Cheap manual flash to use for fill lighting...

[verysimplejason]

YN 560 II or III. I had one I use as my primary flash. Very cheap but very powerful. It's also easy to use. I've used one in a concert of my daughter and it can almost illuminate the whole stage. It's also very flexible that I can easily use it for macro shooting.

 

[jdramirez]

You mention you didn't like the shadows. Did you play around with the light moving it closer so the light would wrap around Your daughter to get rid of unwanted shadows?

I would also try a reflector before jumping in to get another light. You can pickup a cheap 42" 5 in one for about 18 bucks at amazon.

I have such a limited amount of time to play with light source distances. two hours seems like a ton of time, but not really....

If two hours seems like a ton of time then getting more lights is not the answer.

In baby time, it is like fifteen minutes...

 

[dexstrose]

Maybe this could be helpful before buying another light. Gives you a basic of light modifiers. Or look for one on the inverse square law.

http://www.adorama.com/alc/0013691/article/Light-Modifiers-AdoramaTV

 

[jdramirez]

Maybe this could be helpful before buying another light. Gives you a basic of light modifiers. Or look for one on the inverse square law.

http://www.adorama.com/alc/0013691/article/Light-Modifiers-AdoramaTV

I saw something similar recently... I thought it was interesting but I don't see myself getting the 72 inch umbrella anytime soon. I'll give it a look when I'm not at work.

 

[privatebydesign]

Window light/ambient with or without reflectors is the easiest and cheapest way to lower contrast.

The Canon 550EX secondhand is the best bang for the buck with regards HSS and unbreakable full Canon compatible bargain flashes. Get one off eBay for under $150 and sell it next year, if you want, for $140.

 

[Marsu42]

Window light/ambient with or without reflectors is the easiest and cheapest way to lower contrast.

+1, but you need a ff camera for that because indoors with ambient from a window you're reaching iso 1600-3200 in no time with sufficient dof & fast x-sync for portrait - I just tried that with the 60d, nice shots, but horrible noise that drowned a lot of details. Actually, that was the last drop in the bucket for me to order the 6d

 

[Skirball]

Window light/ambient with or without reflectors is the easiest and cheapest way to lower contrast.

+1, but you need a ff camera for that because indoors with ambient from a window you're reaching iso 1600-3200 in no time with sufficient dof & fast x-sync for portrait - I just tried that with the 60d, nice shots, but horrible noise that drowned a lot of details. Actually, that was the last drop in the bucket for me to order the 6d

He said he was having the opposite problem, too much light. If you’re using HSS because you can’t stay below your max sync speed and shooting at ISO 1600, you’re doing it wrong.

 

[Marsu42]

He said he was having the opposite problem, too much light. If you’re using HSS because you can’t stay below your max sync speed and shooting at ISO 1600, you’re doing it wrong.

Wupps, I should start reading the op's posts ... but you're correct, I just couldn't imagine this situation, at least unless you need a very fast sync speed for freezing motion.

 

[jdramirez]

for reference, most of these are night shots indoors. I work traditional hours and with the son going down earlier and earlier, flash is a necessity. bouncing it off the walls works, but I'd like to be able to do if camera effectively. it seems like one off those things that should simply come naturally.

 

[Skirball]

for reference, most of these are night shots indoors. I work traditional hours and with the son going down earlier and earlier, flash is a necessity. bouncing it off the walls works, but I'd like to be able to do if camera effectively. it seems like one off those things that should simply come naturally.

Then just get the cheap manual flash, you don't need HSS.

 

[FTb-n]

Yongnuo YN 460ii. I've collect six of these over the years and they work great. Very simple and quick to adjust power, no menus to navigate. I most often use two per umbrella (60" Photoflex in shoot-through) for main light. This way I can avoid using full power and recycle time is very quick. Easy to add a couple YN 460's on the background to either get rid of shadows or blow white backdrops out.

 

[privatebydesign]

Window light/ambient with or without reflectors is the easiest and cheapest way to lower contrast.

+1, but you need a ff camera for that because indoors with ambient from a window you're reaching iso 1600-3200 in no time with sufficient dof & fast x-sync for portrait - I just tried that with the 60d, nice shots, but horrible noise that drowned a lot of details. Actually, that was the last drop in the bucket for me to order the 6d

Not at all, I just shot these for this thread, I'll do some more once it has gone dark.

Late afternoon/early evening and I am getting 1/40 sec @ f2.8 with 100iso only ambient light, that is the first image. The second image is same settings but with an off camera flash on the other side of the head in ETTL. The third image, is 1/100 sec everything else the same, the point is you now have filled shadows on image left. Fourth image is 1/250 all else the same, we now have eve more contrast as the face image left is another 1 1/2 stops under the face image right.

