Tips on best technique for umbrella shoot through flash

Guys,

For the first time i'm doing some portrait work for a client this weekend.

I'm shooting D90+SB-600 (On and off camera), for the off camera shots i'm going to try an umbrella - just wondering are there any good tips on how to achieve best results with this set up ie :-

• Distance of flash & umbrella from subject
• Angle of flash to subject ie 30, 45, 60 degrees ?
• Umbrella point down, up or straight at subject
• Distance from flash head to umbrella

Could I even tilt the flash head up so get some bounce off the ceiling as well as through the diffusing umbrella ?

Finally is it possible to increase / decrease the flash output (on the flash unit) on the sb-600 when it's in slave mode ?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

mikeyw said:

Guys,

For the first time i'm doing some portrait work for a client this weekend.

I'm shooting D90+SB-600 (On and off camera), for the off camera shots i'm going to try an umbrella - just wondering are there any good tips on how to achieve best results with this set up ie :-

• Distance of flash & umbrella from subject
• Angle of flash to subject ie 30, 45, 60 degrees ?
• Umbrella point down, up or straight at subject
• Distance from flash head to umbrella

Could I even tilt the flash head up so get some bounce off the ceiling as well as through the diffusing umbrella ?

Finally is it possible to increase / decrease the flash output (on the flash unit) on the sb-600 when it's in slave mode ?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Click to expand...

You're kidding right? You have some serous homework ahead of you. Start out with http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

--
J-A [www.janandersbroo.tk] [www.flickr.com/photos/j-a]

--
Sam
http://www.samjsternphotography.com

• place shaft on umbrella 5 feet from subject.

• place at a 30 degree angle to one side of the camera.

• place at a height of about 1 foot higher than subjects face.

• shoot at ISO of 200

• use flash white balance

• Manual mode on camera. Set to 1/100 at f 5 to begin.

• adjust your flash so you have a good histogram

This should give you a good starting place to begin with.

Later you can add a reflector of white foamcore on the opposite side
then a hairlight
then a background light.

--
Sam
http://www.samjsternphotography.com

You must be that famous guy who, as a newborn, could recite the guide numbers for every flasahgun and whose first words were "Second curtain synchronisation".

Give the guy a chance - not everyone is an expert like you!
Alexis

--
http://www.alexisimages.com
http://www.pbase.com/alexis

Thanx for the tips Sam - very useful indeed.

Alexis

--
http://www.alexisimages.com
http://www.alexis.smumug.com
http://www.pbase.com/alexis

Actually, Strobist.com is a very good place to start. Another is Planet Neil ( http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/ ). Let's dissect the answer you were given (BTW- samstern, I am NOT trying to critique your shot or advice, merely illustrating that learning lighting will serve the OP far better)

place shaft on umbrella 5 feet from subject.

Why? I am not saying this is right or wrong but how do you know where to place the umbrella? By the way, the larger the light source, the softer the light. So distance is a matter of how soft you want the light. The closer you are, the softer you are. 5' is pretty far away for a portrait.

place at a 30 degree angle to one side of the camera.

Placement all depends on the lighting pattern you are trying to achieve. What you want to emphasize with light. In the posted example, we are highlighting the gentleman's earlobe- it's the brightest thing in the picture.

place at a height of about 1 foot higher than subjects face.

Again, depends on lighting pattern. In posted example, the flash isn't one foot above the subject. Learn to look at the shadows. In this case the nose shadow is right beside the nose. The flash was level with the nose. Had it been above, the nose shadow would have fallen down in relationship to how how the light was.

shoot at ISO of 200
Sure. Buy why?

use flash white balance

Sure. But why? And if you are using another flash to bounce off something, then that surface either needs to be white or do a CWB. I might also recommend shooting Raw.

Manual mode on camera. Set to 1/100 at f 5 to begin.

Again, why? I would choose the fastest shutter speed keeping it within sync since shutter speed only controls ambient light (flash speed is faster than the shutter no matter). And f/5 is an artistic choice. I am not saying it's wrong, but why use f/5 and not f/8?

adjust your flash so you have a good histogram

What's a good histogram? Granted, without a light meter (highly recommended), then you will need to do the trail and error with the histogram. And part of that trial and error is learning to read the histogram.

