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Both are very good. I love the lighting and her expression is very nice and natural, and I love the bokeh!

I like the first one best, the second one seems slightly over-saturated to me.


To nitpick a bit, I would have liked a slightly more tight crop, I think there's too much room over her. The placement all the way to the right is nice though. So try to cut about 1/3 to 1/2 of the room above her.


That's the only critizism I have to offer though

 

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thanks! the top pic is straight off the camera, minus a huge crop already...lol


I will post origional later today when I get off work... the bottom was me goofing around with some presets in LR

 

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i like them both.

the second one i like best tho.

i like the bright behind her and shining on her face like that.

 

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I was going to suggest using a CTO gel on the flash when I first looked. Glad to see you caught it on your own and did it in post tho

I was going to say that the first is too dark but it looks pretty good in post. The back lighting adds a real nice glow to her hair too. I think this might be your strongest composition so far.

I think your compositions are getting stronger and stronger but i keep noticing a theme of the flash being a bit underexposed and hurting what could be great images. I am curious as to what the process of setting up the image is. How many images do you generally take and how many different settings do you try? Try and get in the habit of nailing the exposure in camera and minimizing the amount of post, for me that just means taking a ton of throw away shots until I find myself in the right exposure range. Some people hate on those of us that check(chimp) our LCD's after every shot but I would rather look dumb chimping and adjusting than missing shots. I think you are headed in the right direction though.

 

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I am not happy with my current flash situation, and I may be getting a lot better one soon. Those were actually shot at full power using a YN560 flash behind a shoot through westcott 43" umbrella. She was standing maybe 5 feet away. I am always afraid of over exposing... back from my 35mm days.


we didnt take a lot of pics yesterday, as none of the girls were feeling it, and it turned out to be a bad outting for all of us. I took 90 photos yesterday, and had 49 of them where my flash didnt fire, and that really pissed me off, so I was already in a bad mood...lol


I am getting a replacement for my flash though, so I will be back in it soon, but will all be in "studio" during the winter months

 

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What don't you like about the 560? I have one and other than having kind of a weak display setup I like it.

<edit> Is it possible that you are shooting faster than the flashes recycle rate? My first outing with it i thought i was having a lot of misfires but it turned out i was shooting too fast. At full power it recycles a lot slower than it does at a lower power and if you don't have the beeps enabled you would have no idea why it doesn't fire.

<edit #2> check out this article about overexposing images, apparently with digital cameras it's better to overexpose than underexpose. I think it basically means that when you overexpose, the sensor still records the data which can be recovered, if you underexpose the data isn't recorded. It is mainly used in regards to landscapes but I think it might help ease your mind about blowing out a picture.
http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/articles/lightroom-tutorial-expose-to-the-right/

<edit #3> also, possibly the original expose right article circa 2003 (still pretty relevant)
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

 

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as you can see from the originals exif data that I am way under the flash synch speed. I was firing the flash via RF602's and the flash made its beep to let me know that it fired and recycled, but the flash never fired. I had my wife watching the flash after I noticed that it was happening. It actually happened a lot on Saturday when she was taking smoke pics in the garage.


next weekend, I plan on taking some "studio" pics against the white muslin that I have, and I am going to build me a DIY ring flash.

 

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