Gary Curran
Huge Mistakes
This is one of those times when I wasn't thinking, and I made a HUGE mistake. We went to my niece's home for dinner last night, and I wanted to get some family portraits. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't take my time. First, instead of shoot through umbrellas, I used silver reflectors. I was shooting into a small area, and I thought a more focused light would work better. I was wrong.
Secondly, I was using two YN560IIs, one camera left and one camera right. I didn't bother to double check the power levels, and one was 1/4 power and the other was 1/2 power, so the lighting is uneven.
Even when I did a couple of test shots, and saw how bad they were, I didn't realize what I was looking at, and just adjusted the lights to be pointing in a different way.
I fixed these as best I could in LR5.
The lesson from this is this. If you're going to do the job, do it right. Take the time before hand to think about what you're doing, and how it's going to effect the end result. Using the right tool for the job, or in this case, the right light modifier, is essential. If your test pictures don't come out right, take a minute or two to re-evaluate your setup, and see if what you're doing is the best you can do. Finally, check and double check everything. An extra ten minutes at the beginning can save you an hour or more of editing later on, or even a totally blown shoot.
Huge Mistakes
This is one of those times when I wasn't thinking, and I made a HUGE mistake. We went to my niece's home for dinner last night, and I wanted to get some family portraits. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't take my time. First, instead of shoot through umbrellas, I used silver reflectors. I was shooting into a small area, and I thought a more focused light would work better. I was wrong.
Secondly, I was using two YN560IIs, one camera left and one camera right. I didn't bother to double check the power levels, and one was 1/4 power and the other was 1/2 power, so the lighting is uneven.
Even when I did a couple of test shots, and saw how bad they were, I didn't realize what I was looking at, and just adjusted the lights to be pointing in a different way.
I fixed these as best I could in LR5.
The lesson from this is this. If you're going to do the job, do it right. Take the time before hand to think about what you're doing, and how it's going to effect the end result. Using the right tool for the job, or in this case, the right light modifier, is essential. If your test pictures don't come out right, take a minute or two to re-evaluate your setup, and see if what you're doing is the best you can do. Finally, check and double check everything. An extra ten minutes at the beginning can save you an hour or more of editing later on, or even a totally blown shoot.