Chadstone - fashion show

[Alex]

Went to a small fashion parade at Chadstone shopping centre. I was worried that photography would be banned as usual, but no one could care less. Very strange. There were two pros and another guy with a D70. Here are a few first pics. All were taken with Nikkor 80-200 f4.5-5.6D. Flash (SB-800) was used in all photos. I shot in "M" mode with aperture ranging b/w 4.5 and 5.6 (depending on focal length) and shutter speeds of 180-350, ISO 400-640. Any comments/ critique are welcome.

This is one of the PRO's using D2X (one of the two he had with him)













Thanks

Alex

[wendellt]

The 50mm f1.4 at f2 or 3.5 is good enough for this type of show, since you managed to get close even better that focal lngthwould have been optimal.
wider apertures are better becuase they knock the background out of focus, in some some shots the background is not very appealing
white balance should also be set to 3200Kelvin to compensate for the red yellowish cast of tungsten lights, unless of course you like the warm look.

with he 50mm you can go down as slow as 1/100 shutterspeed even though the sweetspot speed is 1/250 f2.8 ISO640 with the 85mm or 200mm range, considering the standard lighting setup

good effort, but i like your Myer pics more.

[Alex]

Thanks Wendell, I used 80-200 f4.5-5.6 although, I should have probably used the 50 mm. I set WB to auto (-2) and most of them I don’t correct wb in pping, but with a few I have to. I will try 3200K next time in NC.

Regards
Alex

[johnd]

Alex, I like both these and your Myer ones. I've never done this sort of thing, although I can see it's attraction. A question: I assume the tungsten lighting is fairly bright, so are you using your flash primarily as fill flash (TTL BL) rather than for the main lighting (TTL)?

I think I'll starting looking around Hobart to see if there are similar opportunities, but I've got my doubts we have this sort of event down here.

Cheers
John

[Alex]

Hi John,

Thanks for your comments. I used my SB800 in TTL mode. With the MYER show the lighting was pretty dim, so it was as main source. With the other show, the ambient light was pretty bright, but I still used TTL, sometimes in -1/3 to -2/3 flash exposure compensation. I should have used TTLBL but I'm not sure how good ttlbl is so I just did a few test shots with TTL and they were OK. As Wendell said though, the white balance is on the warm side so I may need to adjust it in PP.

As for the shows. These were my first two. The MYER one was completely thanks to Wendell's help. I would not know about it and even more importantly, I would not get in to one if it was not for him. The Chadston show was open to public and I found out about it purely by accident. I'm not sure how often things like this happen in Melbourne. Wendell says Melbourne is the place to be for this sort of thing. I'm sure Hobart would have somethnig similar, may be not as often though Visit Melbourne!

Hope this helps
Alex

[wendellt]

Hi John,

Thanks for your comments. I used my SB800 in TTL mode. With the MYER show the lighting was pretty dim, so it was as main source. With the other show, the ambient light was pretty bright, but I still used TTL, sometimes in -1/3 to -2/3 flash exposure compensation. I should have used TTLBL but I'm not sure how good ttlbl is so I just did a few test shots with TTL and they were OK. As Wendell said though, the white balance is on the warm side so I may need to adjust it in PP.

As for the shows. These were my first two. The MYER one was completely thanks to Wendell's help. I would not know about it and even more importantly, I would not get in to one if it was not for him. The Chadston show was open to public and I found out about it purely by accident. I'm not sure how often things like this happen in Melbourne. Wendell says Melbourne is the place to be for this sort of thing. I'm sure Hobart would have somethnig similar, may be not as often though Visit Melbourne!

Hope this helps
Alex

TTTL-Bl is not good whaty it does is when you want to take a shot like when the model winks, this lasts for half a second the flash will pre-fire multiple preflashes so the camera can meter the scene then fire the main flash overall 1 second after you press the shutter, you would miss the shot

If i use flash it's just to fill at the lowest setting and pointed 45 degrees upwards, direct flash may have worked well in the myer show but in turn have lost the mood of the scene which was dark and sexy

anyways it's a learnign experience

most photogs have the flash mounted on the camera just in case they are forced to use it but most of the time they prefer available light shooting regardless if there are harsh shadows on the face, it's all about timing and angle when the model walks in the right place where the light hits the face and body evenly shoot

[Alex]

Hi John,

Thanks for your comments. I used my SB800 in TTL mode. With the MYER show the lighting was pretty dim, so it was as main source. With the other show, the ambient light was pretty bright, but I still used TTL, sometimes in -1/3 to -2/3 flash exposure compensation. I should have used TTLBL but I'm not sure how good ttlbl is so I just did a few test shots with TTL and they were OK. As Wendell said though, the white balance is on the warm side so I may need to adjust it in PP.

As for the shows. These were my first two. The MYER one was completely thanks to Wendell's help. I would not know about it and even more importantly, I would not get in to one if it was not for him. The Chadston show was open to public and I found out about it purely by accident. I'm not sure how often things like this happen in Melbourne. Wendell says Melbourne is the place to be for this sort of thing. I'm sure Hobart would have somethnig similar, may be not as often though Visit Melbourne!

Hope this helps
Alex

TTTL-Bl is not good whaty it does is when you want to take a shot like when the model winks, this lasts for half a second the flash will pre-fire multiple preflashes so the camera can meter the scene then fire the main flash overall 1 second after you press the shutter, you would miss the shot

If i use flash it's just to fill at the lowest setting and pointed 45 degrees upwards, direct flash may have worked well in the myer show but in turn have lost the mood of the scene which was dark and sexy

anyways it's a learnign experience

most photogs have the flash mounted on the camera just in case they are forced to use it but most of the time they prefer available light shooting regardless if there are harsh shadows on the face, it's all about timing and angle when the model walks in the right place where the light hits the face and body evenly shoot

Thanks for the tips, Wendell. MYER show needed flash for me anyway, as I wasn't using fast glass or monopod. In the Chadstone show, however, I should have used -1 setting for the flash and at 45 deg. (as you said), but again since I wasn't using fast glass, the shutter speeds wouldn't be sufficient.

Alex

[jerrysk8]

nice pics. should try using a diffuser. there was a david jones show in bris yesterday. wish i had my camera to try this out.

[Alex]

nice pics. should try using a diffuser. there was a david jones show in bris yesterday. wish i had my camera to try this out.

Thanks for the comments and suggestion regarding the flash. I went to the Melbourne David Jones fashion show and was not allowed to take any photos (store policy).

Alex