First Bridal Shoot

[mehtasahil]

This was a very small wedding at home, so I am sharing one off the picture from the day.




Camera 5d mii
Flash on Camera
F/4
ISO -1000
Focal Length 44mm (on 18-135mm 3.5f lens)
Metering Mode - Centre Weighted Average.

Photoshop editing> Duplicate Layer>Gaussian Blur @ 7> Change blending mode to overlay and reduce opacity to 45%.

I've resized the image on photobucket but it might not be working.

Cheers
SM

[zona5101]

First thing from the get-go is the background. The headboard slices right through her head....and it is the most contrasty thing in the shot so it calls for attention. The pose is a bit awkward, she doesn't looks particularly comfortable with her head popped up. The half right hand would be better to have all or none. The lighting, while soft, appears to be bounced off the ceiling leaving her eyes dark. A side wall might have been a better choice.
Your post work looks fine.

[mehtasahil]

Originally Posted by zona5101

First thing from the get-go is the background. The headboard slices right through her head....and it is the most contrasty thing in the shot so it calls for attention. The pose is a bit awkward, she doesn't looks particularly comfortable with her head popped up. The half right hand would be better to have all or none. The lighting, while soft, appears to be bounced off the ceiling leaving her eyes dark. A side wall might have been a better choice.
Your post work looks fine.

Zona, thats some good advice.. specially I didn't notice the right hand missing from the image. I'm not quite sure how to bounce the light off the side wall rather than the ceiling, but I'll surely be doing some research and experimenting over the weekend. Cheers.

[graciousness]

You need to invest in an external camera flash, like the 580 EX. Whilst on-camera flash is well, there, you only use it as a very last resort if you have nothing else.

With an external flash, you can move the flash head around, tilt, so that you can bounce off in whatever direction you want. I wouldn't even know how you can bounce the on camera flash sideways.....maybe someone else a lot more knowledgeable and creative will come along and advice.

The problem with this shot, too, is that you shot her at an angle that is not very flattering. With women, the most flattering pose is when their necks are elongated (extended). With this angle you have taken, the neck is scrunched so that she can look at you, creating folds on the neck that is not flattering especially for older women. Look how much bigger that position made her chin look. Don't shoot a woman's portrait looking down unless you are shooting from above her. Have her look up so that gorgeous elongated neck line is exposed.

If you look at her arm area, part of her is also exposed and mingled with her upper arm, making her look like she has flabby arms. Her arm position would be better and flattering if she opens up instead of her arms closed in like that against her body. She's got a good figure; show it off.

White dress on white bed sheets.....doesn't work. She's lost in all that white sheet.

You need to separate her from the background; she is what's important, not the background. You need to blur the background using lower aperture numbers/wider aperture and her standing farther from background. If you look at professional portraits, you will find that subjects pop due to separation from the background.

Anyhoo, that's all I can think of. I hope this helps.....

Cheers,

Grace

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Originally Posted by zona5101

The lighting, while soft, appears to be bounced off the ceiling leaving her eyes dark. A side wall might have been a better choice.

Question for us newbies.... when evaluating the scene, how do you determine what is the best way to bounce the flash (ceiling or side). I realize the answer is subjective but I'm interested in knowing how you all determine this. Is it just take a few different shots and look at them before proceeding or do you just know when you walk into the room/scene? If you just know.... how do you know? What are some key things us newbies practicing can look for when evaluating to make the right choice?

[mehtasahil]

Originally Posted by graciousness

You need to invest in an external camera flash, like the 580 EX. Whilst on-camera flash is well, there, you only use it as a very last resort if you have nothing else.

With an external flash, you can move the flash head around, tilt, so that you can bounce off in whatever direction you want. I wouldn't even know how you can bounce the on camera flash sideways.....maybe someone else a lot more knowledgeable and creative will come along and advice.

The problem with this shot, too, is that you shot her at an angle that is not very flattering. With women, the most flattering pose is when their necks are elongated (extended). With this angle you have taken, the neck is scrunched so that she can look at you, creating folds on the neck that is not flattering especially for older women. Look how much bigger that position made her chin look. Don't shoot a woman's portrait looking down unless you are shooting from above her. Have her look up so that gorgeous elongated neck line is exposed.

