Ready for prom

[PeterGar]

This is a before-prom shoot I did for my sister-in-law and her friends last weekend. My sis-in-law is the girl in the white dress. She graduated from high school yesterday!

This was my first shoot with both my new 580ex and my LSPJII that arrived from B&H two days prior. I had the LS poitned forward with the dome attached on all these shots.

Shot RAW on my 300D and Sigma lens, processed in ACDSee Pro. I adjusted some levels but did not clean-up the teenage blemishes... too much work to do. I'll probably clean-up my favorites of my sister in law and give her a framed prints.

Can someone please explain why the sky isbe so bright and white in most shots and how can I resolve that when shooting or in post. I can swear I had some blue up there when I took the pics.

The full set is here: http://garabetian.smugmug.com/gallery/1592115

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191167-L.jpg

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191169-L.jpg



My sister-in-law and her boyfriend

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191177-L.jpg

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191179-L.jpg


Can you spot where I had to clone out the ice cream vendor that walked across the background and ruined a perfectly good picture?

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191181-L.jpg

I like he colors on this, but wish my sis-in-law had a longer dress to fill the shot like her friends did.
http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191184-M.jpg

She likes him...

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191190-L.jpg

I told you!
http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191191-L.jpg

Say cheese!

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191193-L.jpg

B&W

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191195-L.jpg

The guys were nervous and didn't know each other prior to the shoot... I had a difficult time getting them to relax. I like the wing-tip shoes!

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191200-L.jpg

This kid refused to smile on camera. I kept looking for opportunities to get him smiling candidly, but not a single smile. For someone who didn't smile, he was very friendly.

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191204-L.jpg

More cheese... and again, I love the color of her pink makeup!

http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191205-L.jpg

Nice candid
http://garabetian.smugmug.com/photos/77191206-L.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[Cliff Photo]

Nice Shots! :thumb

As far as the blown out backgrounds.... What shutter speed did you shoot on the shots in question? With flash you control the ambient lighting with shutter speed. The faster the shutter generally the darker the ambient. I don't know what the max sync is of your camera or if it has a high speed sync mode, but I think that's the road you need to travel down to improve that for next time...Most max syncs are 250 for mech shutter or 500 for electric shutter. It's also possible that you can't overpower the sun with your LS attached to the flash, it softens and cuts down the power of your flash.

Cliff

[dragon300zx]

ON the shot where you asked about the ice cream vendor dude. You cloned between the dudes legs and possibly the background on his left side right? If not there then you did a really good job with the cloning cause I can't see it and I'm anal about that, unless I can't see it cause the picture is too small.

[PeterGar]

ON the shot where you asked about the ice cream vendor dude. You cloned between the dudes legs and possibly the background on his left side right? If not there then you did a really good job with the cloning cause I can't see it and I'm anal about that, unless I can't see it cause the picture is too small.
Look to the left of the guy, by his left hand (to your right when you are looking at the picture). That little area where the tree is and some of the green foliage in the background. The more I look at it, I realize the shape of the tree trunk is pretty weird due to the cloning. But maybe only I see it because I know it's there.

[PeterGar]

Nice Shots! :thumb

As far as the blown out backgrounds.... What shutter speed did you shoot on the shots in question? With flash you control the ambient lighting with shutter speed. The faster the shutter generally the darker the ambient. I don't know what the max sync is of your camera or if it has a high speed sync mode, but I think that's the road you need to travel down to improve that for next time...Most max syncs are 250 for mech shutter or 500 for electric shutter. It's also possible that you can't overpower the sun with your LS attached to the flash, it softens and cuts down the power of your flash.

Cliff

Thanks. I am just begining to use external flash and don't understand it much yet. These were shot using aperture priority, more or less around f/5, 400 ISO, with flash set to ETTL mode.

[dragon300zx]

Look to the left of the guy, by his left hand (to your right when you are looking at the picture). That little area where the tree is and some of the green foliage in the background. The more I look at it, I realize the shape of the tree trunk is pretty weird due to the cloning. But maybe only I see it because I know it's there.

Actually that's the area I was reffering to when i said background on his left side. It's not that bad and most people wouldn't notice it, but I have to do alot of cloning on photos at work so I am very anal rententive about it and notice alot of shop work like that. Throw some blur in there to smooth out the repeating areas and then darken that spot a bit to match the shadowing on the rest of the trunk and put some more green stuff between him and the knuckle on the tree and it should be ok (link me to a bigger photo and I'll show you want I mean or you can email me at gary@zxstudios.com).

Also If you didn't shop his right leg (left when your looking at it) you may want to. I understand the effect is from his pants and the blown out light on the concrete but if you look at that leg it looks like it is seriously deformed above his ankle. But I could be putting my foot in my mouth and that is actually the case (cause it kinda has the same thing going on in the picture of just the guys) but if it's not I would totally fix that.

[DavidS]

I like your shots. Very nice.

[KA0TVO]

Great :thumb Proms are nice.I really like the three guys standing together, really cool dudes :): :): :):