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Set up the gear in the back room last night and took a few portraits using Ronnie's shoot through umbrella coupled with a 430 EX flash, triggered by a non firing 580EXii, mounted on the camera. Any comments and criticisms will be welcomed, as I want to improve the OCF portrait side of things.

Second son (unprocessed except for re-sizing for web)


First daughter (unprocessed except for re-sizing for web)


One and only wife (of 26 years) (processed in Portrait Professional ver 9.09)

Ozimax, I like #1 the most but I think there maybe too blue b/g on the rh side.

The WB on #3 looks a little red on my screen.

All good sharp shots.

barry wrote:Ozimax, I like #1 the most but I think there maybe too blue b/g on the rh side.

The WB on #3 looks a little red on my screen.

All good sharp shots.

Could be Barry. None of my monitors are calibrated. I'm having some prints done this afternoon so we'll see how the colours go.

As for the sharpness, I had my 24-105 in to Canon in July for recalibration (under warranty) and it has come back a million percent sharper than it was beforehand. Great job Canon with a two day turn around.

Well done. I have a similar setup (home made umbrella) and the results are lovely. Nice soft shadows. I like the offset, especially in one an two where there's a clear lead in for the eye. Number three may be looking too straight on to be so far across. I use my 100mm macro lens for these shots and the tack sharp lens brings the shots up really well (not that I think these are too soft). One thought- with a 580 you could run two flashes and really have some fun. I fire my 430 with a Canon master unit that allows a stack of flashes to be fired at various intensities etc. It's a great little unit and costs a lot less than a 580.

ian.bertram wrote:Well done. I have a similar setup (home made umbrella) and the results are lovely. Nice soft shadows. I like the offset, especially in one an two where there's a clear lead in for the eye. Number three may be looking too straight on to be so far across. I use my 100mm macro lens for these shots and the tack sharp lens brings the shots up really well (not that I think these are too soft). One thought- with a 580 you could run two flashes and really have some fun. I fire my 430 with a Canon master unit that allows a stack of flashes to be fired at various intensities etc. It's a great little unit and costs a lot less than a 580.

Good point Ian. I will most probably add to the flash list with another 430 EX when one becomes available cheaply. I'm looking into purchasing a set of Elimchrom Skyports (when my daughter visits the USA next month), so would then have
two flashes to play around with. I like the idea of keeping things simple.

As for the 100mm lens, yep, it would be razor sharp I believe. I would prefer to shoot portraits with the 70-200 but things are a little cramped in the back room of the house. Thanks for the comments.

I would like to see a little more light from camera left, particularly on #1. You only have one flash, but perhaps a white board as a reflector there.

Mr Darcy wrote:I would like to see a little more light from camera left, particularly on #1. You only have one flash, but perhaps a white board as a reflector there.

Good point. I did think of that, but didn't have anything handy. Most probably need to get a reflector of some description.

Question: when is a shadow a good shadow? Some portraits feature much of the face in shadow, others are evenly lit? It's very subjective I suppose.