Well I guess it had to happen. It’s been a while and I needed to get out the flashes and do something with them again. Of course the easiest model to use has always been myself unfortunately but until I get one of those heads they use at the beauty school I’ll have to do. Since I started reading the “Speedliters Handbook” by Syl Arena I’ve been itching to get out the lights so I finally did today. Forgot how one of the flashes test fire worked so I thought my batteries were dead and I needed to charge them up. I did need to charge but I ended up doing this way too late as usual but at least I have all 3 lights and how they work clear in my head now. Just wish I had cleaned my specs off first.

OK. I’ve tried to refrain from this but it has to be done occasionally. I got a 3rd strobe and need to start working with it to see what I can do. Unfortunately I didn’t write down the lighting info and now I don’t remember all but I did have the 430EX II and reflective umbrella high camera right and the Vivatar and shoot thru umbrella low camera left fired with the optical slave. I had my new (old) promaster flash as a hair light with the Honl grid. This was fired with a Promaster module as a slave. The Canon strobe was fired with the RadioPopper JrX and the main light.
And Oh yeah. I used some Topaz Adjust and PS filters to try and pretty the portrait up. (ha! ha!)

We were gone last week so today we had my parents over for “Mother’s Day” It was a great time with Bar-B-Q and a nice visit. I also realize it’s great to take family portraits whenever possible because it won’t be forever.
Lighting 430EX II high camera right fired @ 1/4 power with RP JrX into a Westcott 45″ umbrella.

I had a chance to do a photo shoot today. A young lady was going to the Prom and I took some photos of her in her beautiful dress, her wonderful shoes, with her family, with her BFFs and of course with her date. These are her magical shoes.

Lighting 430EX II high camera right fired @ 1/4 power with RP JrX into a Westcott 45″ umbrella.

Did a quick family group portrait with one light. The 430EX II high camera left fired with the RadioPopper at 1/2 power and bounced from a Westcott 45″ umbrella.
A little dark of course on the away side of the flash but I like this look better than fully light and kind of boring.

The title tells. I often find that for the self-portrait I look way too serious. On this one I put on the EF-s 55-250mm lens. Not my favorite but part of the reason I bought it was decent reviews so I best take a better look at it. Since I have a camera that can go higher in the ISO range than the previous one it will open up new possibilities.
The lighting on this is a single 430EX II high camera right bounced off a white umbrella at 1/4 power fired with the RadioPopper JrX. Post processing with Topaz Adjust and a pass with Exposure Correction and then a pass of Portrait Drama.

A little fun today with the light set-up. These guys made it easy with their prearranged posing. The only problem with the shot was the lights were a bit out of place for them. I had set them up for doing portraits with the model facing the camera. Still it was a fun shot.
The lighting was with my Canon 430EX II high camera left at 1/2 power bounced from the 45″ Westcott umbrella, fired with the RadioPopper JrX. The second light was the Vivitar 285HV low camera right shot through white umbrella at 1/4 power fired with the Sonia optical slave.

Same old boring model but at least he was there when I needed him. Got a new umbrella from Amazon yesterday and got some heavy duty light stands from someone on Craigslist last week. It’s a good thing because the umbrella is bigger than my older ones which make the old cheap light stands a bit wobbly.
My lighting here a Canon 430EX II high camera right bounced with a Westcott 45″ White umbrella and fired at 1/4 power with a RadioPopper JrX. Shot at f6.3 and 1/200th of a second shutter.

Working with 2 lights tonight and ended up going too underexposed and found out that, yes, more rather than less light. I did some fixing (can’t really do that much yet) and then made lightly saturated sepia look.
The lighting was with the Canon 430EX II high camera right at 1/4 power bounced with the umbrella and fired with the RadioPopper JrX and the Vivitar 285HV at 1/16 power shot though a white umbrella and fired with the Sonia Optical Slave. It was all done at 1/200 at f8 and ISO 100. Should have been ISO 200 and then maybe the lighting would have been enough.

Bad lighting. The good thing about mistakes is if you can learn then they are not wasted. Got a shadow where I didn’t need or want one. Hopefully I’ll not make that mistake again.
The lighting info:
Canon 430EX II high camera right fired @ 1/2 bounced off an umbrella with the RadioPopper JrX and my Vivitar @ 1/4 power low camera left fired with the Sonia optical slave with the Honl snoot opened for a reflector.