Several shots of my grandson, Emmot, taken in bright sun using a single monobloc. They were shot between 11am and 1pm full sun. The sync cable for the set I was using was the dodgy one so it worked intermittently. For the majority of these shots I resorted to using the monobloc as a slave and triggered it using a camera mounted Canon 580EX II set to Manual 1/1 power. Even using the 580 there were a number of no fires of the monobloc for, I figure, several reasons. The brightness of the full sun and at times my location was too far from the monobloc and it did not 'see' the flash from the 580.
While the photos came out well some of the facial expressions captured especially when Emmot was heading the soccer ball leave much to be desired, not unlike some of the photos we see on the sports pages of the newspaper.
Unprocessed images except lens correction applied
From: Belinda Morgan Pratten
ReplyDeleteDate: Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:18:30 +1000
To: Paul Livingston
Subject: Re: Location Shots Outside in Sun
Nice work Paul..I like the archer shot the best...your first one...Also like the second from the end, action with the ball.
I suggest you show Julian and Geoff too...just for casual feedback...then you know fully how you are going.
With the archer shot I particularly like his concentration AND the lighting... good strong side light.
Belinda
Subject: Re: Location Shots Outside in Sun
ReplyDeleteDate: Friday, 16 September 2011 11:45 AM
From: Paul Livingston
To: Julian Stevenson , Geoff Woolfenden
Hi Julian and Geoff
I know how busy it gets and email just gets lower and lower in the inbox till it is out of mind.
Just resending this one and would appreciate your comments as Belinda recommended.
Cheers
Paul
Julian and Geoff
I’ve put up some photos for my Location portfolio, using monobloc in sun, and Belinda suggested I get “casual feedback” from the two of you these shots.
They are on my blog at http://paullivingstonws2location.blogspot.com/2011/09/location-outside-in-sun-shots.html
Other than lens correction in LR3 and exporting as 72 ppi, jpg there has been no postproduction done.
I would appreciate your comments when you have time.
Cheers
Paul
------ Forwarded Message
From: Belinda Morgan Pratten
Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:18:30 +1000
To: Paul Livingston
Subject: Re: Location Shots Outside in Sun
Nice work Paul..I like the archer shot the best...your first one...Also like the second from the end, action with the ball.
I suggest you show Julian and Geoff too...just for casual feedback...then you know fully how you are going.
With the archer shot I particularly like his concentration AND the lighting... good strong side light.
Belinda
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On 05/09/2011, at 2:10 PM, Paul Livingston wrote:
Hi Belinda
Totally agree with you about the barber shot, not good for the assignment.
On Sunday I took the monobloc to Goulburn and did some shots of my grandson in full sun. They were shot between 11am and 1pm although the sun high I had him stand so that it was at his back and fill flash had to be used to balance out the light.
I've blogged it at:
http://paullivingstonws2location.blogspot.com/2011/09/location-outside-in-sun-shots.html
Cheers
Paul
Subject: RE: Location Shots Outside in Sun
ReplyDeleteDate: Monday, 19 September 2011 9:50 AM
From: Stevenson, Julian
To: Paul Livingston
Hi Paul,
I think I tried to respond on blogger from home bust blogger was not cooperating. I had planned to try from work so thanks for the reminder. I think you’ve demonstrated control of the flash and for the most part the balance between daylight and flash is appropriate, only a couple over and under. These have all been taken with backlighting from the sun and the flash used to fill the resulting shadow from the sun. While this is OK I would have liked to see some alternative techniques; 1 - using sunlight from the side and on-camera flash as a fill to add subtle detail to the shadows without affecting the overall exposure, 2 – using flash as the main and letting daylight drop by two stops to create a dark but detailed background, particularly with the sunlight from the side. This last technique allows you to control the main lighting style while having the entire background drop to a moody and rich level through underexposure and at the same time creating enough sunlight-fill to add detail to the shadows cast across the subject by the flash. There are elements of these techniques appearing in this series but shooting into the sun like this has left you with a blown out sky which is not improved by the darkness of the trees which were too far from the flash to be lightened by it. Nonetheless there are some good action shots though some are a tiny bit tight, there are a few shots where you’ve been very close which results in foreshortening and overexposure of limbs because they are closer to the flash. So, the action is good, portraits are useful for what they, you’ve demonstrated control over the technique illustrated but the background seems odd given the sports. Would prefer shots on the soccer field or archery range. J