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Archive 2015 · scrapbook shots

  
 
ben egbert
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · scrapbook shots


This time of year almost all my photography is family snaps. I make no attempt to make them artistic, I want to capture events with natural poses and so forth, or at least not serious set-ups.

I generally use direct flash and hand hold. I generally get decent exposure and focus, and I take enough shots to tell a story. But I have trouble with background clutter and room distortion. When I have tried to minimize room distortion using a TSE lens on a Tripod, I have found that pretty difficult, so hand held with normal lenses are really tough.

I also find that christmas tree lights never look like they are on unless you take a shot with the other lights off and let the image go dark everywhere else.

Here are a couple examples, One obviously posed by my grand daughters, but it was their pose not mine. I took it while the smiles were real.

Any suggestions? Next time I may spend a bit more time removing stuff in the background and maybe making more room to maneuver. A sofa was in the way preventing me from getting better angles.

How does the processing look?












Dec 12, 2015 at 12:58 PM
beavens
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · scrapbook shots


Ben,

Crop is tight and a little awkward in 1 with the top of the tree and your granddaughter's legs. Processing looks okay, just a bit flat.

2 is much better overall, but the shadows are pretty harsh. Are you using a reflector or bouncing the flash?

Cheers!

Jeff



Dec 12, 2015 at 01:28 PM
oldrattler
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · scrapbook shots


Snapshots are not intended to be time consuming, setup oriented pictures. You have the right idea, shoot them & enjoy them. IF you want them better I suggest a little more brilliance, images lack pop.Try bounce flash to reduce shadows. Personally I would put them in the album. Jim


Dec 12, 2015 at 01:41 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · scrapbook shots


beavens wrote:
Ben,

Crop is tight and a little awkward in 1 with the top of the tree and your granddaughter's legs. Processing looks okay, just a bit flat.

2 is much better overall, but the shadows are pretty harsh. Are you using a reflector or bouncing the flash?

Cheers!

Jeff


Thanks Jeff, This is an example of not enough maneuver room. I should bounce my flash, I have done it in the past, not sure why I did not do it this time. I do get less light and more shadows that way. Maybe that's good.



Dec 12, 2015 at 01:45 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · scrapbook shots


oldrattler wrote:
Snapshots are not intended to be time consuming, setup oriented pictures. You have the right idea, shoot them & enjoy them. IF you want them better I suggest a little more brilliance, images lack pop.Try bounce flash to reduce shadows. Personally I would put them in the album. Jim


Ok, another vote for bounce, I will do some practice with that. I probably need to go to ISO400 to get more light out of my flash.



Dec 12, 2015 at 01:46 PM
beavens
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · scrapbook shots


ben egbert wrote:
Ok, another vote for bounce, I will do some practice with that. I probably need to go to ISO400 to get more light out of my flash.


Ben,

An alternative to bouncing off the ceiling would be to construct one of these DIY diffusers. I made one and it's really quite simple to do. The results are nice as long as you don't get too hot with the flash.

http://super.nova.org/DPR/DIY01/

Jeff



Dec 12, 2015 at 01:51 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · scrapbook shots


beavens wrote:
Ben,

An alternative to bouncing off the ceiling would be to construct one of these DIY diffusers. I made one and it's really quite simple to do. The results are nice as long as you don't get too hot with the flash.

http://super.nova.org/DPR/DIY01/

Jeff


Thanks Jeff, great idea, I will need to build one.



Dec 12, 2015 at 02:01 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · scrapbook shots


How about this one. I made a reflector per Jeff's link and this is an example. I also turned the flash down 2/3 stop and left the lights off in the hallway.





with home made reflector




Dec 12, 2015 at 05:06 PM
oldrattler
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · scrapbook shots


I think it is better. Jim


Dec 12, 2015 at 05:14 PM
beavens
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · scrapbook shots


oldrattler wrote:
I think it is better. Jim


+1! Much less harsh and more balanced.

Now we need to drop the flash and expose only via tree light.




Dec 12, 2015 at 06:29 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · scrapbook shots


beavens wrote:
+1! Much less harsh and more balanced.

Now we need to drop the flash and expose only via tree light.



