Playing with some new photo gear - NEW 'tutorials'

[Catlady711]

Just before Christmas I got a set of 4 in 1 illuminator kits on a supersale I just couldn't pass by.

Normally these (http://www.fjwestcott.com/details.cfm?id=37&tbl=reflectors) things run $106!:eek: I was checking the camera store's used department to see what kinda bargains I could get hubby for Christmas and ran across that item on sale for $30!!! Needless to say I snapped that up in a hurry (only one they had there too) and got it for myself. LOL

It's cover is a bit stained and has a couple little holes in it, the reflectors/illuminators are wrinkled and a bit worn in the creases, but basically in fine shape!:D

I've been waiting to get the time and right lighting to really play with them though. So Friday I finally got my chance when Pooky was laying on a blanket on the couch . The couch is right next to a North facing picture window on the right, and I used the silver side of the reflector on the left just barely out of the pix to fill in the shadows.

Pooky only stayed for a couple shots then ran off the couch. lol

Here's one of the best ones I got of him before he left.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/PookyPortrait2.jpg

[Taz_Zoee]

Beautiful kitty. His eyes match the blanket perfectly. So handsome!!
What? Only one picture?!?! Come on, don't tease us like that!!! :)

[catmandu]

That Photo as the Cat Woman would say turned out Purrrfectly , and we cant wait to see more photos from you!!!
I wish I had something like that as the Found Cat Hotel is not the best lit house on the block, and thereare many times I wish had back lighting!!!
We cant wait to see more!!:):):)

[Catlady711]

I had to delete several because he would move his head blurring it horribly since it was dim lighting.

I was hand holding the camera, balancing on the edge of the couch cushion with my elbow, and using my left hand to simultaneously hold the lens and the edge of the relector but still keep it out of the shot. LOL The fact I got any useable pix is sort of amazing. lol :eek:

I'll try getting individual kitty portraits soon so you can see all my furbabies.;)

If you need something like a silver reflector, you can always use a large piece of stiff cardboard, and cover it with crinkled then straightened alumminum foil. Does the same thing basically.

[Laura's Babies]

WOW! Everything was purfect for that picture, he even made sure the blanket matched his eyes!

[momcat]

What an exquisite picture of a beautiful kitty!!!! That one is definitely a blue ribbon winner!!!!!

[Randy_K]

I have bounce reflector called a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce which is a simple piece or white plastic that snaps onto a flash gun. I used to have a bounce reflector but that silvered umbrella was a very clumsy to use. This Omni-Bounce works really well and I never get the space alien eye effect when I photograph the cats or red-eye from people. Also it's a softer flash reducing the harshness when the flash is close to the subject.

Once I got the thing I started noticing them a lot on the news when photographers are crowding around a politician or celebrity.

That's a very nicely lighted picture of Pooky and he's quite handsome.

http://www.stofen.com/Images/omni.jpg

[Catlady711]

I have bounce reflector called a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce which is a simple piece or white plastic that snaps onto a flash gun. .

http://www.stofen.com/Images/omni.jpg


I've eyed them in the camera store before. ;)

I haven't gone with them yet because the flashes I use aren't compatible with using ON my camera. I do sometimes use the flash hand held off camera (wireless triggers) but it's usually outside in bright daylight as a fill and I'm afraid the omni-bounce would diffuse and cut the light too much for those conditions, plus I don't have any ceilings or walls to bounce off of.

[jennielynn1970]

How do you decide to use these things? Like, what would it look like w/out the reflector thingy??

I'm so well worded on this, lol. Why exactly are they used, and how?

[Moesha]

LOL I'm with you Jenn...How do you know you want or need one? LOL I know! Learn more about photography. :D That sure is a very nice picture of your kitty!

[Catlady711]

For those wondering how you would know when you need a reflector (or fill flash), I'll do a set of pix tomorrow showing you the difference in what my new 'toys' do and how they look. Would that be ok??

Hopefully I can get one of the cats to stay in one place long enough to do the shots for that. ROFL

For today however, I have 3 more pix I took playing with the reflectors again. I got some shots of Josh too, but ran out of time to process them.

So here's today's shots.


Pooky again. Only because he was the only one that would stay on the couch in that lighting. ROFL

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/pookyPT2.jpg


Bear

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/bearPT.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/bearPT2.jpg


I'll be back again tomorrow with more pix.

