Photo shoot with my boys: As an overprotective mother bear I will not be clicking store original; I would like c&c however. This is my first attempt at doing an actual portrait like...

mariposa84 Loc: Rochester NY

As an overprotective mother bear I will not be clicking store original; I would like c&c however. This is my first attempt at doing an actual portrait like shoot with them. I was using an 85mm lens ISO was at 400 F/ 5.6 at 1/60sec. For all shots I used a tripod however the house I live in is severely slanted in the room i was taking the pictures in so yes the horizon isn't straight. OH also used a speed light on the camera bouncing it off of the white ceiling. I think I have told you all that I can, thank you for your time and kind guidance.
PS: I am NOT a photographer I know this, but, I'm trying to BECOME one :)

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St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Thank you for sharing

Photoman74 Loc: Conroe Tx

My first attempt repeated. Google all you can Lighting - Posing - Background -Composition there is a world of "Free" information, use it.
Use us on UHH we love relearning.
Post often and one shot with CC requested.

JoboX Loc: Liverpool UK

mariposa84 wrote:

As an overprotective mother bear I will not be cli... (show quote)

Using a speed light you can go to ISO 100 for more detail 1/60 seems a bit slow I'd up to about 1/125 to 1/160 that way you can hand hold also. If your Speedlight has manual mode that allows your on camera flash to trigger it get it off the camera and try Rembrandt lighting..... the effects of one speedlight can be very dramatic

:thumbup: :thumbup:

mariposa84 Loc: Rochester NY

Photoman74 wrote:

My first attempt repeated. Google all you can Lighting - Posing - Background -Composition there is a world of "Free" information, use it.
Use us on UHH we love relearning.
Post often and one shot with CC requested.

Thank you i will look that information up you are absolutely correct the lighting is very poor I do need to learn more about that. Thank you for the encouragement no worries tho I'm having too much fun to quit :)

mariposa84 Loc: Rochester NY

JoboX wrote:

Using a speed light you can go to ISO 100 for more detail 1/60 seems a bit slow I'd up to about 1/125 to 1/160 that way you can hand hold also. If your Speedlight has manual mode that allows your on camera flash to trigger it get it off the camera and try Rembrandt lighting..... the effects of one speedlight can be very dramatic

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Wow I REALLY need to learn more about lighting as the previous person posted this post just sealed the deal lol Thank you for taking the time to try and help me but it appears that i need to sit and dig into the archives and start taking notes!

JoboX Loc: Liverpool UK

mariposa84 wrote:

Wow I REALLY need to learn more about lighting as the previous person posted this post just sealed the deal lol Thank you for taking the time to try and help me but it appears that i need to sit and dig into the archives and start taking notes!

What is the lowest aperture F1.4 F2.8 f5.6 on your lens... A shallow depth of field is a great tool for portraits I use F1.4 to F3.6 very seldom go above that. I use youtube to get lighting ideas aswell.... Try and try and when it fails try again it pays dividends when you do get it right. :thumbup:

mariposa84 Loc: Rochester NY

JoboX wrote:

What is the lowest aperture F1.4 F2.8 f5.6 on your lens... A shallow depth of field is a great tool for portraits I use F1.4 to F3.6 very seldom go above that. I use youtube to get lighting ideas aswell.... Try and try and when it fails try again it pays dividends when you do get it right. :thumbup:

i was using a F1.8 lens. At this moment i am listening to mark wallace on you tube doing a speedlight 101 course hoping to learn a lot :)

JoboX Loc: Liverpool UK

mariposa84 wrote:

i was using a F1.8 lens. At this moment i am listening to mark wallace on you tube doing a speedlight 101 course hoping to learn a lot :)

A good addition to a speedlight is the Gary Fong Lumisphere....... once you get the hang of the speedlight invest in one of these... the light diffusion it gives is amazing once you work out the best settings for your camera... Good luck with the learning

Annie_Girl Loc: It's none of your business

Before you start off on trying to learn about additional lighting and how to use a speedlight, composition, posing and other more advanced skills, might I suggest you learn more about the basic skills? On all the samples posted above your focus is off, there are w/b issues and they are slightly underexposed.

mariposa84 Loc: Rochester NY

Annie_Girl wrote:

Before you start off on trying to learn about additional lighting and how to use a speedlight, composition, posing and other more advanced skills, might I suggest you learn more about the basic skills? On all the samples posted above your focus is off, there are w/b issues and they are slightly underexposed.

thank you :) I will not explain or justify just try and improve.