 

[privatebydesign]

Here is a pull back.

 

[privatebydesign]

Now the OP is tripping over himself, you don't need HSS to overcome ambient in normal room lighting at night. Once it goes fully dark here I will redo this with a bounce card if anybody would like to illustrate that. It is very easy to less contrast while using one light in a dull room at f1.8.

 

[jdramirez]

what aperture?

Window light/ambient with or without reflectors is the easiest and cheapest way to lower contrast.

+1, but you need a ff camera for that because indoors with ambient from a window you're reaching iso 1600-3200 in no time with sufficient dof & fast x-sync for portrait - I just tried that with the 60d, nice shots, but horrible noise that drowned a lot of details. Actually, that was the last drop in the bucket for me to order the 6d

Not at all, I just shot these for this thread, I'll do some more once it has gone dark.

Late afternoon/early evening and I am getting 1/40 sec @ f2.8 with 100iso only ambient light, that is the first image. The second image is same settings but with an off camera flash on the other side of the head in ETTL. The third image, is 1/100 sec everything else the same, the point is you now have filled shadows on image left. Fourth image is 1/250 all else the same, we now have eve more contrast as the face image left is another 1 1/2 stops under the face image right.

 

[Marsu42]

Not at all, I just shot these for this thread, I'll do some more once it has gone dark.

You're actually shooting clay heads :-> ... did you make them for practice? This is a great idea, I also wanted to do that but never came around to it, that's why I have to keep asking friends of mine to pose for paramount, loop & rembrandt lighting

Fourth image is 1/250 all else the same, we now have eve more contrast as the face image left is another 1 1/2 stops under the face image right.

Hmmm, this is not my recent experience - in your shot, you've got a nice window with daylight and you're shooting at rather shallow dof with f2.8.

The day before yesterday I shot in a dimly lit room in the evening with a medium window - and I needed a larger dof and a fast shutter speed because I was doing a portrait of a friend of mine with her dog on her arm. I used the ambient from the window (I didn't measure it) as shadow fill for a flash from the other side as key light - and I was @iso1600 to see any noticeable ambient effect.

I calculate: darker ambient than in your example = maybe -2 ev ... smaller aperture = another -1 to -1.5 ev. ...and that's for a "flash type" shot, a more natural "ambient style" shot would even need a higher iso setting.

I'm definitely not through trying to mix ambient & flash indoors, so I'm open to other experiences but I think the combination of deeper dof + dim ambient in non-studio situations makes quite a difference.

 

[privatebydesign]

"what aperture?"

As listed f2.8. A bit later I'll do a pull back of one off camera flash with a fill reflector at f1.8 as you listed earlier.

"You're actually shooting clay heads :-> ... did you make them for practice?"

No it is one my girlfriend made for an art piece years ago, I am always getting in trouble for using it! A far better solution is Styrofoam ones from eBay, they are less than $10 shipped and come in men's and women's styles.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=styrofoam%20heads&_fscr=1

 

[privatebydesign]

Here is a series when it is pitch black outside.
[list type=decimal]
[*]1Ds MkIII, 50mm f1.4 settings: Camera-M mode, f1.8, 1/250 sec, 100iso; Flash-M mode 1/128 power
[*] As above with reflector
[*]1Ds MkIII, 50mm f1.4 settings: Camera-M mode, f10, 1/250 sec, 100iso; Flash-M mode 1/4 power
[*] As above with reflector
[/list]

 

[privatebydesign]

Pull back shot first, and exposure as above 1/250 @ f1.8 with no flash.

You might have noticed the shutter shadow on the image right of the f10 shots, this is an example of the losing one stop limitation Canon warn about when using the RT system remotely on pre 2012 bodies. I am becoming convinced it is an aperture related symptom.

Whilst I did use a fancy flash for this there was absolutely no need to, even the cheapest most basic flash that offers low power (I was at 1/128th power) can shoot at f1.8 and I was only at 1/4 power at f10.

My flash mods were a Large Rouge Flashbender and for a reflector an old bit of foam core that I actually held whilst taking the reflector shots a bit further away than where I leaned it for the pull back shot.

 

[jdramirez]

It actually sounds like my 622c might be miscommunicating with the 580 and rather than communicating via ETTL, it is simply telling the 580 to flash at full. Which is why I was going to the high speed sync. Hmm. Come to think of it, I wasn't able to access the on camera flash control when I was having these over exposure issues. So maybe I go back to the drawing board and see if I can get the right setting so I CAN shoot at 1/200th of a second and then maybe I will go ahead and get a reflector to soften some of the shadows. Ugh. I'm a straight A student that is getting a C in this course on flash... it is frustrating.