black tux turning grey with flash - Help needed

[epes]

I shoot with a nikon d40x and a sb600 flash. I recently shot a church ceremony wedding and in most of my shots,

the tux of the groom was grey. it was a very shiny tux, but still, I would have liked to remain black in my

shots. I tried some adjustings in LR, but those underexposed my overall image. I shot with direct flash, with

bounced flash on ceilling or on walls.How can I control my camera and flash to avoid this?<div></div>

[davebell]

How does this version look?

[davebell]

How does this version look? Adjusted levels with layer mask in CS2 (after/before).<div></div>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

I'm confused when you say you shot with "direct flash, with bounced flash".....Isn't possible unless you were using

more than one speedlite. The shot above is direct flash and you used the flash mounted on your hotshoe without a

bracket. With enough light you can turn a black wall white and in this case you've ampped the black of the tux.

Bouncing off a cieling would have been a better solution, a white index card attached to the back of the flash head

could have provided a little fill. This would also eliminate the shadow on the back wall. Better yet would be using a

Stoffen omnibounce angled at 45 degrees. This would give your light some diffussion and would have kicked in some

of the light to the tux and eyesockets.

[epes]

thanks david, I considered also this method, but in fact I`m looking to improve my flash techniques.

this one is direct flash, but I got similar results bouncing the flash on the ceilling (white one). so using a

stoffen will produce better results? I`m amazed you read all the infos only from looking at the photo.

[tiffany_anderson]

How bout this one - I just played with the histogram and blocked up the blacks a little bit...<div></div>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

I'm very fond of my Soffen and use it frequently indoors mounted on my camera-flip bracket. It provides diffussion and still allows bounce. In the shot of Peter and Lindsay below, Pete's tux shows the details of the lapel and pinstripes and Lindsay's dress doesn't have any blown highlights. Postprocessing and using curve adjustments can help an image but understanding light/specularity is the key to solid images.<div></div>

[picturesque]

I don't think you can control a shiny black tux in camera. Play around some more with it in Lightroom--not the exposure control, but blacks, or adjusting the tone histogram--or in PS, with Curves or Levels. What are the black 'dots' on his tux in the lower left part of the image?

[manolis1]

The first image is the original one. Second one: Duplicate layer ---> selective color ---> Black color: + 66% (normal). The third one: Duplicate layer ---> selective color ---> Black color: + 66% (overlay).

If you want you can duplicate the layer and go strait to overlay, skipping the selective color. Of course do not forget to open a layer mask to bring everything except the tuxedo back to original post.<div></div>

[epes]

thanks, this last technique seems more appropriate for action it, so maybe a solution. thanks

 

the black dots on the bottom left side? the tux had a discrete texture with more shiny and less shiny little squares.