Thanks for your answer William, that is interesting for me. I had a lengthy portrait session with 8 people 2 days ago with some group shots at the end and I did that for the first time. Since it was a bit rainy and cold outside, I had to make the photos inside. I had only about 10 minutes for each person, I demanded to no avail much more time to start a little conversation first and warm up and have a closer look before starting the session. But it seems one never gets the ideal conditions, right? Everyone seems to be in a hurry and under stress nowadays :-(
For the portraits I used the light coming from a large office window on the right and I had a silver reflector on the left side, that was around 1.5 meters away, was that too far? I had no time or an assistant to test the influence of the reflector ,I really hate that :-( That gave me barely 1/60 to 1/125 with an ISO 400 film at f 5.6. I first tried to shoot from a tripod and would have preferred to do it that safe way, but changing the distance and readjusting for head and shoulder shots and full body shots with a fixed 90mm lens on a tripod in portrait orientation was getting tiresome for me (and the clients). Maybe I just need some more exercise to quickly change tripod settings. I used the Tamron SP 90mm macro for head and shoulder and head shots, the Pentax A 50mm 1.7 for full body shots and the Pentax A35-70mm F4 zoom at around 35-38mm and the A24mm for the group shots. I really hope I did not make a big mistake by not using some kind of additional lightning here but would love to avoid flash for portraits in the future as well. I will see the results next week. For the group shots the available light was not sufficient. For the first time ever, I tried the integrated pop-up flash of the SFXn and SF7 combined with the Pentax AF400T bouncing to the ceiling or side wall here at TTL automatic setting. For other shots I used only the AF400T holding it in the left hand sideways over my head separated from the camera body. Holding the camera with only one hand and in portrait orientation and the flash in the other hand really needs lots of arm and hand muscles, I was t i r e d in the evening and after 2 hours of making portraits like a machine my eyes hurt too. I have a small inflatable softbox from Hama for the flash but would like something a bit bigger and with better fixing. I used some "baking paper" as diffusers for 2 flashes the last time for close-ups of reflecting clay figures with quite good results. So, a "portable solution" does never mean mounting the flash on the camera directly for me;-) greetings Markus >>-----Original Message----- >>From: William Robb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 5:43 AM >>To: [email protected] >>Subject: Re: Soft boxes, any recommendations >> >> >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Markus Maurer" >>Subject: RE: Soft boxes, any recommendations >> >> >>> Hi William >>> How does an umbrella show up in the eyes as catch light, round >>like from a >>> normal flash or what shape? >> >>Catchlights are the same shape as the reflector. If the reflector >>is round, >>then the catchlight is also round. If it's square, then the catchlight is >>square. If it is an umbrella with ribs, then that is what shows. >>Here's a good example, as it shows two different types of reflector: >>http://users.accesscomm.ca/wrobb/pictures/temps/eye.html >>The catchlight on the left is from a pan softbox, the one on the right is >>from an umbrella. >>Note you can see the head and stand in the right catchlight, and the >>interfeence reflector in the pan softbox. >> >>> Don't you think the reflecting shape of soft boxes and other large >>> diffusers >>> in the eyes is disturbing somehow? >> >>I find hard light to be even more disturbing, so I compromise. >>A small light source gives very harsh results, which most subjects don't >>like. >>A little retouching goes a long way, and if you are using a digital >>processing stage, catchlights are pretty easy to deal with. >> >>> I'm interested in a good and hopefully portable solution for >>portraits too >>> ;-) >> >>You can always leave the flash on the camera and learn to love >>ugly shadows >>and burnt out skin tones. >> >>William Robb >> >>