[Moesha]

And I shall be waiting! :)

[tomkatzid]

Beautiful cat photos. I really like the first one because the eyes match the blanket !!!
I have that for my flash also and use it sometimes, but mostly just bounce off white ceiling. I may drag out the camera and flash tomorrow and try it again.
Katz

[Randy_K]

How do you know when you will need a bounce reflector? You'd be surprised that you end up using it frequently.

In close situations, the lighting from a direct flash tends to be a bit harsh. Bouncing the light (or defusing it with a device like the Sto-Fen) softens that light and distributes it evenly on the subject. The pictures above look quite professional with the soft, even lighting. The snap-on diffuser like the Sto-Fen allows you to aim the flash gun directly at the subject without overwhelming the subject with light.

The use of the fill flash outside is to compensate for the uneven lighting by natural sunlight so a subject is more evenly lighted - no shadows. Many professional photographers frequently use the fill flash when shooting close subjects outside.

[jennielynn1970]

What's the flash gun thing?? Is it attached to the camera?? I'm so lost on this thread, lol!

I love the pictures, they do look like studio prints.

[catmandu]

THOSE PHOTOS LOOK SO GOOD, THATS A 30 DOLLARS VERY WELL SPENT WITH THE PHOTOS THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE NOW!!!:love::love::love:

[Catlady711]

As promised: an explanation, in pictures, about how you know when you need a reflector and what things look like with and without one.

Since Pooky is my most laid back cat, AND happen to be sleeping in the spot I wanted to use, he became my volunteer for today's lesson. ROFL

To be fair to those of you with simple Point & Shoot cameras, I shot all these pix with my Canon S3IS point and shoot set on P (program) mode. I did NOT do ANY processing at all, these are all straight from the camera, only downsized for posting.

(please forgive me, these are about as 'snapshot' as they come for me! lol I had VERY little time to do these today)

Anyway today's lighting outside was HEAVY overcast so lighting was very dim despite how it might look in the pix. The window on the right is my North facing picture window (North windows usually have the best lighting anyways)

Ok, ready??? Here we go.....

Here's a (lousy) pix of my livingroom and Pooky's favorite blanket so you can get an idea of what the lighting looked like overall.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0452.jpg

Here's a close up portrait of him in that same location, same lighting, WITHOUT using any reflectors.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0455.jpg
Notice the dark shadows across his face? This tells me I need more light there so I can see his pretty eyes. I don't want to turn on the pop up flash (more on that in a bit) so I need to do something to get more light to the shadow area.



Here's a set up with the silver reflector in the same place as I had it in the shot in the opening post of this thread. You can see how it adds more light to the shadows even this far away.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0456.jpg

And here's the close up portrait with that same set up.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0457.jpg

Hmmmm. Better but not quite what I want, and not the same as last weeks shot. Why? The lighting outside was brighter before, and it was a different time of day when I shot that very first one at the top of the thread. Light changes a bit all the time and I have to notice that and make changes sometimes.

So what do we do now???

We move the reflector that's what we do.

Here I moved it (proped it up with my other reflector actually with Sassy supervising) so it's reflecting light from underneath a bit more.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0458.jpg

Here's what that set up will give me.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0459.jpg

Much better. If I'd had more time I could have bent or moved the reflector around to get a pix that looks very close to the one at the top of this thread, but I simply did not have time. You get the idea though. No flash, natural look, no red eye, no super dark shadows hiding details in his face, and a nice catchlight (glint) in his eyes.

In this pix you can see the brightest area is actually under his chin which tells me I should have tilted the reflector just a bit more upwards. A reflector works on the same angles that you have if you were using a mirror to shine light onto a wall, or for a signal, only using silver with some texture (wrinkles) in it makes a nicer light.


On to the pop up flash in the next post.

[Catlady711]

Ok pop up flash. Not the nicest looking light, but it's portable, you always have it with you, and sometimes it's either use the pop up flash or miss your shot. So how do we make it look Purrrrtier?

Simple, we grab a piece of white, thin computer paper! Stay with me now, I haven't lost my marbles.....yet. ROFL

Here I removed all the reflectors and just worked with the lighting from window. It was too dark so I let the pop up flash do it's thing.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0477.jpg
I turned the camera vertical so you could really see the harsh, black shadow behind Pooky better, and the full red eye. *shivers*

Here's where the white, thin piece of computer paper comes in. Hold it in FRONT of your pop up flash. You want it at the very end of your lens but NOT in front of, or even with your lens or you'll get flare or a blob in your pix.

