Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Needing better subjects

I was lucky enough to get a Canon Speedlite 580EX flash for Christmas. I've added that along side an Nikon SB-28 for a dual wireless flash setup, using a set of wireless slaves I picked up on ebay. I'm early on in learning how to use these and honestly just playing around to see what effects I can achieve. The shot above has the SB-28 down behind the chair, pointing into the background, with a blue gel on the flash. Power set to about 1/4. To my front right is the 580EX speedlite, with a home-made grid over the front to focus the beam onto my face, turned down to about 1/32th power. Exposure was f6.3 @ 1/160sec, ISO 160. All the settings were just eyeballed manually, using the display and histogram on the camera and took a few tries to dial in. I just need to find some better subjects. One thing I was trying to play with was changing the strength of the gel colour on the background, both by changing the flash power but also changing the camera aperture. I'm not quite certain I have my head around how those relationships play yet, so I've got plenty more to learn!

7 comments:

Amanda said...

I love the mood and the lighting, and your really blue eyes. I just love you!

Anonymous said...

I am a very baaad subject - pudgy round face, not particularly attractive and very nervous about sitting for portrait sessions... if you can take a good portrait of me - one I'm happy with - you can take a good portrait of anyone! So next time you're UK bound, think about me as your worst nightmare subject and eureka moment subject rolled into one!

Unknown said...

Kavey - you are on ;)

Anonymous said...

Excellent...
I'm slightly regretting this idea but... in all seriousness if you can actually take a portrait of me I do like I'll be truly in your debt anyways! Plus, I hope, it fits into your portraits of friend project anyway!

kaye said...

Great job with the lighting. That's one thing I'm still very unsure of, so it's nice to see and read about other setups. The blue gel idea is great.

Unknown said...

Kavey - when I get to London again, we'll do it. Michelle, said I took her favourite picture ever, so hopefully we can work something out for you that you'll be happy with!

Unknown said...

I love the effect you got here. Shows there is so much to learn!
Great experiment!