Taken today with a D200, 50mm 1.8 (at F2, and on camera flash diffused)
At the moment I don't have much for lighting, built in flash and a pair of 500w halogens... SB-600 coming sometime soon.
is there anything else I can do simply to improve these?
thanks in advance. (minor cropping/levels done before resizing)
in my opinion these are geat shots, they just need a little PS. What i would try and do is soften the skin tones a little bit to "dampen" the affect of the flash
ill post back in acouple afte trying a quik fix :)
For now, turn off your flash and use the halogens. The colors of the two light sources don't match anyway, so it just confuses things. If you have a neutral color card (gray, white, etc) take a shot of it after you've placed your halogens so you can get your WB right on.
Now, for placing the halogens, try putting one off to the side, about 45 degrees from the subject and at about a 10:00 or 2:00 position vertically. This light will function as your main light and will create three dimensional shadows.
Place the other light at about twice the distance from the subject, and have it straight back by the camera. This is your fill light and it will be used to soften the shadows. For harsher shadows, move back even further. For even softer shadows, move forward.
Since these are continuous lights, you can play with them and see what the shadows are doing. That's a lot more fun than visualizing your flash. The downside is ... even 1000w halogens don't put out a lot of light so your shutter speed isn't going to be really great.
I'd play with a stuffed animal or doll first and get the lights set about how you want. Then bring the baby in and shoot.
For those shots all I used was the flash, with a not so bright ceiling light in the room.. I'll have to try just the halogens next time.. thanks for the input, I'll try playing a bit more in photoshop, I like the concept you created "IEnjoyHam" I'll have to play around and make it fit the photo and goals. thanks
