Christmas Pics.
 

Second attempt. This batch is much better I think.

http://i.imgur.com/wbE5M9N.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Ptuel4Q.jpg

great pics

Like these a lot! Anxious to learn to use flash.

I just got my first speedlight with triggers for OCF yesterday and hope to learn how to do this. I have so many dim, blurry "available light" shots and after just a few minutes of experimenting, I'm sold. Wish I'd done this years ago.

For these shots, do you use the flash in TTL, or just adjust manually?

Two more.
http://i.imgur.com/AICbLQZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/LDhqeRD.jpg

Here's the scoop.
White seamless background, but that's kinda obvious. :Jeff '79: I've got three lights going here, all off camera and all in manual. The main light was shot into a 24" x 36"softbox camera left. The second light was bounced into a a 33" umbrella for fill. The third and final light was a background light bounced into a 51" umbrella to keep the ugly shadows at bay.

All three light were fired remote with PocketWizard Plus X triggers. The background light was a slave to the main light. :cert:

Great photos, and thanks for posting the details. I'm starting out with just the one speedlight, a cheapo umbrella and a reflector. Hopefully that will be enough to get me started and help me learn a little. Been reading up some on strobist.com which helps. Can't wait to add a few things to my 'kit'.

You can get great results with one light with a modifier of some sort and a reflector. THE biggest thing is to get the flash off the camera.

I also failed to mention the camera was in full manual mode. I want control over every single aspect of the shot.

I tried out the speedlight and triggers today and my grandson's 5th birthday party. I just set the speedlight on a shelf angled at the ceiling and fired it with the remote triggers. Experimented with various methods, full manual, aperture priority and shot a few in full auto. Think the manual ones were best.

I have a cheapo umbrella for the speed light and plan to pick up a reflector and see what I can do with them next week. Haven't uploaded the files to LR yet but the look pretty good on the camera display.

Great shots. Labs are awesome. I miss my dog.

:sadangel:

^:iagree: :sadangel: I miss my Labs too!

I like these pics, Thomas. Especially how you caught the Lab smiling! Love that! :seasix:

The pups parents said the same thing. :cert:

If you're trying to balance ambient and flash that's an entirely different process. Each thing, the ambient light and the flash are will require some thought. How much ambient do I want in the shot? How much flash, etc.

Without flash all these dog pics are black. There's enough ambient to allow for camera focus but the flash overpowers it.

Making cards out of these?

Yup. My wife made Christmas cards from the pic with the Wires.