I took a pix in my bathroom mirror of what this looks like, yes it's a two hand job but it works, trust me. This makes the light from your flash larger and softer. (try a shot of your camera with and without the paper at home in your mirror and you'll see the difference) I did not change my white balance setting which is why the pix is so yellow orange.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0480.jpg


Ok so what does that computer paper make Pooky look like now? See for yourself.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0478.jpg
Yes it's a bit darker (that will vary depending on how your camera is set up, how bright your subject is, and the room lighting), but notice a few things in this shot.

The red eye is seriously reduced (yes I had the red eye reduction set on the flash for BOTH shots), the shadow behind Pooky is much softer which is less annoying, and the lighting shows more of the detail in Pooky's fur.

The computer paper (or white rice paper, or something similar) helps to give you a better light with very little expense or hassle. This will only work on subjects fairly close to you as it does cut the light from your flash some. I didn't have my flash cranked up to full power or these would have looked more dramatic in the differences.

Due to lack of time, and too dim of lighting I was unable to do the shots to show you how a white translucent reflector works. So that lesson will have to wait for another day.

Give me your thoughts on my "reflector lesson" and if you want me to do this for the white translucent one or not.


And for you Josh fan's out there, I did manage to get one pix of him processed just for you guys!!!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/josh.jpg

[Catlady711]

What's the flash gun thing?? Is it attached to the camera?? I'm so lost on this thread, lol!

I love the pictures, they do look like studio prints.

At this point don't worry too much about flash guns. LOL Just using a piece of cardboard with wrinkly alumminum foil (dull side out), or a piece of computer paper will get you about what I shot today.

Suffice to say a 'flash gun' or off camera flash or studio strobe will make better pix for lighting, but can get a bit more complicated and you would need to have a good grasp on photography basics first.

I can cover more on 'flash guns' later if people want, but I tend to gear my 'lessons' (yes I do this at home and online alot for people that ask) more towards people who love photography, but only have simple cameras, or aren't very advanced photographers.

[jennielynn1970]

it's amazing the difference that that silver reflector made. Pooky was very accommodating with the whole set up too, lol!

I definitely appreciate the lessons. :)

[Catlady711]

it's amazing the difference that that silver reflector made. Pooky was very accommodating with the whole set up too, lol!

I definitely appreciate the lessons. :)

Yup, I can see it now, all of PT will be putting crinkled aluminum foil (NON shiney side out!) on cardboard now. LOL Also a car window shade (those silver things that they have in the auto dept. that's for the windshield in the summertime) work pretty good too. I have two of those also. LOL

Yeah, that's why Pooky gets so many more pictures done of him sometimes, he's more laid back.

No problem. I enjoy talking about photography about as much as I love talking about pets. lol And I always had wished that I'd had someone to teach me this stuff when I was starting out instead of just library books. Now-a-days I think they call this 'paying forward'. lol

[Moesha]

I learned a lot from your lesson and really liked the photo demonstrations!! Any thing that you are willing or able to teach us is very much appreciated. But please don't spend too much of your valuable time thinking about our Pet Talk Photography Lessons. Thank you so much!!

[Catlady711]

I learned a lot from your lesson and really liked the photo demonstrations!! Any thing that you are willing or able to teach us is very much appreciated. But please don't spend too much of your valuable time thinking about our Pet Talk Photography Lessons. Thank you so much!!

No problem, I enjoy doing it most of the time. It's just normally on Tuesday's I have alot more time available than I ended up with today because of other things.

I would have liked to do the silver reflector thing today but without stronger lighting it's not going to show what it does, and personally I learn quicker through pix. Hopefully Thursday our weather will clear and get a bit more sunlight.

I'm glad people seem to enjoy my shots and tips. :)

[Moesha]

I meant to also say that your subject is beautiful! Just sitting there while you changed your reflectors around and still ready for the closeups...must be a professional model in fur clothing. :D
I'm not a huge fan of flash myself. I have taken some pictures of Morgan in his new beds. He closes his eyes with the flash. I have turned the flash off and left it to the ISO to get a picture. But they turn out very yellow. I noticed you mentioned something about that in your post and referenced white balance. I've heard of that several times but haven't grasped the full concept. Perhaps you could have a brief tutorial of that subject sometime when you get the chance.

