PBPhoto

Here's are two shots. Both with the same lighting setup; a 285HV into silver umbrella @ 1/16th power, bare SB600 camera left @ 1/16th power for hairlight, Sunpak 411 @ 1/32 power for background. The Sunpak is using an optical slave and it could only "see" the SB600. So the SB600 was not firing every time and when that happens, the Sunpak doesn't fire either. I didn't investigate it very much. I was thinking that the SB600 wouldn't fire in standby mode. So after I missed this shot (well I didn't really miss it, I just turned it into a single light portrait) I started firing the flashes once before I took a shot. You can see the setup working in the first shot with hairlight and background light.

Play Transformers With Me., originally uploaded by paggre.

That is what he says to me. "After this picture, will you play transformers with me?" What a good sport.

This lighting stuff is really fun. Still borrowing two more strobes so I am trying to use them before I have to give them back. Three light setup here: a 285HV into silver umbrella @ 1/4th power, bare sb600 at 1/32 power plus 1/3 stop for the rimlight, bare Sunpak 411 at 1/4th power for background.

Scary., originally uploaded by paggre.

So friends let me borrow some more flashes. And this is one that I captured. He told me that this is a superhero face. Scary I think. So I had a bare 285HV camera left @ 1/16th, bare SB600 camera right @ 1/16th power, bare Sunpak 411 for background @ 1/2 power. Took a while to get the background useable. The Sunpak 411 is an old flash and I didn't have any modifiers made for it. It is hanging off of a floor lamp post with a bungee tie. This is the first time that I have tried side lighting because, well, until now I have only had one strobe. I like the look. I would like to have had some rim light from behind if I had another strobe. I can see where this would get addictive.

Nice Socks, originally uploaded by paggre.

It isn't great processing but definitely a learning step for me. I don't normally process pictures other than maybe a little crop. I really liked this pose and outfit of my little guy so I worked on getting rid of some lame stuff in the foreground (my lightstand) and background (a poorly lit ottoman and couch). I used the clone tool in the gimp. Then added a little sharpening and increased the saturation because I like vivid colors. Also whitened his little snaggly teeth a bit with a lasso select and curves.

You Can't Catch Me!, originally uploaded by paggre.

What a cutie! I put this one up because it is ISO1600. This one of the first few shots at that high ISO that I have taken with my EOS 40D. There is noise but man it is a useable photo. The eyes are crisp. I didn't even need to use it as I got 1/400 at f1.8 on this one. He was in a shaded area just before this and I was struggling to get 1/60th @ f1.8. So then he ran from me saying "I don't want a picture. You can't catch me." For Daddy that is just issuing a challenge.

Dude, where's my tooth?, originally uploaded by paggre.

This is a shot that, when I took it, I thought 'that's decent'. But when I brought it up on the big screen it really stood out to me. I don't know how he got so close to the flash as to make it almost on axis. Oh well. I still think the expression and the lost tooth make this a nice one.

It is dangerous being around a kiddy pool with camera gear. I have an EOS 40D and it has some weathersealing but I don't trust it to get too wet. The flash I'm not so worried about. Thankfully it is not an SB900 or something.

I really did not want to wake him up for this shot. But he had the velcro tabs on the tent door fastened. So he started rustling when I opened that. This gave me a short amount of time to hide the flash and I was only able to get two shots. This one came out good I think. Thankfully it looked fine at the exposure that I had set 1/60th @ f5.6.

Heavenly., originally uploaded by paggre.

This is a look that I have seen in the strobist pool and just now tried it. It takes a lot of flash power to overcome the daylight. This was 1/2 power I think on a bare flash. And I had to play with flash-subject distance to make it look like I wanted. I took a few shots to determine a good background aperture and then brought the flash up to meet that. This is something that I want to investigate more. Keep a look out for a cool looking sky and then shoot some portraits.

Lantern, originally uploaded by paggre.

Here is a shot of a candle in a lantern. I used the WB trick where you set your camera's WB to tungsten so that any light that is the temperature of daylight gets shifted to a nice blue. So I have a bare strobe on the background that has been shifted. Interesting, I took a lot of shots of this thing. It was for a photo challenge themed light fixtures on http://www.photochallenge.org. I included the entire lantern as you can see on my flickr stream. But I found this to be the most interesting photo.