Always upping the anti eh? :-)

The one I made is pretty crude but it worked so well I ordered one of these from B&H. It will be here in time for Christmas.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/811488-REG/LITE_GENIUS_LITE_SCOOP_II_Lite_Scoop_II_Flash_Modifier.html



Dec 12, 2015 at 06:53 PM
beavens
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · scrapbook shots


ben egbert wrote:
Always upping the anti eh? :-)

The one I made is pretty crude but it worked so well I ordered one of these from B&H. It will be here in time for Christmas.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/811488-REG/LITE_GENIUS_LITE_SCOOP_II_Lite_Scoop_II_Flash_Modifier.html


If no one ever 'raised' here then I think it'd get boring pretty quickly!

Awesome, glad this might help you. Now you've pretty much obligated yourself to posted some 'after' shots.



Dec 12, 2015 at 06:59 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · scrapbook shots


beavens wrote:
If no one ever 'raised' here then I think it'd get boring pretty quickly!

Awesome, glad this might help you. Now you've pretty much obligated yourself to posted some 'after' shots.



Well Christmas morning is unwrapping time and it's a real zoo. I want to get the looks on the faces as they see what they got, I get on the floor and try to get a direct shot, but the room is littered with wrapping paper and people so it's really hard to get much. I have been doing this since I got my first camera in 1980 and my own daughters were not even teens yet.

So if I get one or two that is half decent, I will show it.




Dec 12, 2015 at 07:03 PM
beavens
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · scrapbook shots


ben egbert wrote:
Well Christmas morning is unwrapping time and it's a real zoo. I want to get the looks on the faces as they see what they got, I get on the floor and try to get a direct shot, but the room is littered with wrapping paper and people so it's really hard to get much. I have been doing this since I got my first camera in 1980 and my own daughters were not even teens yet.

So if I get one or two that is half decent, I will show it.



Thanks for saying this, as I have some 1st birthday party pics I took for my brother's twins to go through and I'm in this dilemma myself. So much chaos, what is worth keeping? Minimal crop, exposure, contrast/clarity done? Let them toss the worst?



Dec 12, 2015 at 07:15 PM
eeneryma
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · scrapbook shots


I like the motto on your granddaughter's t-shirt. You are a very fortunate granddad.


Dec 12, 2015 at 10:37 PM
Camperjim
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · scrapbook shots


ben egbert wrote:
Ok, another vote for bounce, I will do some practice with that. I probably need to go to ISO400 to get more light out of my flash.


Bounce for sure. Also get a diffuser and up the ISO. I know you are obsessed with image quality, but I can hardly see any necessity of shooting below ISO400. I just shot an indoor event. Every shot was with bounce flash. In additional after the first few trial shots, I settled on ISO3200. I finished processing 180 images tonight which was merely cropping and adjusting the WB and levels. I was amazed at the out of camera jpegs. Virtually no noise even in the shadows.






Dec 12, 2015 at 11:15 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · scrapbook shots


Camperjim wrote:
Bounce for sure. Also get a diffuser and up the ISO. I know you are obsessed with image quality, but I can hardly see any necessity of shooting below ISO400. I just shot an indoor event. Every shot was with bounce flash. In additional after the first few trial shots, I settled on ISO3200. I finished processing 180 images tonight which was merely cropping and adjusting the WB and levels. I was amazed at the out of camera jpegs. Virtually no noise even in the shadows.



Hmm, that last shot is ISO 200 and still has 1/200 second. Why would I need higher ISO? Or I guess you mean add a diffuser to what I already have with the reflector? I have gone to ISO 3200 with this camera for event work in a dark auditorium and no flash. But for home stuff where I can use a flash and this reflector I am not seeing the need.



Dec 12, 2015 at 11:54 PM
Camperjim
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · scrapbook shots


I find that a higher ISO and lower flash intensity will provide a better quality of light with less harshness and less drop off.


Dec 13, 2015 at 12:02 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · scrapbook shots


Camperjim wrote:
I find that a higher ISO and lower flash intensity will provide a better quality of light with less harshness and less drop off.


Ok, I will try dialing down the flash.



Dec 13, 2015 at 11:10 AM
Camperjim
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · scrapbook shots


Ben, just another thought. I assume you are shooting raw and processing everything. I typically shoot raw plus jpeg. For my last event shoot I did not even bother processing the raw files. Just too much nuisance, work and overkill for facebook or scrapbook images.

My jpeg images were all but print ready. I did need to adjust WB. The pros typically use gels to balance flash and ambient light. I do not have gels so I needed to make adjustments. Even that was very quick with the Photoshop remove color cast tool. As usual I also had to adjust brightness for printing and used Levels.



Dec 13, 2015 at 12:15 PM
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