I have an opportunity- I don't want to waste it. Please help me....

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charlottemarie_15

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Ok, so I've managed to gain access to a £1.5million pound show villa tomorrow to get some portfolio snaps, and I'm really quite nervous, not because its a paid job, as its not, its for my portfolio- so I wont be 'letting anyone down' if goes wrong- apart from me.

I have recently purchased a Nisson Di622 mark II and have cracked pre-flash triggering with my Nikon. But thats about it- I'm just not taking in any flash tutorials at all, its just going over my head :S.

I managed to get some great shots around the house with it but they were all happy accidents and I don't know what I did. I can't seem to get those results again now and I'm panicking. Can anyone give me some advise?

The main things I'm struggling with is the settings. Flash sync speed/shutter speed/power output etc. I bounce it not direct it, I shoot manual, shutter for ambient, aperture for flash, ISO of around 400, but its not working! Its gotta be the settings on my camera or something. I've heard slow sync works but I can't find it anywhere. I'm just stuck. Help?

I have wide angle lenses, tripods for camera and flash, grey cards/white cards, lots and lots and lots of notes and a remote trigger, I'll be trying single ambient shots, HDR ambient shots, single flash, flash HDR (heard it looks less 'muddy') and multiple exposure so I can get more flashes in.

Somebody help me!!!
 
charlottemarie_15 said:
Ok, so I've managed to gain access to a £1.5million pound show villa tomorrow to get some portfolio snaps, and I'm really quite nervous, not because its a paid job, as its not, its for my portfolio- so I wont be 'letting anyone down' if goes wrong- apart from me.

I have recently purchased a Nisson Di622 mark II and have cracked pre-flash triggering with my Nikon. But thats about it- I'm just not taking in any flash tutorials at all, its just going over my head :S.

I managed to get some great shots around the house with it but they were all happy accidents and I don't know what I did. I can't seem to get those results again now and I'm panicking. Can anyone give me some advise?

The main things I'm struggling with is the settings. Flash sync speed/shutter speed/power output etc. I bounce it not direct it, I shoot manual, shutter for ambient, aperture for flash, ISO of around 400, but its not working! Its gotta be the settings on my camera or something. I've heard slow sync works but I can't find it anywhere. I'm just stuck. Help?

I have wide angle lenses, tripods for camera and flash, grey cards/white cards, lots and lots and lots of notes and a remote trigger, I'll be trying single ambient shots, HDR ambient shots, single flash, flash HDR (heard it looks less 'muddy') and multiple exposure so I can get more flashes in.

Somebody help me!!!
Click to expand...

Sounds about right. What's not working exactly? Are the rooms huge/high and you're running out of power?
 
Yeah, the rooms just look dark, or theres an obvious flash bounce in the corner.

I adjust the shutter for the ambient and it affects the flash, if I max the power on the flash it appears quite flat...

On the Nissin I have to use it in Slave Digital, and then I just play around with the power till I'm happy, but I never get a great result.

On my Nikon, I have my in-built flash set to '--' and in commander mode, and channel A set to TTL. I always shoot in manual so I guess the flash shutter speed doesn't affect me...I'm not sure what other flash settings I need on my Nikon.

I was told to start with 1/60th to gently blow out the windows, or 1/250 to bring in the windows, ISO 400, f8-11- and play from there. But its not working!

Is there anything there that stands out as being wrong? Or is it just my flash can't do it- which will slightly annoy me as I thought it was quite a powerful flash when I bought it!
 
If you are trying to hold details through the windows in sunny conditions then the inside will have to go dark and the flash will need to do lots of work to brighten it to match. Use the fastest shutter speed you can sync at to quench the exterior light as much as you can. If the room is predominantly pale/white/light and you are using TTL then the flash may be quenching early, trying to render white as grey, just like any other autoexposure system. You may need to dial in some +ve FEC to kick the flash output up a few notches. But your flash may well simply not have enough power to do battle with a sunlit exterior scene.

Consider that if you are stopping down to f/8 or smaller for DOF then your flash power is going to take a big hit. If you are bouncing then it's going to take another big hit. If the room is huge then....... Raising the ISO will help, but then you have the problem of blowing out the exterior. If you can't defeat daylight then shoot when the exterior light levels are subdued - dawn/dusk/grey days. If you want to shoot during the day then you could gel the windows, let the exterior blow out or get a bunch more flash power. Another option would simply be to shoot two exposures, one for inside, one for outside and merge the two.

If you are seeing your bounced flash ahead of the camera then bounce it above or behind you rather than ahead of you or exclude the ceiling from your composition.

Turn on the room lights too.

Maybe if you can show us a sample shot, unedited and with EXIF intact it may be easier to offer further advice. FWIW, here's the damage a single 580EX can do in a large sports hall when there is no need to battle with daylight outside - http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=4893926&postcount=1. The flash probably could have sufficient power, if you weren't trying to overcome daylight outside.
 
It's sounding like the technique is okay in theory but the problem is big rooms and not enough fire power.

Basically, interiors are difficult and big interiors can be very difficult. High ceilings need tons of flash power, plus you often need high f/numbers for depth of field, plus high ambient blasting through the windows. Big rooms even with low ceilings are sometimes worse because it's hard to fill them evenly.

Last one I did like that, I used a big studio head flat out off the ceiling to fill the room, and two hot-shoe guns to light dark corners - made a feature of them, because it didn't look very natural, but it did the job. I chose to shoot in the afternoon when the sun had moved round - direct sun coming in is just impossible.

And all that's without getting into sorting converging verticals, stitching panormas and messing about with nodal pivots and tilt-shift lenses. That kind of stuff is seriously tricky but pretty normal for an expert in that kind of work.
 
Thanks for all your help- I did the shoot this morning really early so didn't get chance to read this first but I don't think it went tooo bad... here's the shoot; (Not perfect I know, but perhaps potential?) Feedback wanted! I'm not sure which ones were which technique, or if this shows EXIF data- let me know...

By the way the show home was unfurnished- a tad annoying as it didn't really leave me much to shoot...

But noisy, tried to reduce it whilst still making it realistic but I had to get out and was rushed- no light at all in room.

0218--Gym.jpg


One of my faves- naturally lit I think....

0209--Staircase.jpg


Pretty bland but realistic- those lights on the floor really annoyed me. Should have turned them off.

0141And8more_Spot-metered-Ambient-Bathroom.jpg


Bit of an in your face shot and the flash bounce on the stairs is off putting, but I like the stars :)

0088-staircase.jpg


Nothing in this room at all so panoramic looked best- This was deffo a flash HDR to bring in the windows- not a bad attempt I guess?

0082_3_4_Flash-HDR-Lightroomcroppedpano.jpg


Probably my fave shot of the day, flash behind me, bounced. Perhaps a tad blown out on the bar bit but I just like the composition. One of the only ones that have a slight 'commercial' feel to them.

0034--Flash-Single-kItchen-crop.jpg


Honest opinions and advice please! I've been looking at them all day, so naturally hate them now...
 
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