Hi, On Wednesday, I had my first "Holiday card" / "family shot" type of a thing..

any thoughts are appreciated..
To give you an idea what was the situation.. it was shot in a small apartment, with barely any light.
Used two SB-600s, one on each side, trigered via the commander mode.

1) What mum has requested



2) what I liked..


3)


4)



That was quite a... uh.. new experience. Since I usually shoot bands and concerts, it was a bit unusual for me to be telling people what to do.. definitely need to work on that. and on lighting..

Overall a nice job especially with the situation and equip you were working with. Little babies slouching is always a problem and very hard to control as in 1 & 2 but esp (expression sells portraits) is nice.
#3 never a fan of white vignetting on a low key portrait! It would have worked better with everyone sitting on their rears and keep the heads closer together and try for triangle formations with the heads.
#4 is just screaming for a close up of the heads. Sort of the old and the new kind of look. The child is lost and the Christmas bows are overwhelming.

What kind of lighting setup did you have?

Charles, thank you very much for your feedback.

I hate hate hate white vignette myself. Only reason I tossed it on is to hide the TV.. But I do have a clear shot without vignette as well, as can be seen here

The idea of rears was brought up.. the mum didn't like it because she was worried that it will make her look larger, I think.
I will absolutely follow the idea in #4. I love what you are suggesting, and I think it will work very well!

Wally, 2x SB-600, bounced.

Since I rarely shoot people in non-stage situation, I don't have better flashes yet.. though, SB-900's are going to be on the way as soon as my car project is done..

Arseny, there are alot of inexpensive soft boxes that will hook up with a speed light and give you some terrific lighting. Try ebay.

10-4, will check 'em out.
What size should I explore, in your opinion?

For a speed light they usually come in 12 to 16 inches. Rember the bigger the light the softer the light and the closer you can get it the less sharp edge of a shadow you get.

will do. thank you sir.

Why upgrade to the 900's when you already have good flashguns?

I would think you can get more bang for the buck if you use something like this with the SB600's

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=729187&is=REG

I agree, based on what you had to work with you did pretty good.
I wont add more critique since it's pretty much been pointed out already.

wel, ultimately, i do want to have at least 4 strobes.. 900s are stronger, and are capable of commander mode as well.. plus they can be used to set off other flashes.. and I REALLY want that.. seeing as I can not afford a decent wireless triggers at the moment.

Originally Posted by Foques wel, ultimately, i do want to have at least 4 strobes.. 900s are stronger, and are capable of commander mode as well.. plus they can be used to set off other flashes.. and I REALLY want that.. seeing as I can not afford a decent wireless triggers at the moment.

Ah yes, more flashguns = good thing

RF602s on ebay. Trigger and four recievers, $100. :)

For this kind of shot, you really don't need the off camera stuff. Just bounce the flash on camera behind and to the side.

Mum really requested the black and white while only keeping the red (or the red and a dab of something else)? Her money, her opinion, but personally I can't stand the PS tricks where you B&W something and keep one color... There's excess red, so the photo itself seems unbalanced to me. Because of that, a lot of the lower end of the photo seems overexposed.

Again, personal opinion more than anything else!

yes, she has requested only keeping red and eyes.

I do agree, selective coloring in this situation may not be the best idea, but whatever the client wants with their picture is what i'll do.

Foques,
I think you did good and you gave the client what they wanted. I agree with you; like #2 much better than #1. Christmas is about COLOR. Otherwise, I do like B&W for portraiture. In this case, the tree is just too busy a backdrop in B&W and they get lost in it.

If you stick with the SB600s, for the money you save not buying the SB900s you can go a long way toward a set of PWs or Radio Poppers. If you look hard enough, you might find a used SB800. Really, you only need one for full-on commander mode using RPs.

Wally, I shall check those out once I'm done with holidays. Thank you for the idea!

Quarik, I've tried it last night with another shoot. It worked great. Thank you!

Tracker, I am waiting on my backdrops to arrive. It was my Christmas present to myself.

John, you are SO right. I can't believe I didn't think of that!

Originally Posted by Icebear If you stick with the SB600s, for the money you save not buying the SB900s you can go a long way toward a set of PWs or Radio Poppers. If you look hard enough, you might find a used SB800. Really, you only need one for full-on commander mode using RPs.

Soon the SB700 will be out as well. For $329 or so it'll handle all the commander modes as well as be a decent flash on it's own. Good suggestions. The 900 is a lot of overkill in my opinion.