Finally, while not mentioned, are you shooting the flash in manual or iTTL? Manual is the only way to ensure consistent results. In the end it all boils down to: you can give a man a fish and feed him for the day or teach a man to fish.... you know the rest.

The closer you pull the umbrella into the flash, the tighter the light will be (since it won't be spread out through the entire umbrella). You can use the manual zooming of your flash to control this as well.

Your aperture controls DOF, but your exposure controls the amount of ambient light. You should decide based on the conditions of the room how much ambient light you want, which will result in your flash providing fill or being the main light. If you have a lot of ambient light (slower exposure), then gel your flash with a CTO so the two match. If you have a fast enough shutter that the ambient light is negligible, then you probably don't need to worry about a gel (unless you want that color out of your light). To determine how much ambient light you'll get, simply fire the shutter without the flash and your resulting image will show how much ambient you're picking up.

All this really depends on what you want in the picture. Sometimes I'm trying to maintain the background in my portrait (even if I blur it through narrow DOF), so I shoot at a slower exposure (say 1/30 - 1/60) and my flash is simply fill. Other times the background is terrible and I basically do my max sync speed (1/250) to cut out all the ambient and let my flash only fill the subject - the result can appear like you shot against a black background even if you were in a well lit office or room.

I hope this helps, but I tend to agree with one of the earlier replies that you really need to read up on this stuff and practice and understand it backwards and forwards before doing a paid engagement. First impressions are everything!

Good links:

Balancing the ambient light:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/...2006/03/lighting-101-balancing-flash-and.html
http://strobist.blogspot.com/...9/lighting-102-33-balancing-flashambient.html

Killing the ambient light:
http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2008/09/05/vegas-baby-vegas/
(second half of post talking about the cowboy on the barn)

Yes, he did and I provided a harsh but realistic one. My apologies for being somewhat rude. To me a client is a paying customer and I feel for the customer if the photographer is not confident with his gear. Learn the basics before trying to master the art of lighting.

My short answers would be

samjstern said:

• Distance of flash & umbrella from subject

Click to expand...

It depends on what you want. As close as possible if you want as soft at possible and vice versa.

samjstern said:

• Angle of flash to subject ie 30, 45, 60 degrees ?

Click to expand...

It depends on what lighting pattern you need. I would start out with 45 degrees to the side and above the model. Google short ligthing

samjstern said:

• Umbrella point down, up or straight at subject

Click to expand...

See previous

samjstern said:

• Distance from flash head to umbrella

Click to expand...

For a soft effect fill the umbrella.
--
J-A [www.janandersbroo.tk] [www.flickr.com/photos/j-a]

Alexis said:

You must be that famous guy who, as a newborn, could recite the guide numbers for every flasahgun and whose first words were "Second curtain synchronisation".

Click to expand...

Hehe You must be referring to Joey Lawrence http://www.joeyl.com

I have spent countless hours reading books and internet forums (this included) to gain my knowledge. And guess what, I'm still learning.

Alexis said:

Give the guy a chance - not everyone is an expert like you!

Click to expand...

I gave him the opportunity to find out for himself. It's much more rewarding than having the answer served on a silver platter. I'm by no means an expert, just a novice trying to learn.

My apologies for offending anyone, including you.
--
J-A [www.janandersbroo.tk] [www.flickr.com/photos/j-a]

Why are their sooooo many drama queens in the area of photography - no i'm not kidding surprisingly, i'm just asking for some tips. It's not a shoot of the queen just a lady i know and her children.

If they are not good enough for vogue i'm confident she won't take me to court.

Thanks for the link all the same.

jabroo said:

mikeyw said:

Guys,

For the first time i'm doing some portrait work for a client this weekend.

I'm shooting D90+SB-600 (On and off camera), for the off camera shots i'm going to try an umbrella - just wondering are there any good tips on how to achieve best results with this set up ie :-

• Distance of flash & umbrella from subject
• Angle of flash to subject ie 30, 45, 60 degrees ?
• Umbrella point down, up or straight at subject
• Distance from flash head to umbrella

Could I even tilt the flash head up so get some bounce off the ceiling as well as through the diffusing umbrella ?

Finally is it possible to increase / decrease the flash output (on the flash unit) on the sb-600 when it's in slave mode ?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Click to expand...

You're kidding right? You have some serous homework ahead of you. Start out with http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

--
J-A [www.janandersbroo.tk] [www.flickr.com/photos/j-a]

Click to expand...

