Tuesday, March 24, 2009

flash


i ordered a nikon sb600 speedlight (flash) recently, but today i just got around to figuring out how to use it wirelessly with my camera. man, this whole flash business is a whole new game. i'd checked out a couple of books from the library on lighting, but i feel like they're written in a whole different language. i need something more simple for learning the concepts of lighting first, i think. any suggestions? i'm thinking about picking up one of these cheat sheets for starters.

i did get it on my tripod with a diffuser. not entirely ideal, but better than mounted on the camera for sure. then there is the whole thing about where you put it in relation to you... what angle should it be... how much power should i give it... if and what should i bounce it off of? so i'll be messing around with it to learn more about it.

so these were the first few shots i got using my speedlight today. i love how it picked up the brightness of their eyes, and kept the details without washing them out. :)

i think this shot of emma ended up a little funky. her face looks like i used the flash, i think. although it did bring out her pretty blue eyes. she's pretty much perfected this pouty look. i love it because it is so "her" with her sunny smiles and her pitiful looking pouts. it's all out there on her sleeve, just like her mama. :)

stan got up super early to fly this morning. (by early i mean, he got up around the time i've been known to go to bed.) but he did get home a little earlier than normal, so we got a little time to hang out before the girls got home from school. so i got to listen to him play his guitar for a bit. just another one of his amazing talents! :)

5 comments:

Ryan Rules the Summer said...

I follow your blog daily but this is my first time leaving a comment. What a sweet family you have. You're daughters are gorgeous. (I have 2 boys and drool over your ribbons and bows.)You are very talented!!! Loved the review on sharpie's too.

Vanessa (aka V'ness, Nessa, oldschool) said...

cool flash pics!
I think emma looks sad in her pic...but yes her eyes are gorgeous!
wanna come over & take some pics of my boys? :) same kinda eyes :)

Anonymous said...

Off camera flash! Oh how I wish my Nikon ran as a commander. I picked up a couple of "e-bay triggers" for off camera flashing about a year ago, and unless I have to my Speedlights never sit atop my camera! There is only one place to go to look for off camera small flash help. www.strobist.com David Hobby is a journalist photog on the east coast (I could go on about networking, he know Scott Kelby on a first name basis) He runs a blog at strobist that is all about off camera flash. I can not recommend it enough, it changed the way I look at off camera flash. Also, I just received (than you amazon.com) Joe McNally's "hot shoe diaries" and can't wait to dig in! Learning to incorporate flash into a manual shooting style gives you so much flexibility. The uber-cool thing with your set up is you have TTL off camera! I continue to shift into the green hue...
Careful though! Umbrellas, light stands C-clamps, and more will begin to wonder into your camera bag!

Shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions!

Anonymous said...

I love the way your pictures of your daughters turned out with your new flash! Are they straight out of the camera that way or edited a bit? Just gorgeous! I have two little girls too (9 & 6) and my older one has the hazel eyes and my younger one has the big blue eyes. I would love to be able to capture their eyes like that! I also love how the flash brightened up their lips. Thanks for sharing. Your photography is amazing.
-Christy in OH (aka scrapperCW from CKMB)

noel joy said...

thanks so much christy!
i shot these in raw so i did up the exposure a bit in photoshop's raw editor.

i took the picture by a window, and used the flash for fill light. if that helps

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