My wife

[Evertking]

Here are a few from today.

1


2


3

[Dave Humphries]

Warm welcome to the CiC forums from me.

Could you do me a favour please?
Could you click Settings (right at the top),
then Edit Profile (on left)
and put your first name in the Real Name field
and where you are (roughly) in the Location field,
then click the Save Changes button below and to right,
this helps everyone give you more personal and relevant answers - thanks in advance.

For ease of reference in posts, you'll see I have edited your post to number the images and also separate them from running in to each other.

OK, now to something helpful for you - I hope.

The other thread had a lot on exposure and metering, so I'll avoid those topics here (no issues here anyway).

The most successful of these for me is #3, the only thing I might change (if mine), would be to crop a slither off the top and left hand edges to place your wife more 'sympathetically' within the frame. Otherwise excellent.

The fairly lush, longish grass has caused (for me) a few problems with #1 and #2, as has the composition/framing and overall balance of light and dark areas of tonality.

With #1; it feels 'too cropped' along the lower edge and the grass hiding her arm looks weird. However at the top, you've a bright area of sky that pulls my eye up there and out of frame, I'd crop that all off, so it just goes up in to darkness. If we assume that crop is made, the brightest areas of the image are then her face and thigh, the latter, being down in the corner again takes the viewer's eye out of the shot, distracting from the face. Perhaps the thigh could have been lit less if a modifier (grid on softbox) had been used on the flash and it carefully aimed to not light the thigh so well, albeit tricky if shooting with an umbrella and without a helper to aim the flash. In post, a Gradient adjustment in LR should help a lot.

In #2; for ideal, the long grass is again just a bit too long - although I appreciate you didn't have a lawnmower to hand, few of us do on a shoot - as this has, for me, made her missing wrist and hand look odd. I think the pose might be improved, although I'm no expert, but crucially she's just a bit too small in the captured scene, to maintain the 'background' framing you have, she needed to shuffle sideways, towards the camera, about another metre (or 3 feet). Given where she is, I think I'd actually crop the top off to lose that diagonal branch, making her large enough in frame to be the subject.


I am literally now just about to go and cut the grass in my garden - and I'll be thinking these

Cheers,
Dave

[Geoff F]

Much the same thoughts from me. Too much distracting background at the top in #1 and #2. Also a bit of dark out of focus foreground in #2.

#3 is OK although just a fraction of a bright area on her forehead.

Portraits are a very difficult subject.

[Manfred M]

+1 to Dave's comments. These are very much in line with my thoughts too. #3 is definitely the best of the three shots.

These are a great start, but in portraiture, it's all about the subject, so make sure that the background does not play a larger role than your subject.

The other issue is with "amputation". There is no issue in cropping a shot, but this has to be done in a way that is attractive. Missing hands, feet, fingers and toes don't work. Neither does a crop through a joint.

[Evertking]

Thank you all for the help. First, I want to say thanks for taking the time and giving me some advice. It's nice to have finally found a fourm where people and not only helpful but friendly. In the year that I have been posting and trying to learn that has not been the case.
These were taken with a Canon 6D and a 135mm. They were lit with a 600watt strobe in a 5ft octa.
- In image 2 - I started off with a handheld meter, taking a ambient reading where she was sitting( I just place the meter at here chest and press the button ) I can't remember, but say it gives me F5.6. I then metered my strobe till it gives me a flash reading on the meter of F5.6 and then start taking pictures.
I really don't like the results this gives me doing this method. So, I meter the ambient light again and cycle through the meter till i get the f stop that will give me a more shallow DOF. I enter the reading in the camera, setting the shutter, and the fstop. I then start speeding up the shutter speed it I get the background as dark as I like and then take pictures. -( images 1 and 3)
Does this process sound like I'm doing this right?

[Dave Humphries]

I started off with a handheld meter, taking a ambient reading where she was sitting( I just place the meter at here chest and press the button ) I can't remember, but say it gives me F5.6. I then metered my strobe till it gives me a flash reading on the meter of F5.6 and then start taking pictures.
I really don't like the results this gives me doing this method. So, I meter the ambient light again and cycle through the meter till i get the f stop that will give me a more shallow DOF. I enter the reading in the camera, setting the shutter, and the fstop. I then start speeding up the shutter speed it I get the background as dark as I like and then take pictures. -( images 1 and 3)
Does this process sound like I'm doing this right?

It sounds a bit long winded to me, but I'm not that experienced.

I'd start by choosing an aperture for the DoF required, shutter speed may have to be limited to flash sync speed, depending upon many factors; type of flash and amount of daylight being just two.

I'd shoot without the flash (and without the subject, while they're getting into position) and adjust shutter speed and/or ISO until the background (lit by ambient), or sky, is as bright as I want it, checking on LCD and histogram.

Position rough flash distance for softness of light required.

Then turn on the flash and shoot a test exposure and see whether it needs more power or less, checking on LCD and histogram, adjust flash power and re-shoot.

After that, it'll either be OK, or something will have 'run out of range' and you'll have to compromise.

If shooting with fading daylight, you will need to review the ambient exposure setting probably every 5 mins or so, particularly near/after sunset. Technically that could/should just be lengthening shutter speed (and not impact flash exposure), but beware camera shake (if not using tripod) and/or subject movement - especially with children - if speeds get slow.

Trying to keep it simple, but may have gone too far

Cheers,
Dave

[Evertking]

If shooting with fading daylight, you will need to review the ambient exposure setting probably every 5 mins or so, particularly near/after sunset. Technically that could/should just be lengthening shutter speed (and not impact flash exposure), but beware camera shake (if not using tripod) and/or subject movement - especially with children - if speeds get slow.

They say golden hour is the best time to shoot, but to me, and it could be that I'm new to this. Is also challenging for the reasons that you have stated.
Thanks for the help.

[Manfred M]

Conceptually, you are going about this the right way. Figure out what you want the background to look like by selecting an appropriate shutter speed that is below the synch speed of your camera and then adding enough light from the studio light to expose your subject properly. I just find your method of getting there to be a bit awkward.

I generally decide on depth of field as one of my first steps and will then take a test shot without my subject to see how my background looks. I usually want my background to be a couple of stops darker than a "properly" exposed background so that it complements, rather than overpowers the subject. I'll take a test shot to make sure that the background looks the way I want it.

I then set studio light to properly expose the subject by using my flash meter (taking a reading either with the subject or a best estimate without the subject). Again, another test shot with the subject in place and I will tweak my studio light (positioning and light level) and once I get it where I want it, the shoot can begin.

If you are shooting at golden hour, and the sun is near the horizon just before setting, the quality and quantity of ambient light will change quite quickly, so monitoring and adjusting your setup is important, unless you like the ever darkening background.