Advice on indoor pet & owner portaiture plz

[Marsu42]

Yo all,

I recently did some shots of two nice golden age ladies and their black poodles outdoors and then inside and would like to have some feedback on the result. Here's the link to the gallery (yes, I've got a release as it wasn't exactly overpaid). You can get a 2k version with a click on the slide image, the highest res version I dared to export.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for commenting!

 

[privatebydesign]

Within the context of constructive criticism, which you asked for, I would just say they are over illuminated, not just the general exposure, which I know you know could have been easily adjusted with your FEC, but the additional light sources are too close to the camera and you are getting a flat 'beauty' style light.

In my opinion you need more shadow and that is easiest to achieve with the lights further from the camera axis. They all look like they have some on axis fill, which you don't need, because of the pinpoint catchlight in the eye near center in all the images I looked at.

Hope this helps.

 

[Marsu42]

but the additional light sources are too close to the camera and you are getting a flat 'beauty' style light.

Yeah, that was a constraint of the room - I couldn't place the umbrella further away, and they were sitting very near it because the of the lack of sitting space. In hindsight, I should have moved around the furniture, but it's not like people love having their room redecorated.

but the additional They all look like they have some on axis fill, which you don't need, because of the pinpoint catchlight in the eye near center in all the images I looked at.

EDIT: I just remembered why I cranked up the fill by looking at other shots with more off-axis flash and thus less "flat look": I was afraid that the animals would look like black holes in space, and they did. Even with a lot of fill I was barely able to lift 'em into visibility.

but the additional Hope this helps.

Thanks for the feedback (I hope there'll be something from others), do you find these indoor shots "ok" for delivery to a client for a very mediocre pay, or do you'd eval them "sub-par"? And would you shoot these in ettl at all or try to adjust until you get a reliable flash-m setting?

 

[privatebydesign]

EDIT: I just remembered why I cranked up the fill by looking at other shots with more off-axis flash and thus less "flat look": I was afraid that the animals would look like black holes in space, and they did. Even with a lot of fill I was barely able to lift 'em into visibility.

In that case you need to light them with their own snooted flash.

but the additional Hope this helps.

Thanks for the feedback (I hope there'll be something from others), do you find these indoor shots "ok" for delivery to a client for a very mediocre pay, or do you'd eval them "sub-par"? And would you shoot these in ettl at all or try to adjust until you get a reliable flash-m setting?

That is entirely your call, but I would think they are fine. Having said that I have a 400iso max on anything that is going out, if I can't get it with that I keep adding lights until I can.

I would never shoot sitting subjects in ETTL, I'd always take a few test shots, with a grey card if need be to nail exposure, don't be afraid of portraying black things as black, and just leave the camera and flash setting alone, that way you could concentrate on getting the subjects attention.

I know how overwhelming it can be to try to figure out camera settings, flash settings, two dogs and their owners, who are also the paying clients, it is too much stress, so break the tasks down into more manageable chunks, camera and flash settings, then the owners, then the dogs.

 

[Marsu42]

I would never shoot sitting subjects in ETTL, I'd always take a few test shots, with a grey card if need be to nail exposure, don't be afraid of portraying black things as black, and just leave the camera and flash setting alone, that way you could concentrate on getting the subjects attention.

Thanks again - I think the reason for the over-flashing is that the metering tried to compensate for the black dogs. In these cases, I obviously simply have to settle for one full camera m and flash m... makes you wonder why you're using a fancy eos system

I know how overwhelming it can be to try to figure out camera settings, flash settings, two dogs and their owners, who are also the paying clients, it is too much stress, so break the tasks down into more manageable chunks, camera and flash settings, then the owners, then the dogs.

Good talking to someone actually doing pro work - this shot was really difficult to do, there are some exposures with better lighting but of course all the 4 subjects looking ok has to coincide, dropping the keeper rate a lot. Next time, I simply have to take my time even if the clients are wondering what's taking me so long and their nephew (husband, son, whatever) would be long finished shooting with their p&s.