If you look at her arm area, part of her is also exposed and mingled with her upper arm, making her look like she has flabby arms. Her arm position would be better and flattering if she opens up instead of her arms closed in like that against her body. She's got a good figure; show it off.

White dress white sheet.. had no option..


White dress on white bed sheets.....doesn't work. She's lost in all that white sheet.

You need to separate her from the background; she is what's important, not the background. You need to blur the background using lower aperture numbers/wider aperture and her standing farther from background. If you look at professional portraits, you will find that subjects pop due to separation from the background.

Anyhoo, that's all I can think of. I hope this helps.....

Cheers,

Grace

Grace,
Thanks for the good and detailed advice. I actually triggers to make my flash wireless however the lady's husband wasn't keen on me setting up my equipment like umbrella and tripod. I was only there for 3 hour and as it was a home wedding so I couldn't get much backgrounds. However that said I understand that it is important..

The advice for positioning her neck is something I didn't know. I'll keep that in mind. after you've pointed her neck, i'm like no way.. I can't blame the camera screen either cos I didn't notice her neck even on the LCD.. My Bad.. thanks for pointing it out..

[graciousness]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

Question for us newbies.... when evaluating the scene, how do you determine what is the best way to bounce the flash (ceiling or side). I realize the answer is subjective but I'm interested in knowing how you all determine this. Is it just take a few different shots and look at them before proceeding or do you just know when you walk into the room/scene? If you just know.... how do you know? What are some key things us newbies practicing can look for when evaluating to make the right choice?

For me, I did experiment shots with the flash when I first started learning about bounce techniques.

If you have your external flash with you right, you will notice that you can pivot your flash head at different angles. So you can shoot up to bounce the light off the ceiling for a more diffused light, pivot the flash to the side (either right or left) and bounce it off the wall if you want a bit more dramatic effect with soft shadows on the face, or pivot the flash pointing back and bounce the flash at the wall behind you.

If you have a victim you can practice these shots on to see what effects they make, I'd recommend to do it. Even a soft toy will do. That's what I did and that's the only way I visually understood what effects they do.

The problem is bouncing off the ceiling (flash pointing up) is that this will not light eyes the best. Bouncing against walls either to the side or behind you are the better ways of ensuring the eyes are lit well. The higher the light source, the more risk of having shadow under the eyelashes/eye area. This is when you have the subject look up so the light hits the eyes.

How do you know what technique you want to use at a given situation? It all depends how you want to pose the subject or what effect you want, and position of the walls and natural light source in a room.

For me, I prefer side wall bounce (right or left depends on where the subject is facing) because I do prefer the contrast it creates. If I want a nice soft overall light, I bounce behind me.

If the walls are coloured and the ceilign is white, I go for the ceiling to avoid colour cast.

As you said, it is all very subjective. Just do your experiment shots and then you can determine for yourself what is your preference.

[graciousness]

This is a website that is great for learning flash photography and the link below is the section for bounce flash -

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-pho...more-examples/

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

Question for us newbies.... when evaluating the scene, how do you determine what is the best way to bounce the flash (ceiling or side). I realize the answer is subjective but I'm interested in knowing how you all determine this. Is it just take a few different shots and look at them before proceeding or do you just know when you walk into the room/scene? If you just know.... how do you know? What are some key things us newbies practicing can look for when evaluating to make the right choice?

really it comes down to deciding where you want the light to come from. Sometimes you don't have a side wall to bounce off or it's too dark/bad color... but generally shoot for the intersection of the wall and ceiling at a point where you want the light to come from. In the OP shot you can see the shadow under the hair line and under the chin. The angle of the light prevented any from really getting into the eye sockets. Coming from a side wall instead puts light in there and also throws the shadow across the far cheek like you see in typical portraits - that helps to define the structure and give the image a more 3-D feel instead of looking kinda flat.

The planet Neill website that Graciousness posted is an excellent resource.

[TheMoons678]

Originally Posted by zona5101

but generally shoot for the intersection of the wall and ceiling at a point where you want the light to come from.

Never thought about that, Thanks!