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hi urgent help needed.


geraint_hughes

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<p>Hi all once again,</p>

<p>Its been a while since i last popped on here as ive been busy on my new business venture since you all helped me at the start, i thought youd be kind enough to help me once again. Ive just landed a school contract, ive finished the first shoot and all the money is in and after the printing and mount costs and the percentage to the school i made a profit of £1350, so im happy with that as its a small school, BUT i found that several of my photos were quite washed out on one side and i gather its because the kids are very young and very exitied and dont keep still to long and was moving away from the left strobe if that makes sence? now i was told that many school photographers use CONTINUOUS LIGHTING for thier sessions??? for all my other work ' wedding / portrait etc i use flash, but for a simple school set up would continuous lighting be better???<br>

Im rubbish at explaining this in writing sorry but i hope you understand what i mean.......BASICLY contiuous or flash for a simple school portrait set up?</p>

<p>many thx again<br>

Mr Hughes</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>Geraint - any chance you could post (a shrunk version of) the picture so we know what you mean? I'd be concerned about the drop-off of the flash rather than anything else - I once spent a long and tedious time processing a professionally-taken group photograph (with the photographer's permission) trying to get something usable from a photograph that had been taken with the people at the back of the group twice as far from the flash as the people at the front. In its default state it looked quite artistic, but not if you actually wanted to see the people at the back. My experience on the subject side of (large) school photographs tended to be that they were taken outside in overcast conditions, which solved the uneven lighting problem quite well. Of course, with a rotating lens, flash wasn't really an option.</p>
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<p>"but for a simple school set up would continuous lighting be better???"<br />Nope, I have been shooting school portraits for a while now and unless you have some type of Cool continuous lighting kit, strobes are so much better. Once in a while you do have to worry about the kids blinking, but the benefits of strobe still outweigh those of continuous lights.<br>

<br />Continuous llights can get hot which can make the subjects and even yourself very uncomfortable. They have to stay on all the time. With a bunch of hyperactive kids running around accidents are bound to happen. At least with strobes the light only stays on for a few seconds...<br>

<br />My guess is that one of your strobes either moved(that's why I tape mines down) or you inadvertantly changed the exposure on your camera, or maybe a faulty strobe. The kids moving would not cause what you described.<br />For a school set-up all that is needed are two lights, (but you can get by with just one), umbrellas, and/or a softbox, a good flash meter, a background, stands and of course your camera.<br>

<br />Anything more elaboraate is just going to cause more problems. Forget about hair-lights, Accent lights, scrims, barndoors, or anything that is going to complicate things. Once you get the proper reading you can use that reading all day long since the light rarely changes inside. Outdoors is a different story.</p>

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