. I used the Joe Demb flip it + Diffuser on the SB800. I'm not sure it made a difference over the SB800 Nikon dome...but I gave it a shot.

Thanks for your earlier comments as well.

 

[j_b_l]

John, this is an excellent effort........... one your family should be proud of......

Very well done.............. :smile:

Graeme, thank you!

 

[j_b_l]

hey John, very good family portrait and very balanced fill - good job! The only thing, if I may, that I would take care of in PP is that huge hot spot on granma's forehead - I find it quite distracting in the overall smoothness of your lighting :smile: other than that, a great family portrait: I am sure they all love it and will treasure it for many years to come :smile: thanks for sharing,

Vieri, thank you! It's nice to get some constructive feedback! I'll work a bit on that and post an updated version.

 

[j_b_l]

John,

I think this is a very nice family portrait.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Patrick, you are welcome. I still need to do more experimenting with the CLS setup that Gordon uses to get it to properly expose using TTL.

 

[greyflash]

This is a beautiful portrait John and I bet you learned something in doing it. There is no magic bullet when taking outdoor images because the light varies so much as does the background. The important thing is to realize how you can adjust the flash/camera to achieve what you want. The more you practice the more second nature it becomes. You get an "A" for this image.

The sun is so bright and it shines all the time here in St. George so how my setup is might vary greatly from yours. You have broken the code on how to control the background and produced an excellent image while doing it.

 

[radz]

Lovely famliy shot!

 

[tomj]

Looks darn good to me John. Well done.

Regards,

 

[Electromen]

Great portrait, I'm sure your family will love it. Make sure Grandma gets a framed copy, it's something she'll look at often.

I have a question, why set the master and remotes to manual, why not use TTL?

thanks Greg

 

[spalding12]

great looking family
excellent image.... your hard work surely paid off

 

[Daniel Diaz]

Great result John!!

 

[satelite seven]

A lovely portrait, one for the family album.

 

[Catz]

Now that's a picture you will forever remember. Very nicely done!

 

[j_b_l]

This is a beautiful portrait John and I bet you learned something in doing it. There is no magic bullet when taking outdoor images because the light varies so much as does the background. The important thing is to realize how you can adjust the flash/camera to achieve what you want. The more you practice the more second nature it becomes. You get an "A" for this image.

The sun is so bright and it shines all the time here in St. George so how my setup is might vary greatly from yours. You have broken the code on how to control the background and produced an excellent image while doing it.

Gordon, thanks so much. Next time I'll keep all of the flashes on TTL. I think that's what I messed up. I'm doing another family shoot in a couple of weeks (payback for some legal work we had done), so I'll post my results.

 

[j_b_l]

Lovely famliy shot!

Rathika, thanks! You have some lovely pictures out on Pbase. I enjoyed looking through your photos.