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Category: Friendly Praise Archive

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Amanda


	Amanda I'm practicing here with two speedlites. I'm finding it difficult to haul my lighting equipment into someone's living room so I'm trying a speedlite setup. The results are different but I believe I can make this work with some practice and perhaps one more slaved speedlite. This one has a 580 speedlite on Camera with a lumiquest bounce shield and a 430 speedlite to the left of the camera. Maverick Creatives

BetterPhoto Member

Nice job, Gary! I have a similar problems, so I can appreciate all to well what your going through. This picture is great and your model is attractive, bringing out the whites in her eyes really zing.
Rick

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December 20, 2005

Maverick Creatives

Thanks, Richard. I haven't been able to find much information on HOW to shoot with speedlites so I just apply the same principals as shooting with strobes. Seems to be working OK, and it sure makes "house calls" less of a headache.

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December 20, 2005

BetterPhoto Member

Thanks for getting back to me Gary, I believe you're right, the principles of lighting should be the same. It really comes down W/S (watts seconds), if W/S is strong enough for the condition then you should get the right results, which you seem to do nicely with this photo ... is this a person you know or a model?

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December 20, 2005

Maverick Creatives

There are situations where I know I'd like to have a third speedlite. Hope Santa's listening. *smile*
Amanda is one of the "kids" in the area who is both a model and a personal friend. The girls on my Web site are all family or friends of family and they are doing well as a small-time model group.

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December 20, 2005

Gary Lange

Hey Gary, awesome work...I like doing this kind of stuff with my Nikon speedlight, wireless "Commander" mode on my Nikon works well. I've set up my speedlight on a seperate tripod in one area and used the on-camera flash to trigger it. If I had more "green stamps" I would use another Nikon speedlight (listening Santa?). I have no other lighting equipment, it's too expensive for me so I do what I can on the cheap. Again, nice work here!

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December 20, 2005

Maverick Creatives

Thanks for the compliment Gary. I wonder why more people don't play with speedlites/speedlights. They are a bit costly but it sure makes life easier for in home photography and you can get some very acceptable results (sellable)

Gary

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December 20, 2005

Kerby Pfrangle

Gary, congratulations on this beautiful finalist. Best of luck to you in the following round.

Beautiful image. Kerby

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December 20, 2005

Eileen Kennedy

Hi Gary, I love the pose, ecxpression and composition. Great image. I'm also trying to experiment with Nikon wireless speedlights so this thread and image are very instructive for me. I'm just wondering about the whites of her eyes -- did you do that in PS or is that the result of the speedlight setup? To me, they seem a little too white, almost distracting. I love everything else, though.

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January 04, 2006

Andrea Hillis

Very nice.

It's good to know that I'm not the only one using my speedlight, which is my only source for indoor lighting...for now anyway.

A.

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January 04, 2006

Maverick Creatives

Thanks Kerby, it's always nice to hear that you like one of my photographs.
Thank you Eileen and Andrea. I'll try to describe my challenge here.
Amanda is a professional model and it didn't take a lot of verbalization to get the pose down pat. However, models like to challenge photographers occasionally and Amanda wanted a shot where her eyes would follow you around a room. The first photo we enlarged (20x24) was ok but in a dimly lit living room it's wasn't what she wanted. I did "over correct" the whites in adobe, had it reprinted and now the eyes do follow you in her living room. She was happy, I was happy that she was happy and I received a finalist mention to boot. By the way, nothing else was altered in Adobe, only the eyes.
I have no idea why whitening the eyes made this work. If anyone knows the "scientific or photographic" reason I'd love to know. I'm sure I'm not the only one to discover this.

Gary.

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January 04, 2006

Martin J. Preslar

No idea why the ultra-whitened eyes "follow" you around the room, but the do it even on the computer screen! Great portrait and great effect! Bravo!!!! Congrats on the Finalist nod!

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January 05, 2006

Kristy

Hi Gary,
I had a question about the Lumiquest you were using on your Speedlite. I'm looking into getting one of these for my 420ex Canon Speedlite. What model do you have exactly and are you happy with it? Do you end up with having to open up a lot to compensate for light loss? I'm fed up with always having an assistant holding a bounce card over my head when I want a more natural look. I don't do much indoor work right now primarily because I hate dead on flash and don't have a pro flash setup. I would like to do more though and feel that investing in something like a Lumiquest and a slave setup would enable me to enjoy shooting indoor portraits.

Thanks,
Kristy

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January 30, 2006

- Shelly A. Van Camp

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Shelly A. Van Camp's Gallery

Beautiful work and image, Kristy. I just started to shoot senior images....maybe you could give me some feedback on the ones I have posted.
Thanks and great work!

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November 18, 2008

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