Chris and Lisa

[kenwae]

A fun shoot, just before the rain fell; comments and critiques welcome....

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[DcKetcham]

my first opinion and thoughts were to get the flash off the camera...
secondly... there is practically no composition to any of these, as for the most part they are dead center in all but the one, and they are just a tad off

the potential is there for these to be really good... especially living there... but.. also, the white balance is off and all seems all too orange and red

not the best feedback, but...

[kenwae]

The feedback is fine and I appreciate it; off camera flash is a bit problematic. I would either need an assistant to hold the flash, or a stand. No assistant. The stand presents two problems, one is the wind and the other is the moving around a lot from one place to another. I am wiling to sacrifice the better lighting with off camera flash for the mobility, and working by myself. Most customers are pleased with the results. White balance - I'll work on that; composition, that too. I agree that these are a bit plain compositionally and other shoots have been more compositionally elegant. Thanks again.....

[transcape5]

If these are as composed in camera then you certainly have the space for creative cropping in post, and that is actually a good thing IMHO. Have you considered using a flash bracket, Ken?

[kenwae]

Hey Tom....
I do use a bracket, a Custom Bracket, which puts the flash up over the lens and allows me to shift the camera from landscape to portrait orientation while keeping the flash up over the lens. I could crop some of these closer, and some of the set they get do have closer in shots but part of the appeal of these shots is the expanse of the setting and many of the shots do emphasize that.

For alternate lighting, what I could try is to hold the flash in my left hand arm extended; but, then I'm holding the camera just with my right hand, and that can get ackward, and tiring. I need a third arm....a long one....

[Steven G Webb]

Ken, were you using the bracket for these? Also, what flash are you using? The only other thing I have to critique about these is the ratio of the subjects to the environment. In a couple of them the subjects look like cut-outs pasted onto a scene. You know, if its kind of dull outside, like before an approaching storm, or if its sunset I'd like to feel the subject lighting is more in concert with the actual scene. I am probably alone in this opinion because I see this effect quite often when to me it looks like a bad green screen replacement and others rave about the subject background separation.

Steve

[Rain Lily]

Ken, why not just put the flash on a stand and have no modifier? You have no modifier on it while it's on camera, why not just move it over to the side on a stand as is? Then you won't have any problem with the wind, and while you still might have shadows on the sand from the flash, you'd also have some great sculpting shadows on the faces. Just a thought. I've shot that way before, flash on a stand with no softbox or anything, and it does make a difference - yet it's still lightweight and easily portable.

[kenwae]

Yeah, Sis, I might give that a try one of these days; but, the thing is, that then means every time the position changes, I need to go move the stand. We move a lot, we cover a lot of ground moving here, there and even the slightest change would mean moving the stand. There's almost a photojournalistic element in the way these shoots happen. I take about 200-300 pictures in about an hour and a half. They end up getting about 60-80. But, again, one of these days I'll give it a go....

[Rain Lily]

Oh, I didn't realize the pace was that fast. I can see your point.

At the same time, if you do decide to try it, it's really not as much trouble as it seems, especially if you are taking a significant set at one place before moving to the next. Let us know if you do get a chance to play with it, I'd like to see how they look.

[k9ofkaos]

Well heck I see the points of C & C offered, but I liked them anyway.