How Can I improve ?

[Alpha_7]

I'd be keen to get some feedback on how better to have shot these three picks from a 50th Birthday Party on the weekend. The girls are always happy to pose and we had fun taking the shots, I'm not sure what PP or techniques would of helped.
Lighting wise we were in a wooden school hall, very very tall roofs and a mixture of very bad fluros and incandescent lighting. I've got flash issues so the SB-800 was hotshoe mounted with diffuser straight on.

Oh the first one I've dodge the background (bright exit sign etc) the others I didn't but I can, I didn't find the background as bad in the other two.

[Antsl]

Hi Craig,

My advice... start by using a slightly longer and faster lens (preferably a 30mm f1.4 or a 50mm 1.4) and work with the aperture wide open to use available light. Turn the flash off and use a high ISO (800+) with a slow shutter speed. Once you get the hang of what you can working in available light you will have a lot more fun and interesting photos will be a lot easier to capture!

Give it a go! Antsl

[Alpha_7]

Antsl, While I appreciate the feedback and suggestions, further purchases aren't likely right now, so I have to work with what I've got, which is Kit Lens, 80-200 2.8, and 10-20 .. (forget about the 70-300G).
Sadly only the 80-200 would be fast enough in low light conditions. (AFAIK)

[Antsl]

Have a go working with the 10-20 in available light... it is a little slow but the advantage is there is less chance of noticable camera shake with a wide-angle lens.

A good professional friend of mine was often asked by recreational photographers what the best lens might be for taking whatever type of photo it was they were working on at the time and his advice was invariably "the one you've got". My feeling with the photos is that you are just a little too close and so working at the 20mm end of the range will be good enough. Still have a go at working without flash and you may grow to like it. 95% of my work at night is done without flash... the difference is magic.

[Matt. K]

Craig
These images look a little heavy/dark on my monitor. Perhaps a mild curves tweak to brighten them up is all they need? Perhaps your monitor is set too bright?...or mine too dark? Otherwise the images are great!

[Alpha_7]

Craig
These images look a little heavy/dark on my monitor. Perhaps a mild curves tweak to brighten them up is all they need? Perhaps your monitor is set too bright?...or mine too dark? Otherwise the images are great!

That would be my LCD, it's not calibrated and is always to bright, I'll see if I can tweak it and bring them out a little.

Edit : Here is one of the shots I haven't mastered Curve tweaking but I used levels to get a more balanced looking histogram.

[Glen]

Craig, just a thought, most of these look like nice shots just dark. On Nikon Capture (the old one not the Japanese one you have), there was a thing called D-Lighting with two modes- Faster or Higher Quality. I would hit the higher quality button on these ones and I would think they would be much better.

[wendellt]

if your on a budget you can bounce the flash

scope out the scene find areas where light can be reflected

you can get creative and find a coloured wall and get some of that colour on the subjects

sometimes bounce directed to the ceiling can darken the area under the eyebrow ridge, so to compensate pop up the white card thing on the flash demonstrated in the image below



or hold a white piece of paper behind the flash

1st social pic shows bounced flash from the ceiling with a little fill, probably not the best example but the only i could find at the moment

2nd pic flash directed at a wall, you can get nice diffussed side lighting

hope this helps

but as anstl states seek out good light, be creative

[byrt_001]

hi

my advise is to reduce your shutter speed,and f stop, you are at 60/s at f8 and you really do not so much dof. maybe you should change your camera setting to 15/s to f3.5? experiment with slow shutter speed. i think you can set your flash to rear curtain too.

christian

[Willy wombat]

I agree with Wendle that a bounce flash could help you out here. I have been using this technique for portraits with surprisingly good results.

[Greg B]

If those girls are 50, you are doing eveything right

[Colcam]

I agree with the others about the need for bounce on facials. I always used a lot of bounce in one form or another when I was working the game. A much softer light and smoother transition to the shadow areas. Get someone to hold a sheet of paper to the side/top etc., & bounce the light off that.

Fit a longer than standard lens/focal length and stand back, especially when shooting people half-length or closer for a much more flattering perspective and less chance of the dreaded enlarged honker in the middle of the face.
The second example after levels adjustment was much better exposure, but when shooting in a big hall or large room, you must allow more light/higher flash setting due to the lack of reflective surfaces around you. Try taking a photo of someone half length inside a small room & again outside the house at night and you will see how much light you lose.

In the pre-auto everything days, we walked into a large room & automatically opened the aperture one stop without thinking about it.
All the best
Col

[Dargan]

Thanks to GregB for my first laugh of the day. Have just gone through a 50th wife birthday which seems to be taking the whole year to complete so I empathise. Some of the suggestions here have been very practical. Thanks for the post Craig.

[Greg B]

Thanks to GregB for my first laugh of the day. Have just gone through a 50th wife birthday which seems to be taking the whole year to complete so I empathise. Some of the suggestions here have been very practical. Thanks for the post Craig.

My pleasure! My Good Lady Wife hits the magical Five Oh in May next year. I am very afraid.

The strategy is that we are going to Morocco and Southern Spain, hopefully with the birthday falling while we are there. I reckon that amount of exotica will distract the GLW from thinking about the fact of being thirty-twenty. I hope so anyway.