Fun with my Daughter

[mattbikeboy]

It's been a hectic couple of weeks with our Spring soccer season wrapping up and teams waiting until the last minute to do photos -- so I haven't done any fun shoots for a while. But with teacher appreciation week coming my daughter wanted a fencing portrait to give to her teacher. So late this afternoon we raced out to the nearest dry lake bed to catch the last of the sun. My favorite from the bunch:


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[Frog]

Nice!!!!!!

[SmartWombat]

Oh yes, a nice sports portrait.
So why isn't it in our forum too

[Axle]

Very nice! Other than the sun, did you use any other lighting?

[mattbikeboy]

Very nice! Other than the sun, did you use any other lighting?

It was challenging lighting (and my daughter not being a professional model wasn't super patient). Anyway, I shot with the D700 with a camera mounted SB900 controlling a stand mounted SB600.

I would have loved her to stand still for a couple of more minutes so I could have gotten a bit lower and maybe increase the shutter speed and lighting appropriately. But she wanted to run around on the lake bed. Pesky eleven year olds!

I'm still pretty happy with this shot (and the colors are a bit nicer in the PSD file than they are on the jpg).

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[mattbikeboy]

The next in the series:


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[Frog]

I think you're on to something location wise.
Perhaps a bit more fill light? More of a question than a suggestion as I've never shot in such circumstances.

[OldClicker]

These two are a really nice start of a series. Will 'hidden eyes' be a theme? - TF

[mattbikeboy]

Volleyball, with a not so cooperative sky.



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[JETA]

These portraits are so beautiful and spot on (to my eye) that it isn't even funny.

[mattbikeboy]

Got out again this evening. This time with Kimberly a MMA fighter, boxer and various martial arts fighter and trainer. The clouds were perfectly wrong for my sunset glow, but we got some nice shots anyway.

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[mattbikeboy]

Next... Boy, the weather in Las Vegas has been really weird lately. We haven't had our normal 100 degree June days. Instead we've been having temps in the mid to upper 80 for the last few weeks. And again last night the clouds came out and got in the way a bit (and it even rained on out way back into town). Anyway, this is Nicole, a soccer player from one of our local high schools.



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[schrackman]

Methinks you've been visiting Strobist...SWEET pics!

Ray

[mattbikeboy]

Okay, not really a sports athlete...



Does a fitness model count? ;)

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[SmartWombat]

Definitely YES !

[OldSchool]

Nice series.
Thanks,
Tim

[Janie]

Have you tried the Fong diffusers? That is what I use with many of my shoots, both indoor and out, but with the dusk shots, you don't get shadows and it illuminates your subject beautifully! Even in low light!

I did this at dusk using the fong diffuser: http://store.garyfonginc.com/liiido.html

[mattbikeboy]

Have you tried the Fong diffusers? That is what I use with many of my shoots, both indoor and out, but with the dusk shots, you don't get shadows and it illuminates your subject beautifully! Even in low light!

I did this at dusk using the fong diffuser: http://store.garyfonginc.com/liiido.html

I have one and use it when I can (I've even made a little tin foil reflector that fits inside the sphere when shooting outside -- so I don't lose as much light).

There are a several reasons why I haven't used it in this series.
1) I'm going for a bit more direct/contrasty light.
2) With the sun directly behind my models I almost need to be shooting the flashes at full power to get the the subjacts to light up enough (depending on what they are wearing).
3) The globes spread the light a little too much. I'm trying to not light the ground anymore than I have too -- I want the shadows from the sun to be visible in the cracked earth.

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[Janie]

I think my favorite of this series was fencing, bike and karate pose, the shadows on the others felt a little distracting, especially on the bathing suit shot. But if the shadows were gone, I'd love them. Hmm, I wonder if a whale tale diffuser would work - keep the light off the ground and bounce it up and out. I'm jealous you have such a gorgeous area to shoot in! The rich textures and dusk make for such an interesting backdrop!

[mattbikeboy]

I think my favorite of this series was fencing, bike and karate pose, the shadows on the others felt a little distracting, especially on the bathing suit shot. But if the shadows were gone, I'd love them. Hmm, I wonder if a whale tale diffuser would work - keep the light off the ground and bounce it up and out. I'm jealous you have such a gorgeous area to shoot in! The rich textures and dusk make for such an interesting backdrop!

I was actually thinking of using a black foam sheet as a platform below the flash to shield the ground from light. I might still give it a try. On the fencing shot I didn't illum her lower legs or feet at all (I just lightened them in Lightroom after).

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[Janie]

Ohhh, I was trying out a new plugin for photoshop! Check this out - you can download a free trial to play with for 30 days. Bet it will give you the results you want to achieve! It simulates HDR! ;)
http://www.topazlabs.com/adjust/

[mattbikeboy]

Ohhh, I was trying out a new plugin for photoshop! Check this out - you can download a free trial to play with for 30 days. Bet it will give you the results you want to achieve! It simulates HDR! ;)
http://www.topazlabs.com/adjust/

Got it. I've been using Topaz Adjust for 9 months now for the tone mapped look. I like it a lot -- but the new version crashes too much.



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[Janie]

Is that what's crashing my photoshop? Argh. You sound like a software gadget junkie like me! LOL I also use Dynamic Photo HDR which I like a lot, but it takes long to process the images. Been trying to perfect my architectural shots in a more timely manner.

[mattbikeboy]

Is that what's crashing my photoshop? Argh. You sound like a software gadget junkie like me! LOL I also use Dynamic Photo HDR which I like a lot, but it takes long to process the images. Been trying to perfect my architectural shots in a more timely manner.

I've played with photomatix and done Photoshop HDR conversions using Adobe Camera RAW. I'm not totally sold on HDR. One of these days I'll really get busy and work on it and see if I get an image or two that I actually like. Maybe some architectural shots would be a good place to start.

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