Lens filters

[aerao1]

Thank you Mr. Colin. Already I possess canon speed lite 430 ex ii which I am using effectively for portraits. I am very much satisfied with the results especially the portraits with bounce flash.

[Manfred M]

Thank you Mr. Colin. Already I possess canon speed lite 430 ex ii which I am using effectively for portraits. I am very much satisfied with the results especially the portraits with bounce flash.

Bounce flash is a good start, but is highly dependent on the room where you are shooting. If the room has high ceilings or coloured walls, this technique does not work.

If you are getting into serious portrait work, you need to look at getting your flash off camera. You should look at investing in a light stand, mounting bracket and umbrella. This setup can be fairly inexpensive and gives nice quality light. Umbrellas come in different sizes and configurations; a good place to start is a "convertable" style umbrella that can be configured as a classical reflector and has a cover that lets you use it as a shoot through umbrella as well. I also have a silver umbrella, but that produces a harder light.

[Colin Southern]

Thank you Mr. Colin. Already I possess canon speed lite 430 ex ii which I am using effectively for portraits. I am very much satisfied with the results especially the portraits with bounce flash.

Bounce flash can produce a softer light that direct flash, but it's usually far short of ideal for quality portraiture;

- Ceiling bounces usually produce "office lighting" that doesn't penetrate recesses areas like eye sockets and (with longer hair) subjects, the area along the neck under the ears.

- Side bounces are better than ceiling bounces, but still don't get a flattering direction to the light, and are hard to control.

I can't remember the last time I shot a portrait for a client without using several lights.

You could do something like this with shoot-through umbrellas as Manfred suggested, but I doubt it could be done with just bounce.

[aerao1]

Bounce flash can produce a softer light that direct flash, but it's usually far short of ideal for quality portraiture;

- Ceiling bounces usually produce "office lighting" that doesn't penetrate recesses areas like eye sockets and (with longer hair) subjects, the area along the neck under the ears.

- Side bounces are better than ceiling bounces, but still don't get a flattering direction to the light, and are hard to control.

I can't remember the last time I shot a portrait for a client without using several lights.

You could do something like this with shoot-through umbrellas as Manfred suggested, but I doubt it could be done with just bounce.

[aerao1]

Thank you Mr. Colin and Mr. Manfred for your valuable suggestions. Really I am excited to interact with you all professionals and acquiring some good knowledge in the field. I will try side bounce next time. I am planning to upgrade my flash to canon speed lite 600 ex rt from existing 430 ex ii, any suggestions?

[Colin Southern]

Thank you Mr. Colin and Mr. Manfred for your valuable suggestions. Really I am excited to interact with you all professionals and acquiring some good knowledge in the field. I will try side bounce next time. I am planning to upgrade my flash to canon speed lite 600 ex rt from existing 430 ex ii, any suggestions?

Yes - upgrade your flash to a Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT!

Beyond that, it really depends on how far you want to go; next step would be to also get an ST-E3-RT so you can get your 600EX-RT off-camera with reliable control, and then start looking at a 2nd 600EX-RT - then getting those firing into either (preferably) softboxes or shoot-through umbrellas.

For what it's worth, my standard location setup consists of 6x Canon 600EX-RT's mounted (3 each) into Lightware's 4-Square with 30" softbox, that are in-turn mountable onto light stands. And that's just for starters (but it's a good start). With rigs like that you can shoot at insanely fast shutterspeeds thus maintaining wide-open apertures to nuke backgrounds. With lesser gear you'll be limited to X-Sync speed and much smaller apertures.

Here's a typical shot (not actually with the 600EX-RT, but with gear that was functionally equivalent at the time).



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