Ghetto Flash Setup

[Stormdancing]

I'm scared to use my old Sunpak 383 on my Canon 20D so I had to come up with a work-a-round.
I bought a remote trigge for the flash on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1
It works quite well. I can't afford Pocket Wizards yet.
This was taken on a bright day in the shade with the flash on a stand and a Lumiquest Mini Soft Box http://www.lumiquest.com/lq951.htm
It was set about 5' from them at about a 45 degree angle.
The remote worked flawlessly.


What do you think of the lighting this setup gave me?
Models are my husband and son and let's just say they were not completely cooperative. LOL









PS Would someone show me how to make short URL again? I promise to write it down this time.

[dc2]

Looks pretty good to me.

[dvdowns]

The second one looks the best while the first looks hazy . Is that flash adjustable ? I'm wondering if it is the flash output or if you had the camera on auto white ballance but the logs are different colours in 2 and 3 .

[Stormdancing]

Yes I was using AWB. I don't know why #1 looks hazy. ? Maybe it's in PP ?
Thanks for commenting.

[Stormdancing]

I think #1 is hazy because there is camera shake. I had the camera on a tripod, but was shooting as fast as the flash would recycle because they finally started smiling. The temperature difference as shot 5150 vs 5700.

[Stormdancing]

OK I have reprocessed the images using all the same WB and settings.

[dc2]

Originally Posted by Stormdancing

OK I have reprocessed the images using all the same WB and settings.

Thats better.

[Stormdancing]

Thanks Dc2
I've also re-read the section on custom white balance.
Why in the same setting, same light, within a few minutes choose 2 different WB? Nothing changed except adding another person.

[dvdowns]

I read up a bit on wb settings and how inconsistent auto wb is even with exactly the same subject and lighting . One thread mentions that for outdoor photography [ with a nikon D70 ] the photographer always uses " cloudy-3 " for wb since the sky is very seldom perfectly clear . After playing around a bit with different settings I still leave my camera on auto wb since it gets close enough and can be adjusted later . When I went for manual settings I often forgot it on a setting and got extreme results . I think if you put the setting to "flash" it would be 5500K and the logs that have no flash on them would look much "warmer " , as with the log he is sitting on , it looks whiter from the flash while the logs behind look "yellower"/warmer .

[Stormdancing]

Well there is a BIG difference in the wood. The log he is sitting on is oak. The logs in the stack are walnut. Maybe a few big oak on the bottom row of the stack. If you look behind him on the bottom row there is one big log that is the same color. Definitely not lit with flash.

I see what you are saying about light fall off from the flash though. Interesting.

On a side note. I thought the logs made a good background for male portraits. It will also make good heat for my home this winter.

[dvdowns]

When I was doing test shots in my portrait box even though the flash showed that it was charged three successive shots got progressively darker so that could also affect the two shots though the auto wb wouldn't know the difference .