D200 and focus for portrait

[louisekennedy]

I have a shoot coming up, for an informal portrait session. I'm looking forward to it. I'm wondering what

others rely on for a sharp focus with decent DOF results too. I'll be shooting in a home (not a studio

setting) with two flashes off camera on light stands--sb800 into an umbrella in front, and an sb600

behind. Lenses will be either 17-55, or 60 prime (or 50 1.4 if I have time).

 

I only have a finite time to shoot, so I've been practising with my flashes to get a handle on them, and I

finally figured out the whole remote, ttl, commander, thing, including how to power up one and power

down another. it's fascinating. I love the sb flashes a lot. I completely see how shooting with three or four

of them in a studio setting is all that one might need.

 

As to focus, after all this set up, it would stink to end up with a soft focus, and now I don't have time to do

a test run. I know to be about 10 feet away, and to shoot slightly above my subject. the D200 has such a

sophisticated focus modes (single servo, continuous, etc, etc, etc), that I'd like to stick to some standards

for what I'm looking for. Sharp eyes, soft everything else.

 

Any tried and true advice would be appreciated, and thank you.

 

L

[Matt Laur]

I'll leave the subtleties of the focus issue to some other commenters, but will mention that it can be helpful, when shooting that SB800 through/from an umbrella, to really crank it up (you'll lose a lot of energy to the umbrella). You're going to get several comments about how you should be using a light meter to get your exposure right, but if you don't have one, opt for the most those speedlights can give you, and thus be able to stop down a bit on those lenses... thus buying yourself a little more focal leeway.

[leicaglow]

Louise, Assuming you'll end up using one of the lenses at between 50-60mm, at 10' you'll have a decent DOF. Since you're using a D200, why not practice with one of them at various f/stops? At 10', my guess would be that you're going to have to shoot fairly wide open at about f/2 or f/2.8, and even at that, nose and ears may be in focus. I'd opt for the longest lens (the 60mm). It's equivalent to about a 85-90mm on film, and you'd get pretty close to the effect you describe at those apertures.

[louisekennedy]

Michael and Matt - great answers.

 

I'm pretty happy with the on board light meter, and I like to play with exposure anyway

until I find what I want. I will have my lap top with me, so I don't rely on the lcd monitor.

But your point about the umbrella is well taken. I want to soften up any harshness of

course, but don't want to lose the power of the light, that's why this one will be the 800

and not the 600

 

And yes, the 60 is probably going to be my lens of choice, although I may also get a lot of

use out of the 50 at slightly closer range.

 

it's that whole focus bank that is vexing me.

[johnw63]

Do a quick web search for Depth of Field calculators. Plug in your lens size and distance and

see what will give you the depth you want.

[erik_loza]

I shoot machinery, not people, but some of it is staggered and of the size of human beings, so maybe this helps. I do all my work at about 1/160th and f8. That speed will freeze any movement (yours or theirs...) and that's a decent working aperture. In fact, I would stay away from anything shallower (unless that was the look you were going for). I have used the 80-200mm at times, and it's good at 10'. Just set the camera's AF on single servo and go to it, since you're making all your own light. Good luck.

[bwcombs]

The D200 with a handful of speedlites is wonderful thing. I love it.

 

As is the rule, I always focus on the eyes. Most often with a couple of speedlites,

umbrellas, I'm shooting at f/5.6 to f/8. I shoot the D200 in manual mode, single focus

mode, RAW, ISO 100 or 200. Most often the speedlites are set at 1/2 power or so. I rarely

shoot them at full power.

 

This sample shot was taken in a home. Two speedlites on umbrellas. Lots of white walls,

so the bounce light was pretty intense. I think that the speedlites might have been set on

1/4 or so.

 

Have fun. Good luck.

[bwcombs]

Forgot the sample post...<div></div>

[louisekennedy]

BW - great image.

 

So you don't leave the sb's as ttl, you have them set to manual. Just wondering about the half

power.

 

My test shots I found that I shot around f5.6 and 1/125 for good results. I'll mess around

with 1/160 as well.

 

Great answers to everyone. I learn a bit from each response. Thank you

[bwcombs]

Louise, I don't use TTL in studio multi strobe set ups. I know many others do. I find more

control over the light for the look I want to achieve. Plus, more often, I have the luxury of

having the time to get the exposures right, etc.

 

I do use TTL when shooting single flash, candids, etc.

[erik_loza]

Listen to him ^^^ and your life will be much simpler. Manual ratio control > iTTL, Commander, blah, blah, blah...

[aaron l]

I use one SB-800 on camera to control two SB-800's off camera using Nikon CLS, that way I don't have to run around to each flash and fiddle the manual flash levels. I just do that from the flash attached to my camera, running in Master, 0 output mode. It rules...as long as I'm close enough the other flashes see the Master.

 

In your situation, I'd probably still use the commander on the camera, keep it in --- output power, run the SB-800 in group A and SB-600 in group B and control the flash power manually. You'll have to fiddle the menus for a bit, but if you set up before your people actually get there, you can have it dialed in almost completely.

 

I usually use 5 point focus when I'm not working with super shallow DOF, like an 85mm f1.4 @ f2.2, 5 feet away. I've gotten dinged before, so I'm more careful now.

 

Make sure your batteries are charged that morning, as I've left my NiMH for a week, started using them and konked them.

[juan_parm_nides]

You have full control on the flash power in iTTL mode, you can reduce it as low as you want, and you have more flexibility. I use it with umbrellas (bounced or through) and several flashes. Total control. Cheers.

[aaron l]

The one difficulty of running with iTTL is that any slight change in your image/composure will alter the iTTL settings and you might be fighting constantly, with seemingly inconsistent results. It's happen to me. Full manual eliminates that.