[heidiv]

BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS!!!!! Excellent job! Love them.... I wish I could get some photos of the fur kids that look that good!

[Catlady711]

I meant to also say that your subject is beautiful! Just sitting there while you changed your reflectors around and still ready for the closeups...must be a professional model in fur clothing. :D
I'm not a huge fan of flash myself. I have taken some pictures of Morgan in his new beds. He closes his eyes with the flash. I have turned the flash off and left it to the ISO to get a picture. But they turn out very yellow. I noticed you mentioned something about that in your post and referenced white balance. I've heard of that several times but haven't grasped the full concept. Perhaps you could have a brief tutorial of that subject sometime when you get the chance.


Pooky says 'thank you'. ;)

Yup, photography seems easier when you have a beautiful model. hmmm wonder how he'd look draped across the hood of a sports car? ROFL

Sure I can do a tutorial, with pix of course, on color casts (aka. white balance). That one is fairly easy to show in pix what's happening. I'll see what works out for when I can do that one.

[krazyaboutkatz]

You sure do take wonderful pictures.:) Thanks for the lesson. I learned a lot.:) I also have a Canon Powershot S3IS camera so I'm going to try this in the future.:)

I normally take most of my pictures inside because most of them are of my cats which are indoor only. I try not to use the flash but sometimes I have to. I do have a program on my computer that fixes redeye but it doesn't fix the weird alien eye that I sometimes get from non blue eyed cats. Thanks again and I look forward to more lessons in the future.:)

[Randy_K]

The flash gun can be on the camera or stand alone being triggered by a wireless connection. Most flash guns come with a snap-on foot.

http://www.geocities.com/[email protected]/Camera-1.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/[email protected]/Camera-2.jpg

Could have been better pictures if I could have used that camera!

[rg_girlca]

Gorgeous, absolutely GORGEOUS pictures of your cats. The one of Josh is breathtaking.

[Catlady711]

Ok we had some good strong sunlight today so I was able to do my "pix tutorial" about how the white thingy works (technically called a translucent reflector/illuminator, but we'll call it a white thingy because it's easier to type and more fun to say LOL).

Again, to be fair to those of you with simpler point and shoot cameras, these were all shot with the Canon S3IS on Program Mode, and NO processing, only downsizing for posting.

This white thingy is really cool because it can do two things depending how you use it.

A cheaper substitute would be a piece of white poster/foam board for the reflector part. You can use a thin but all white shower curtain or a fair quality white bed sheet for the other part.

(yeah I buy expensive stuff sometimes but I know how to use the substitutes as well, I still keep 4 sheets of big poster boards and a white sheet around the house and use them still)

Ready for the 'white thingy' tutorial? OK!

Modeling for us today is Bear, who has kindly volunteered his services for this tutorial.

Ok so here's your situation, you've got this great sunbeam coming in the window with your pet laying there snoozing (ok so Bear elected not to snooze), you go grab the camera and this is what you get.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0481.jpg

OUCH, harsh shadows on the wall, shadows go a total unrecognizable black near his butt, and some parts of your picture have horrible white washed out areas. Hmmm, think we can do better? You bet.

Here's where the white thingy comes in. Light goes through it but it's softer light and spread more evenly.

So we prop up the white thingy in the window and hold it up with a clothespin to the curtain rod. It looks like this.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0482.jpg


So now here's what we get for a pix with that set up.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0488.jpg

Better. The shadows still have details in the fur, and the nasty shadow behind Bear is gone. There is a bit of way too bright area behind Bear on the wall though. This could be eliminated if he weren't so close to the wall, but that's where my model's kitty castle is, so we just live with it. LOL

There's still a fair shadow on the side of his face and neck though and we can get that tamed down even more. How? We add the silver reflector from the other 'tutorial'.

Since Bear is being such a good model we're going to give it a try.

Here's the set up for that combination. I held the silver one just a bit different angle than this pix shows to get the next shot.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0489.jpg

And here's what our picture looks like now.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0486.jpg

Much better, we can now see Bear's lovely fur texture on the other side of his face as well.


"ok so what's the deal with the reflector part of the white thingy and how is it different than the silver thingy?"

