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by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:02:28 AM EST
If I'd used flash would I have lost the reflection?


This is my Dad last year at my Gran's 99th birthday meal.  The room we were in was well lit but I don't think I had the 50mm lens then so the shutter speed was a little too long to be sharp.  I'm not good at using flash indoors, I have the SB600 but I just don't use it properly.  I also find in situations like this that the strength of the flash needed depends on how near you are to the subject and I forget to change the strength as I move around.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:14:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
If your flashhead can be rotated, the solution to this, and the problem of flash distance, can be solved by bouncing the flash off the ceiling. That will give you sufficient soft bounce illumination in almost all parts of the room, and exposure will be fairly close whether you are standing or crouching.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:12:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yup, bounce flash off something, (watch for colour casts though), and use the most advanced TTL the camera will give you.

However, you would probably have lost that reflection because the exposure would have been too high for it.  

This guy is pretty good for on-camera flash technique.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:16:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Actually it would have improved the reflection in the specs. The face bieng tilted down would mean that it was slightly underexposed from recieving less top light, whereas the reflected object would have been a little brighter.

But of course it all depends on the 'raydiosity' of the environment.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:23:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I hate, hate, hate indoor on-camera flash. If you don't have umbrellas and soft-boxes, flash is almost useless indoors. It's close to being a point source of front-light, and there are very times when a point source front-light is a good thing.

For something like this I'd probably try bouncing it backwards and using the whole back wall as a diffuser. This confuses metering, so sometimes you have to set the exposure manually.

You can also buy clip-on diffusers which work fairly well and remove some of the hard edges, stark shadows and flattening.

Hand held flash can also work. Close the shutter as far as it goes, open it with a bulb setting for a second or two to add some ambience and movement blur, and manually fire the flash off the back wall.

Buying a crossbar support for the flash to move it off the lens axis also makes a bit of a difference. As a last resort you can use loo paper as a very cheap diffuser, but that's another good way to confuse the exposure metering.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:14:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
She's got a D200 and a SB-600: that metering shouldn't get too confused!
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:16:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But yes, direct on-camera flash is the work of the devil almost always.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:17:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
TTL? Colour casts?
Will take a proper look at the link when I get a chance, it looks good.

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:56:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Step one: read the manual for your camera and your flash. I never read manuals, but I keep both of those in my camera bag now. The SB-600 is a little less capable than the SB-800, but it's still a complicated little machine.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 09:42:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, the effort! I also have a good guide to using the D200, including flash settings. I find that manuals are more useful once I've got used to some bits and to how I want to use the camera.  I will have a go at reading through them.

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 10:29:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
If there's no good white ceiling or wall to bounce off, try this.  If your flash came with one of those little plastic attachments, you might try putting that over the flash head, tilt the head up about 45 degrees and fire away. You can also tilt the glasses up or down a little (raise or lower the temple pieces on the ears)to an angle that doesn't reflect the flash.  Otherwise, get out the Photoshop and go to work.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:22:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"What's all this photography stuff about? I just point and click and I get nice pictures."



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:41:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Here's a photo I took in raw (f9, ISO 200) and then livened up with photo shop. Note, that in the second photo photo although the building is more alive, I've lost the blue skies. Is this something I avoid by using the layering process in photoshop?



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 11:36:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You need to create an adjustment layer with an associated mask. In this case you could select the sky using the magic wand or similar too and then use a curves adjustment which would only affect the selected area.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape
by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 01:18:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks. It sounds so easy :-)

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 01:25:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
rdf's suggestion is good.

Another option would be to make a copy of the photo [duplicate] as a new layer and then knock out the sky in the top layer, using a mask.

This will enable you to apply curves and effects to sky and building independently.

.

by Loefing on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 02:21:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Long time no see!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:08:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Salut LEP.

I've been preoccupied with a family member who's not well. :-(
 

by Loefing on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:26:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sorry to hear that. Someone back in the U.S.?

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:36:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes. US. West coast.
by Loefing on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:11:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Bon Courage!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:36:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
There are lots of "little" easy tricks in Photoshop to fix the sky. One easy one is to just do a curves adjustment layer as suggested (click the little half black circle at the bottom of the layers box) adjust the curve until the sky is blue again (don't worry about messing up the lower part). Close the curves dialog and click the mask button at the bottom of the layers box.  Now set the foreground color to black by clicking D and then X on the key board until the foreground indicator shows black. Click B to bring up the brush tool. Set the brush density to about 30%. Click on the mask icon you just created and paint over portions of the photo that you do not wish to be affected by the adjustment layer.  Alternatively, reverse the mask color and paint on the black mask with a white brush. You could also use the gradient tool to "paint" the mask for you.  Sounds complicated as a step by step, but it's not.  Do it once and you'll never look back.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:00:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Actually, the curves adjustment autoimatically comes with a mask on the layer, so you can skip that step.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:23:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
By the way, In Wales. that's a very nice photo at the top of the diary.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:38:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You know what? I hate fish-eye effects. I love wide-angles, but I the distortion from a fish-eye always just annoys me. Don't know why.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 08:50:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I was somewhat enamoured of  9mm (for 16mm movie) way back when in the era of freaky visuals, but a view of the world that looks like the view from one's front door peephole no longer appeals.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 09:08:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I love the shadows on this one.  But there's something not right about it...

by Sassafras on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:49:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
First, the histogram is compressed - there are no solid blacks in the image: just using auto-levels in Aperture improves things a bit:

x

It helps if you incresase the contrast a bit as well.

Second, I think the colour is distracting from the shadows and shapes:

x

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:02:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ok, that's unforgivable jargon speak, isn't it?

Here's the histogram before any adjustments:

x

The bottom axis is brightness, black to white from left to right. The height axis shows what proportion of the picture is that brightness. So this shows that there are only light tones, no solid blacks or even really dark greys in the picture. This is normally a bad thing. (Except when it's not, of course - that's  a judgement to make.)

So, we use auto-levels and get this:

x

Now there are areas of every brightness in the image, which normally looks more natural: our eyes adjust in roughly that way. How you adjust the levels depends on what tool you're using of course - you can fine tune it with a lot of them.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:12:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Most cameras will display the histogram when you're reviewing a shot, which gives you a way to check how "good" the exposure was. If there's bits missing at either end it might be a good idea to try again ...
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:14:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
There's all sorts of rules about how the histogram should look to make the post-processing easier. I don't know any of them. Anyone else want to try explaining them? TBG?
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:27:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:30:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm going to be accused of being the turn-it-into-black-and-white guy aren't I?

As a rule of thumb, if what's good about a picture is the light and shade, it may be worth trying in B&W.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:16:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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