wagner Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 So, I got a 430EX II Speedlite in the hopes of trying to take better pictures. Any tips on how to use these for shooting indoors and shooting interiors of cars? I have looked around online and there are all kinds of fun ideas, and I don't have half the equipment they require to get to work I'm going to use the flash's auto features in ETTL mode to start. It looks like the closer the zoom i use the wider the spread for the flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Check out the strobist blog here. http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html There are quite a few different "lessons" that you can follow through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Check out the strobist blog here. http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html There are quite a few different "lessons" that you can follow through. I will keep that in mind and try to digest it all at some point. Right now I'm only going to be set up for on camera flash so I will have to play around with it at the shoot tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/ Scroll down to Part IV and read up. Key with using a flash is to do the very best not to indicate one was ever used. Inside cars is going to require and off camera cable and positioning. You have a great lens with IS built in and a nice wide aperture already, so practice in Av mode and stopped down enough to get good DOF. Canon will balance ambient light and use the strobe as fill flash. You will likely be able to get away with it nicely. Trick is going to be avoiding any hot spots so a nice diffuser will help. I have several I can lend you to practice with when I return your gopro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/ Scroll down to Part IV and read up. Key with using a flash is to do the very best not to indicate one was ever used. Inside cars is going to require and off camera cable and positioning. You have a great lens with IS built in and a nice wide aperture already, so practice in Av mode and stopped down enough to get good DOF. Canon will balance ambient light and use the strobe as fill flash. You will likely be able to get away with it nicely. Trick is going to be avoiding any hot spots so a nice diffuser will help. I have several I can lend you to practice with when I return your gopro. I will read up on this. I am going to be at a shop tonight shooting a part install so hopefully I can take some ok shots. Saturday I have to go do another re-shoot of inside shots on some GTOs, the editor keeps changing his mind on what he likes and does not like. He wants me to go back and "reframe" them and try to get them less soft, so that's why I got the bigger on camera flash. I thought that would help, sounds like I've now made even more work for myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 He wants me to go back and "reframe" them and try to get them less soft, so that's why I got the bigger on camera flash. In follow up to our conversation I'd really like to know why this guy is calling your other shots "soft". Does he realize that anything above f/11 is not going to help? Especially on your camera. Sharpness of any shot is going to be relative to print/display size. It's a magazine print. Soft is a relative term but in print such as what he's using them for softness won't be visible. Even a slightly back-focused show can be made to work with zero efforts. Oh well....he's the boss right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 In follow up to our conversation I'd really like to know why this guy is calling your other shots "soft". Does he realize that anything above f/11 is not going to help? Especially on your camera. Sharpness of any shot is going to be relative to print/display size. It's a magazine print. Soft is a relative term but in print such as what he's using them for softness won't be visible. Even a slightly back-focused show can be made to work with zero efforts. Oh well....he's the boss right... I have no idea, this guy is all over the place in his demands. I don't know if they have cut staff to the point they have nobody who can do post process work or what. This has been a total trial by fire deal but I'm learning a lot, just gets old after a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.cos Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Tim after talking to Brian at length about what this guy wants he has no clue what the fuck hes talking about when it comes to photography ...the editor not Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbotrio Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Tim after talking to Brian at length about what this guy wants he has no clue what the fuck hes talking about when it comes to photography ...the editor not Brian I would assume he (Like most viewers) likes or is looking for a certain "Look". I can look at two different pictures of the same car and hate one and love the other w/o having any idea how they were lit or what was done in processing etc etc. One just looks better than the other to me. I always like to get an idea of what someone likes by throwing out a few example shots just as a matter of "Taste" (IE: Some people really like overly-done HDR images and some hate them). It doesn't mean any of the pictures are "Good" or "Bad" its just what someone likes. Him using "Soft" probably doesn't mean anything about being sharp or not and is just what he is using to say "Not what I had in mind". Post up your "Soft" pic and I will give you my 2-cents, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.cos Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 The thing is he ACTS like he knows what he's talking about, at times giving him ridiculous demands not considering what gear brian has or anything.. he irks me. (he told him to shoot an interior of a car at f22 or higher... :what: ) To clarify. His ONLY request was that brian shoot at F22. He doesnt take into account what gear brian has, what lighting brian does/doesnt have, or anything. He probably saw a photo come across somewhere that was an interior shot at f22 and has now deemed that as the only way to shoot an interior and the only way to achieve a crisp shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 I'd turn in pics without EXIF or just edit it and appease him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Maybe since he's asking for F22 he wants the complete interior in focus which isn't an unreasonable request. To many shoot wide open and he's probably trying to avoid that without having the knowledge to convey what he's wanting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.cos Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Maybe since he's asking for F22 he wants the complete interior in focus which isn't an unreasonable request. To many shoot wide open and he's probably trying to avoid that without having the knowledge to convey what he's wanting. Right but that can also be achieved at f11, f16, or f32 as well, which is kinda my point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbotrio Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Right but that can also be achieved at f11, f16, or f32 as well, which is kinda my point. I think it's a matter of reading between the lines but I'm sure I (We) could confirm pretty quickly if the pic in question was posted. