Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Ooh! Can I play? No fair, though, I shot the pic! Here's a 100% crop for a hint:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/3988720476/" title="George, 100% crop by mike.tan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/3988720476_9a4c10d1b7_o.jpg" width="964" height="543" alt="George, 100% crop"></a>

If you look closely at the catchlight you can see that either the flash is too close to the modifier, or the head has been zoomed in. There is a central hotspot and dimmer border instead of one big round spot.

Maybe I should have healing brushed and cloned stamped before posting?

Heh

(mutters some excuse about how men should look rugged etc).

You can play Mike .. if you know the answer go for it.

cloning out the catch lights, would cause mass suicides in the Strobist community. no joke.

Be brave my friends. "It is not a shame to attempt an answer and possibly be wrong - it is a shame to not attempt an answer in fear of being wrong. "
And besides a lollipop is at stake here.

Duh, obviously I dont read.

I only see one light source in the eyes. Maybe I dont know what I'm looking for

darken the ambient portion by shooting at night!

Duh .. why didn't I think of that .. I should have told George to wait 6 hours for the sun to go down .. lol .. thanks for the laugh Sushant.

I want the lolly!!!!!

One light source, use a snoot or grid to darken the ambient light?

Sorry V. incorrect .. but thanks for the attempt.

Hint: The flash meter we were using said 80% of the light in the scene was produced by the flash...

It's the sun!!! or clouds or whatever!!

So two light sources!

you can also wear sunglasses to reduce perceived ambient light.

Thanks Pebbz .. you get half a lollipop!!

Yes, two light sources - one is the flash using an umbrella/plm and the other is the Sun(ambient light) which is lighting the trees behind the subject and also providing separation between the subject and the background. Not to mention it's also acting as a subtle hair light as well.

So who can answer the second question?

increase flash strength?


edit: hmm afterthought, increasing shutter speed should reduce ambient

increase shutter, yes, but at or near sync speed. reduce aperture opening, use a several stop cut ND filter, but therefore up the flash power to compensate. That's where you need 320 Ws of power...

One of the Jameses was talking about electronic shutter - those things are really cool, the G10 can sync up to 1/1000s, and has an ND filter built in, activate-able by shortcut button. Some pocket cameras are not to be sniffed at. Cool effects like this can be made:

Shot at 2pm in full sun, no PS tricks involved, just increase saturation and contrast:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/3840109917/" title="Colourful blouse by mike.tan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2473/3840109917_74c7c9fa5a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Colourful blouse"></a>

Thank you Madelica .. yes, increasing shutter speed will reduce ambient without affecting flash output on the subject. You get to share the lollipop with Pebbz -- but don't let Sushant catch you .. lol.

Ok .. here's a bonus question .. suppose the shutter speed used (1/200) was the camera's maximum sync speed. How would you change the settings to reduce the ambient light by half while maintaining the same flash exposure on the subject? Note: the initial settings are F8, 1/200, ISO400

And thanks for playing along guys and gals .. I hope I didn't hurt your brains too much .. lol. If anyone is enjoying this we could do this as a regular post, not limited to strobist topics -- something like a weekly quiz corner.

oh, and at the current settings, cut the ISO by one stop, increase flash power by 1 stop, get the same subject lighting but cut ambient. Sun power, though, cannot be adjusted, so the photo will not be the same.

What I'm curious about is why you think this picture looks good? I pretty much took this picture without too much thought into making it - help me analyse it so that I can make better pictures!

Yeah, it's getting quite tiring to explain that when I'm looking at the ads, I'm actually trying to discern the light setup, not just ogling the models.

actually, another way to do it - PS, magic wand, new layer via copy, reduce exposure on background. done.

Good Mike .. since the shutter speed is at maximum sync speed it remains static (i.e. can't increase it). So you have to reduce light falling on the sensor by either changing ISO to 200 from 400 OR changing your aperture to f11 from f8 - this will reduce ambient light entering the camera. But to maintain the proper flash exposure on the subject you have to increase output of the flash by 1 stop by either increasing flash power or moving the flash closer to the subject.

Seren Dipity - Great job with the questions tonight - it really spawned some good conversation around lighting and it was fun too!

The even trickier thing is to be able to use the wide open apertures to really blur out the background. In that case, aperture is limited to

Thanks Jamesy .. what can I say - I was bored at work

Mike - regarding that photo -- it's not amazing .. haha .. but it has good subject exposure, it balances well with the ambient, it has dimension because of subject to background separation -- the light on the hair adds to this. It also had good softness on the face due to the large apparent light source. And finally George is a good looking young man

Does it have flaws .. sure but overall it's very nice. The Sun (especially when diffused by clouds) is the best separation/background/hair light you can ask for. Just add a little fill using off camera flash and you have a fine photo.

educational and free candy, what more can you ask

But you have to share!!

fine fine, i'll settle for half a candy!

Sharing is for kids that grew up watching Barney. I didn't grow up watching Barney.

That means either your an old foggy or a young kid