L'Oreal Fashion Festival - first images

[Alex]

Hi all,

As I posted yesterday, Wendell managed to get me an oppotunity to shoot a show at the L'Oreal festival. Thanks Wendell - what a nice guy!

This show I shot exclusively with the 50 mm f1.4 so all images are heavily cropped, but some are still quite sharp. The biggest problem for me this time was the use of flash. I shot at ISO 500-800 and this proved to be too high a sensitivity for a lot of flash shots. Many faces were blown out by the flash as I was shooting mostly at f2.8-4. Looking later at the SB800 chart, f2.8-4 normally requires an aperture of 4 or higher to produce not overexposed shots with SB800. Oh well, live and learn. Here are a few examples. As I said, most were shot at f2.8 and shutter speed of 1/250 or higher, ISO500-800. Any C&C are much appreicated.










Alex

[Finch]

Hi Alex,

Nice series of shots with no. 2 and no.3 being favourites. Unfortunately, no. 1 has a bit too much reflection off dress and face from flash.

Overall, a good attempt at shooting a fashion parade.

Cheers

Michael

[Killakoala]

No worries mate. They look fine to me, so do the images.

[Matt. K]

The clothes look great but why are the girls so unattractive?

[wendellt]

i think i gave you a bumsteer here

50mm at f2.8 with a shutterspeed of 1/250 should be good but at ISO 640 to 800 it may have produced those results

i think the trick is to use the diffuser that reduces the flash output by heaps and point it 45% upwards

Also helps to review your images the lighting was dynamic

the above specs work well without flash in a well lit show but that show was dark, those settigns combined with flash woudl give you results like that

otherwise i would say you captured the other photographers flashes hence your bright images

I was shooting f2.8 1/200 ISO 800

are all your images exposed like the samples you posted?

[Alex]

Thanks all for your comments

Wendell: Some are really bad. I used various settings. Adjusting aperture to 4 or above would have helped. I used diffuser on at first but it gave mixed results. I think I should have used aperture of about 5. This show was more of challenge in terms of exposure than the MYER show for me.

Alex

[wendellt]

i have used the same combo long ago the 50mm at f4 is too slow for low light perhaps in a show with perfect lighting f4 woudl work but you definiately need to shoot at f2.8
even though the max flash sync ont eh sb800 and d70 maybe 1/250 if your review determined the result to be too bright increase the shutter to 1/320 - 1/400 faster shutterspeeds are good the flash still gets the model even if it's not in sync with the shutter

i have no idea why youir images turned out like that, the other photographers were shooting at those settings even the other guy dave who was using a 28mm lens - who knows why was shootign f2.8 1/250 ISO 640

maybe your flash was turned on at full power ++?

[wendellt]

an example shot with the 50mm f1.4 at f1.4 one of my first shows
i know i shot this with no flash 1/250 ISO 800 the lighting was dark lots of coloured gels. the show was darker than the saturday loreal show



back then i thought 1.4 was sweet but the depth of field is too shallow

i think your flash settings are to blsme for your overexposed shots

[Alex]

Thanks for the suggestions, Wendell. The flash was at redusced power between -0.7 and -2. I think the problem was that at the aperture/ shutter speed combo I was using, the exposure was ok for ambient light. Adding flash would overexpose some images. Also, the light is quite variable. But I do notice that when I shot myer I was at about 1/180 to 1/250 at f4.5-6 and the exposure was OK with flash. The lighting was different though. Don't know.. need more experience. I increased shutter speed but that changed little, because flash is mostly controlled by aperture and ISO.

Alex

[Alex]

I see. I think if I used f2.8 and 1/250, I should have used iso not higher than 400, if I used flash. Whereas 640-800 would be good for ambient light.

Alex

[PiroStitch]

Great learning experience Alex I can now see why you were saying your settings created bit of overexposure. THere's always next time

[wendellt]

the myer show was easy because the lighting and production was top notch
lighting tests designed to cater for the photographers
anyway it's a learnfing experience, i am still learnign new things from the others at the shows, everyone is nice and it was fun but for me work

[Alex]

the myer show was easy because the lighting and production was top notch
lighting tests designed to cater for the photographers
anyway it's a learnfing experience, i am still learnign new things from the others at the shows, everyone is nice and it was fun but for me work

Absolutely, Wendell. This was a great experience for me. I'm learning something new with every show. Did you go on a tour today? Looking forward to your photos.

Alex

P.s. do you do much pping on yours?

[jerrysk8]

im no expert here but the flash makes the pics look very point and shoot. i'd go no flash at all, which is what i usually do for gig pics even, tho the venue lighting sucks using a flash just seems to take away from the atmosphere. but if flash is needed definately use a difuser and bounce. for most of my single flash work i usually meter ambient and fill flash seperately and set the flash to 0 and ambient to -1. this helps to isolate the background and make the subject pop out more. but like i said, i'm no expert and this might not work for this type of photography. also not a big fan on the crops with the feet cut out and first could do with a little head room, tho i'm not a big fan on any cropping. just my thoughts.

[mudder]

G'day Alex, this must have been a great experience and you would have got so much out of it, good on ya mate... Only things that catch my eye are to watch your cropping/framing, some hot spots there assumedly from flash(?), flash does seem a smidge strong (assumedly pointing at 'em?), but wow first go I'd be very bloody happy with this lot, well done...

And well done to Wendell to for the assistance and guidance etc. the best forum at its best, great stuff...

[Alex]

Thanks for the suggestion, guys.

Jerrysk8: Definately too much flash. I stuffed up a lot of pics in this show because I my iso was set too high for the given aperture and yeah I should have used diffuser. As for crops, sometimes I had no choice as I used the 50 mm only and if I did not crop, you'd see heads of people sitting just in front of me, near the stage

Andrew: see above re flash. I did two more shows, thanks to Wendell and I am in the process of going through the photos now and will post links to all of them soon.

Cheers
Alex