Ok, so I set myself up as a bit of a flash guru way back in my first post, guru is way too strong a word, as I'm very much still learning the ropes of how the whole flash thing works. So today I present to you quick video on my 2 light outdoor setup, as well as the resultant pic, along with a before/after look at my processing. Not to mentional all the tiny little mundane details that alot of people forget about.
Ok, first things first, the video:
Good yeah?
Like the pic at the end?
Yeah, me too.
If you didn't catch all the gear in the video, or can't see the video, here's my light setup:
Ok, so that was a pretty quick and dirty look into my light setup, now onto the processing, followed by the results!
Not too shabby eh? And now to explain my Post procedure:
- Import into Lightroom
- General preset - Punch
- Pulled the clarity right down to -14 (this makes the image look softer, very very effective for females)
- Increased the black clipping upto 8
- Sharpening (+50)
- Noise REduction (+46)
- Vignette (-100)
- Exported to *.tif, and into my favourite Image editing program (just to remove a few stray leaves from a nearby tree)
- Imported back into Lightroom
- Sharpening (+50)
- Noise Reduction (+50)
- Clarity down to -19
- Upped the Blue saturation (+33)
- Pulled the Blue Luminance down (-31)
- Upped the Vibrance to +55
- Pulled the Saturation down to -29
And now for the Final Result...(click through the photo to see a higher-res image)
J.P.
It's nice that you share your setups and workflow Josh. It gives me (us), begginers, lot's of food for thoughts and experiments. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteVery nice final result! She looks like a doll!
I have to ask two things:
ReplyDelete1) What's that freaky sideways lightstand mount thing you've got for your 580EXII?
2) Take this not as a criticism, but as a chance to learn.
Doing the Guide Number maths for a 580EXII:
GN@50mm=42
GN@105mm=58
Now they were both at 1/4 power, so that means
50mm=>10.5
105mm=>14.5m
At f/14
50mm=>0.75
105mm=>1.04
Now, from the video, the close strobe looks like it's about (conservatively) 2m away, and the back one, about 4m away, so you'd probably be a bit over 1 stop under 'correct' exposure with the front flash, and up to 2 stops under with the back flash.
So from that, you're not really 'overpowering' the sun :)
Now that's out of the way, I really would have liked to see a no-flash comparison, to see how much ambient was on the subject, to see how much the flashes added.
@ SS Buchanan
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point, and a good reminder for me in include a "before" photo where there is no actual flash being used, to give a real comparison of what is actually being achieved. As for over powering the sun, you're completely correct. It was more that I overpowered the shadow.
Nice post Josh, I love the home made clamps, I made some too, as u know, we should do a quick video on them.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll have to make a sideways mount for mine, as well... I've got a pretty ghetto system that I'm not really a fan of. And I'm happy to see you're using CyberSyncs! I love them.
ReplyDelete