Shoot the Umbrella

I'm still practicing with my speedlights for Vegas. I read somewhere that to understand the amount of light spread in the umbrella to shoot the umbrella and see for yourself. Clever!!

To get the most light spread in my umbrella, I need to use the zoom feature. The left is 105mm, the right is 14mm. Since I almost never use my flash, I never even used the zoom feature. Now I get it.

I shot my shoe on my bed for a test. As a photographer you'd think I could do a fancier test. But I'm a lazy photographer at best. In one image, I couldn't even bother to remove the umbrella bag. That's lazy.

The left is 105mm zoom, no modifier. The middle is 14mm zoom with a silver umbrella. The right is 14mm zoom shot through a satin umbrella. It's amazing how the highlights change and how the color shifts. But now I have a better idea how to use my flash and accessories. Once it stops raining, I'll test it all outside in full sun.

And of course, I had to do more self portraits. Most of the people I shoot won't have a plastic sheen, so I wanted to see how it all worked on skin. The satin umbrella is probably my favorite, but in order to light less of the room, the silver umbrella works best. Honestly, straight flash on 105mm will spread the least amount of light, but the shadows are way too harsh.

Texture

I love adding texture to photographs. I love it even more when photographs have their own texture. Thanks to Michael for showing me this dumpster to shoot in. It is nothing but texture at every turn.

This photo, from the same day, did not have it's own texture, I added it. And I also used horror lighting for this shot. My gridded light is pointed up at her face from about 1 foot away. "They" say never use horror lighting (especially on beautiful women), but sometimes it just what the image calls for. Christina knew just how to work the light to make it work. I find it very useful to tell the model where the main light is and what you are trying to achieve. If they get it, they work it!!

Caught in the Act

It's been a while since I shot one of these. There are not many people interested in this series. I had more people interested in the Lonely Road, but I think I sold that more to people as part of a shoot package. I haven't done that with this series. I'm waiting for people to come to me.

Jessi came to me with the idea of fleeing the scene and I came up with the location. On one of my photo walks around Rossylyn, I found a spot where I could shoot from above. It really does help to go on location walks. You see spots you would otherwise miss.

Since it was dark by the time we shot, I had to bump up the ISO to 6400 and even that almost wasn't enough. I usually hate noise, but I don't mind it in this shot, it adds to the mystery.