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Now that I'm starting to work with different editors he is the only one that has these types of requirments. For the tech article I was shooting last night the only requirments that editor has are "not to dark, not to blown out, I will color correct in Photoshop how I need it." He only gave me a suggested Fstop to start with because I asked. Now, here is one of the pictures from my first time shooting the inside of a car. I was told my ISO was to high and this was to soft http://waggz.smugmug.com/Other/Chuck-Big-3-GTO/i-6VMgZg6/0/L/IMG_0832-L.jpg I had my Fstop in the 16-22 range while shooting. I think the big problem is the shop is just not lit well enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 I tried playing around with the flash last night and had some issues. Hot spots, blue color, just to name a few. Before I go shoot the insides of the cars saturday I'm going to get some foamcore to bounce the flash off of. No idea how that will work, but I will give it a shot. I might also make a difuser out of business cards for the flash as well. Worse case I will take the cars outside and try to shoot them in the shade with no direct light. I've gotten better at staging and doing the outside shots, this interior stuff is just killing me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Indoors you'll likely need studio lights. Outdoors would be great because not only will lighting be better but glimpses through windows won't involve shop surroundings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Indoors you'll likely need studio lights. Outdoors would be great because not only will lighting be better but glimpses through windows won't involve shop surroundings. And that was the problem with the first shoot I did, "shop stuff". I was so zoned in and worried about other things that I missed the background stuff. I'm far from a pro or really even being that good. I've been taking tips from those who are nice enough to help and trying to teach myself as I go. Right now I think my track side and pit shots are strong, everything else is a solid meh. Here is part of a series that will actuall make the final feature when it goes to print. http://waggz.smugmug.com/Other/Chuck-Big-3-GTO/i-qhcnGQt/0/L/IMG_0688-L.jpg http://waggz.smugmug.com/Other/Chuck-Big-3-GTO/i-7j6gpjw/0/L/IMG_0693-L.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbotrio Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 I tried playing around with the flash last night and had some issues. Hot spots, blue color, just to name a few. Before I go shoot the insides of the cars saturday I'm going to get some foamcore to bounce the flash off of. No idea how that will work, but I will give it a shot. I might also make a difuser out of business cards for the flash as well. Worse case I will take the cars outside and try to shoot them in the shade with no direct light. I've gotten better at staging and doing the outside shots, this interior stuff is just killing me On a tight interior of a car I can see one on-camera flash being worse than a clean 30-second exposure with anything through the glass cloned out. I've never done any interior shots in awhile so I will dust off the Audi dash and play around this weekend and give it a go to see if I can offer you any advice. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 On a tight interior of a car I can see one on-camera flash being worse than a clean 30-second exposure with anything through the glass cloned out. I've never done any interior shots in awhile so I will dust off the Audi dash and play around this weekend and give it a go to see if I can offer you any advice. Jeff Yeah, maybe it was just how and where the car was at last night but it looked bad. I guess that's the nice thing about shooting digital vs film, picture looks like butt you can delete it and try again. I've got the "prefered angle" that I need to get for the cars so that will at least remove that issue for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbotrio Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yeah, maybe it was just how and where the car was at last night but it looked bad. I guess that's the nice thing about shooting digital vs film, picture looks like butt you can delete it and try again. I've got the "prefered angle" that I need to get for the cars so that will at least remove that issue for me. I always thought the Canon crop-body sensors were wayyyyy too noisy. Depending on your ISO while shooting at F/16-22 in a darker environment that is a difficult task for a crop-body hand-held. I regularly shoot at ISO 6400 now and forget what being annoyed by tons of noise and noise-reduction is. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 I always thought the Canon crop-body sensors were wayyyyy too noisy. Depending on your ISO while shooting at F/16-22 in a darker environment that is a difficult task for a crop-body hand-held. I regularly shoot at ISO 6400 now and forget what being annoyed by tons of noise and noise-reduction is. Jeff I shoot the interior stuff on a tripod and with the timer set so there is little to no shake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.cos Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 And that was the problem with the first shoot I did, "shop stuff". I was so zoned in and worried about other things that I missed the background stuff. I'm far from a pro or really even being that good. I've been taking tips from those who are nice enough to help and trying to teach myself as I go. Right now I think my track side and pit shots are strong, everything else is a solid meh. Here is part of a series that will actuall make the final feature when it goes to print. http://waggz.smugmug.com/Other/Chuck-Big-3-GTO/i-qhcnGQt/0/L/IMG_0688-L.jpg http://waggz.smugmug.com/Other/Chuck-Big-3-GTO/i-7j6gpjw/0/L/IMG_0693-L.jpg Im curious- is this with the filter on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Im curious- is this with the filter on? Yes, that was my first time shooting with a filter, that was a bit odd to say the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yes, that was my first time shooting with a filter, that was a bit odd to say the least. What filter and why? Fire them in RAW and bump up the exposure a bit. Depending on the capabilities of the camera, the shadows will likely need to be lifted. One drawback to the 70D is the Dynamic Range. Based on the below Exif I would do the following. Shoot f/8. Any higher isn't necessary. ISO 100 on a tripod but honestly you won't need one. Get lower. Shoot RAW. Better yet, pop on the 70-200 you had, step back and zoom in. You'll have plenty of DOF and yet the background will blur and help you isolate the subject more. Camera Maker: Canon Camera Model: Canon EOS 70D Lens: EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Image Date: 2014-02-07 18:52:34 (no TZ) Focal Length: 35.0mm Aperture: f/14.0 Exposure Time: 0.010 s (1/100) ISO equiv: 400 Exposure Bias: none Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto) White Balance: Manual Flash Fired: No (enforced) Color Space: sRGB GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.3 (Windows) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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