Off camera flash in bright sunlight

[footskelly]

Tried off camera strobes, but only had two with me. Looks like it might need at least one more. What do you think?

[Montec]

Show us a pic...

I have been using speedlights in bright sun with good results...just crank them up if you need to...I use M mode, TTL sucks when used as fill light. Actually doesn't work very good after f/8 so I don't recommend TTL in bright sun.

Just get them off camera if you don't want shadows...there is a recent thread that discusses this here

The samples were in sunlight conditions and one SB800

[footskelly]

trying again w/ resized image

[Jacco]

I don't see the effect of your off-camera flash guns in those photos, footskelly. I do see a large difference in color gamut, though.

And shooting kids (and animals) I always try to adhere to the rule-of-thumb: shoot kids and animals at their eye level! Bend your knees if you have to!

[ohenry]

What is the goal you're trying to achieve here?

[newbie builder]

Are you using SB800s? If so, I'd put one on the camera and use it as a commander, the other off camera and that way you can use high speed sync and make your subject pop more....that's assuming you're like me and like to stay around f/2.8 or so for shots like that. If you don't care about upping your f stop, then you can put both off camera and just make sure you take down the ambient level a little and power up the strobes a bit, then work with their placement after you've done that until you get something that looks interesting and visually appealing......

[footskelly]

newbie builder
Using a kit lens w/ f3.5 so can't hit 2.8..Have one SB800 and two SB28DX. using 3 eBay triggers Going to try and reshoot on a cloudy day, when my model won't get cranky and too hot. Trying for a lonesome road effect with no houses, poles, or wires.

[Jacco]

Originally Posted by footskelly

newbie builder
Using a kit lens w/ f3.5 so can't hit 2.8..Have one SB800 and two SB28DX. using 3 eBay triggers Going to try and reshoot on a cloudy day, when my model won't get cranky and too hot. Trying for a lonesome road effect with no houses, poles, or wires.

May I suggest you choose a lower viewpoint next time, footskelly? The rule-of-thumb is "shoot kids and animals at their eye-level, bend your knees if you have to".

If, on a sunny day, your SBs haven't got enough juice to fill the shadows, you may want to consider (a) (D-I-Y) reflector(s), held by (a) helper(s) just outside the frame.

[newbie builder]

Originally Posted by footskelly

newbie builder
Using a kit lens w/ f3.5 so can't hit 2.8..Have one SB800 and two SB28DX. using 3 eBay triggers Going to try and reshoot on a cloudy day, when my model won't get cranky and too hot. Trying for a lonesome road effect with no houses, poles, or wires.

In that case, I agree with Jacco about getting down at your subjects level, and also think the way to go is to start out with the ambient underexposed by a stop or maybe even two, depending on how dramatic you want it to look, and then bring up the flash power until you have what looks like a good exposure on her.