Halloween Portrait.

[MarkyLandon]

My son was just about to head out to a halloween party and we only had 5 mins to get this shot so simplicity was the key. Single light (canon 580EXII) off camera left triggered with an ebay remote. I set it to 1/4 power about 4ft away from the subject (stood infront of a black sheet) Shooting in manual mode I set the shutter speed to be below the flash sync speed of 1/250sec, I think I used 1/200) and took some test shots at various apertures (using flash in manual mode you use the aperture to control the amount of light getting into the camera) Once I had the correct exposure I moved the lights around slightly so it raked across the face giving dramatic shadows and then shot off several shots with different poses. Getting my flash "off camera" has really brought my shots on dramatically. I'd recommend reading the "strobist" blog to get leads of great advice if you're interested in developing these techniques for yourself.

This was my keeper which I developed from RAW using LR3. I used th e local adjustment brush to brightent he one eye, and colour them green. I also used the local adjustment brush to darken the shadow area of the face more.