No Problem! Modeling for this tutorial part is Cami, who kindly volunteered her services for you.

Here's the problem, kitty sitting in the windowsill watching birds, bright sunlight shining in. Like this....

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0491.jpg

Oooh, we can't see those lovely stripes in her fur at all!! This just won't do. We need something.

Hmmm lets see, how about a white thingy? Let's try it ok?

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0492.jpg

So this is what our pix looks like now.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0495.jpg

Now we can see some of the stripes on her side facing the camera. The white thingy puts a little light in when you don't want a whole bunch. Depending on your subject's fur/skin and the lighting you may just want a soft fill like that.

In my case today, I really want to see those stripes!

So lets try swapping the white thingy for the silver one and see what happens.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0494.jpg

Better! Now I can see her Purrty stripes!!!

So what do you do when you only have a second to get the shots, and/or a skittish critter?

We can make use of the pop up flash.

More on that in the next post.

[Catlady711]

Ok so we don't have time to grab a white or silver thingy, or our critter is afraid of it, what do we do?

Our pop up flash can help save the day.

Remember the shot of our model Bear for the sunbeam? Well he's here volunteering his modeling services for you again.

Here's the problem, backlighting (light coming from behind something).

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0511.jpg

Ouch, I can't even see his face! If I change the camera so I can see him the whole background will be all white, not what I want. So I use the pop up flash without any paper on it because this is a very bright sunbeam.

Here's what we get with the flash on 1/2 power (factory defalt setting).

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0514.jpg

Better, I can see his face now. We're still going to get alot of too bright white from the sun because it's so darn bright today.

If we want to see more of Bear's face we crank up the pop up flash power to full and get this.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0512.jpg

You can try using the paper with these shots but remember the pop up flash isn't very powerful so it certainly can't compete with a million mile a way ball of fire in the sky, but it sure can help with those dark shadows.

We can also try pop up flash at 1/2 power on the very first shot for this 'tutorial' instead of using the white or silver thingy.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Catlady711/IMG_0499.jpg

It doesn't help the pix as much as the white or silver thingy's did, but it's quick, easy to use, and you always have it with you.


With ANY of the shots from ANY of these 'tutorials' I can change things on the camera or how I take them to make them a bit better yet, but I wanted to just do quick snapshots on purpose to make this easy for people to be able to do themselves at home with their own point and shoot cameras.

NOW....go out there with your point and shoots and try some of what I've shown you and post your results here! I really want to see your shots. If you have time and a cooperative pet (cat, dog, guinea pig, bird, or whatever) please post the before, after, and set up shots if possible so others can see too.

Ok Next 'tutorial' by request will be on white balance or color casts (as requested by Moesha). I'll see what I can do about getting those posted over the weekend.

[Randy_K]

Wow, your cats are patient! Mango is usually off on another adventure after my first shot unless he's sound asleep. I found that if I talk to him while he's snoozing he won't wake up. If I'm quiet he has to see what I'm up too...

http://www.geocities.com/[email protected]/0107-16.jpg

[Moesha]

I will have to see what I can do with the lighting around here. They have a perch next to a window, but I bought them new kitty beds. They've been in the beds more than near the window. I don't have any light to practice bouncing back onto them. LOL Maybe I'll have to use something besides my furkids as models. I wish Morgan would be a good model like Bear was. They look so similiar.

[Catlady711]

Everyone, please vote. I'm curious how many people are actually interested in this 'tutorial' type of thread.

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=149746


Randy - Thanks for the pix.:) I dunno that my cats are patient, I just work with whatever one is in the lighting I'm wanting to use and will be there for awhile. When you have 7 cats, it kinda gives you a variety of choices. ROFL

Moesha - Even if you don't have light to reflect around, try out the piece of computer paper in front of the flash until it's warm enough that windows look inviting enough to entice the kitties out of the beds. lol

[Randi]

I can tell how exited you are, and you got some really good shots the other day. :) When John worked as a photographer, he used these tricks too, and umbrellas. It really softens it up.

These days, you can work on things like this in Photoshop, but back then it meant a lot more darkroom work if the light wasn't perfect. One time while John was in England, a customer called, he wanted 1oo prints of photo John had done for a poster. I volunteered to do them, but I had to give the face a few more seconds on each, so I was in the darkroom all night (it was a rush job). :rolleyes: I got good money though. :D