Thanks Sam and others - your answers are ideal.

My starting point was always going to be 45degrees , 3ft away with umbrella and around f5.6, shutter will depend (as others have said on the ambient light in her house)

I do understand flash photography just the use of the shoot through umbrella is new to me.

As as for learning myself i have been reading blogs today in paralell, there no harm takniog advice from other in a forum as well (isn't why we are all on her anyway ???)

I'll look forward to posting the results for Jacob

be careful with the 45 degrees.

It is OK for a male with dramatic maculine shadows but femaels need less of an angle.

Also for a shot with 3 people, sounds like that is what you are doing.

Get the umbrella close to the camera axis so the illimination is even on all the subjects.

Yes you can some directional lighting but be careful of shadows on some and hotspots on others.
An easy wasy to avoid this is do do slightly flatt lighting.

You can always look at the image on the LCD and deside if it looks OK.

So many, too many, on this forum are so rude and unhelpful and just like to start a fight and chime in with BS instead of helpful ideas.

Hope the shoot goes OK and let us see some of the best you get.

Don't worry, if others beat you up some of us will jump in and slay them with a mighty stoke of the sword.

Have fun, experiment,
Best way to learn is from mistakes and acidental successes.

Take care.

I apologize for rudness and insecurities of our fellow" forum members
--
Sam
http://www.samjsternphotography.com

did you notice how many others did not show any examples or samples of what THEY do.
Sort of says alot , !!!
--
Sam
http://www.samjsternphotography.com

Thanks Sam - people like you are why people use these excellent forums

May opt for 30degrees then for Mum & Daughter.....will shoot a few experiment shots with varying degrees and closeness of umbrella with my wife & daughter.

Learnt to ignore the scaremongers long since...nearly didn't do a wedding last year because of all the negative comments but pressed on and got paid double my fee the couple were so happy with the results.

That's good advice...

The websites sited above are excellent one's too! I especially like the PlanetNeil. For me, it's been one of the most valuable souces of information regarding lighting.

r/Mike

jabroo said:

I gave him the opportunity to find out for himself. It's much more rewarding than having the answer served on a silver platter. I'm by no means an expert, just a novice trying to learn.

My apologies for offending anyone, including you.
--
J-A [www.janandersbroo.tk] [www.flickr.com/photos/j-a]

Click to expand...

--
B.R.A.S.S. (Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze)

Shoot with the camera and the flash in manual modes, starting at 1/2 power.

Setting the flash in ETTL is ok, however, as the ambient lighting changes, or if there happen to be changes in clothing (color, brightness) these all affect the flash output as well as the white balance.

In manual mode, you'll get consistent shot to shot exposures...AND one of the easiest things to do is simply and quite literally to move the flash further or closer depending on the exposures. Don't get all wrapped around the axel over trying to fiddle with the flash output. Set it and leave it...adjust the easiest variable...Distance of the light.

My Examples with a single unbrella-





Regards, Mike

--
B.R.A.S.S. (Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze)

Check out David Ziser and his blog, http://www.digitalprotalk.blogspot.com

Here's an example of 45 / 45



I agree with Sam that 45 is probably too much for a group or couple due to the shadows. Here's an example lit with on-axis light (about 30 degrees over the subjects)



I have found out using white shoot-through umbrellas in small rooms sometime eliminates the need for fill light / reflectors. That is if the room you are shooting in is fairly white and does not "pollute" (add a colour cast to) your light. Place the umbrella near a white wall or corner and you'll get a very soft fill from the backwards spill of the umbrella. The flip side is of course that a coloured wall or ceiling will colour your fill and sometimes effect the overall tone of your photo.

I haven't seen (or simply missed) any advice on how to position your flash relative to the umbrella in the replies. The flash should be aimed at the centre of the umbrella for an even fill. The shoot-through will send light in all directions so no reason to bounce part of the light from the ceiling. http://www.zarias.com/shoot-through-umbrella-vs-softbox/

Good luck! And do, by all means, post the results here for C&C. I promise not to be rude.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"

Forgot to mention that you should feather the light unless you have it close to camera axis. Why? Unless all subjects are at the same distance, the light that will hit them will differ. Aim the centre of the umbrella a little bit past the person furthest away from the umbrella.
--
J-A [www.janandersbroo.tk] [www.flickr.com/photos/j-a]