What’s Your Preference?

Pichead · #1 (**permalink**) 03-31-2010, 08:02 PM

This is very simple, very quick, and could be modified to produce some pretty cool results. So simple and so quick that I'm hesitant to even put it up here, but what the hell...

If one was to take this type of shot outdoors and incorporate stars into the background, or if they were to get a wider angle shot which included the full person, I could see it being pretty decent.

For this you need a camera, a dark room, either a flash or a flashlight, and some type of editing program which allows you to adjust the black point compensation...

I positioned my camera on a tripod and set an object where I estimated my head to eventually be. I pre-focused on that object and then switched the camera to Manual Focus mode so that the focus point would be locked down. The camera was set to the maximum flash sync speed of 1/250th of a second @ f/36. I was using my 100mm macro lens which has unusually small apertures (or large f/#'s). In this instance, I wanted to be sure to 'get past' the marco lens' short depth of field in order to get my entire face in focus so I brought it all the way up to f/32.

I set my flash/camera up so that they were in communication and turned my flash to Manual Mode at 1/8th power. I punched the 'mm' controls of the flash to it's maximum value in order to direct the light as much as possible, as I only wanted the front part of my face to be lit. On the new SB-900 this mm adjustment goes all the way up to 200mm. On my SB-600's, I think the maximum value is 85mm. Your specific flash could be different but the basic point is that if this feature is turned to 14mm, the light is going to be dispersed around the room more widely than if you were to set it at its maximum value.

I held the flash in my hand above my head and looked up at 'The Mothership' as I took the shot with my remote trigger.

This gave me an image in which other parts of the room and other parts of my face/neck (aside from what you see above) were visible but still very dark. To remedy these visible areas, I imported the image into Aperture and adjusted the Black Point Compensation which makes the dark parts of the image darker. I moved the slider until the part of my face which the flash was hitting was the only visible area of the photograph and called it a day.

Again, I think I might try this outdoors under the starts and probably in a wooded area, as I think it will really add to the shot. I can see my wife on a ladder now...

insimy · #2 (**permalink**) 03-31-2010, 08:25 PM

That's cool, I have to try it sooner or later.

Blesaster · #3 (**permalink**) 04-02-2010, 11:47 AM

Hi

I followed your tutorial and I took this picture

I used Sony A350 with SAL 18250 lens and flash HVL-42am in RAW and developed with Aperture 3.0

The room was completely dark, I focused while there were light and then turn off the lights before shooting with the remote.

It could be cool to add some sort of light pouring from above but if I tried adding more power to the flash it flooded the room with light.

bdbolin · #4 (**permalink**) 04-02-2010, 03:41 PM

Very cool, I want to try this

Pichead · #5 (**permalink**) 04-03-2010, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blesaster

Hi

I followed your tutorial and I took this picture

I used Sony A350 with SAL 18250 lens and flash HVL-42am in RAW and developed with Aperture 3.0

The room was completely dark, I focused while there were light and then turn off the lights before shooting with the remote.

It could be cool to add some sort of light pouring from above but if I tried adding more power to the flash it flooded the room with light.

Great job. It's nice to see others giving it a try. It's a balancing act between getting enough light to properly light the face, while not revealing other parts of the room. It looks as if you found a pretty good middle point.

Blesaster · #6 (**permalink**) 04-04-2010, 01:43 AM

Thanks, in fact it was the first time I used the flash that I bought some months ago

your tutorial was so helpful that it was quite easy to try to reproduce the effect

narmour · #7 (**permalink**) 04-05-2010, 02:46 PM

Here's my go... I used a small halogen bulb torch which gives a very directed beam, shutter at 1/15 and f5.6. It required very little adjustment in Photoshop.. I actually removed most of the distracting parts of the photo using the clone stamp, I found that by fiddling with the black level I lost too much of the face.

Pichead · #8 (**permalink**) 04-07-2010, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by narmour

Here's my go... I used a small halogen bulb torch which gives a very directed beam, shutter at 1/15 and f5.6. It required very little adjustment in Photoshop.. I actually removed most of the distracting parts of the photo using the clone stamp, I found that by fiddling with the black level I lost too much of the face.