peppinphotography: Dana - It looks like you use flash for almost every shoot yet your images never "look" like you've used flash. I'd be interested to your approach in determining your ambient exposure and what ratio you're looking for on the flash so you are getting the fill you want without overpowering the ambient.
I’m actually going to be doing a video about exactly this topic very soon on my YouTube channel, but the condensed version is- I shoot with the absolute lowest power setting I can get away with. Just enough to add a little bit of pop and definition to the model and balance the highlights. I don’t worry too much about how overexposed the background is unless it’s completely blown out. As long as the highlights aren’t totally blown out, they can be recovered quite well in Capture One. The main thing I’m looking at is adding some contrast and fill to the model.
ncmacman: Dana, Hello. just came across your YT video on when you rented the A7rmkii from BL.. Question: this photograph now are you lighting your subject. 163782218581 the original kateri the lions la photographed Thank You for your skills and time making the videos. Regards Anis
Thanks for your kind words! I appreciate it. For the shoot with Kateri I had an assistant holding a Profoto B1 with a small octobox on a grip arm taken off of a C-stand. I like shooting with human light stands outside as often as possible because it’s super easy to position the light. Take care and thanks for watching!
adamstanleyphotos: Hey Dana, Hope you're good. Do you use the sharpening tool in capture one at all? how do you generally sharpen your images? Cheers
Hey Adam, honestly I don’t usually do much sharpening at all. If a shot is just a teeny bit out of focus and it’s a shot I really love, I may give it a little bit of Unsharp Mask in photoshop but try to keep it to a minimum to avoid funky looking artifacts and stuff. The only other thing I do is to add a tiny bit of film grain in C1 to each picture. I think having that texture even if it’s just a very small amount adds a bit of contrast around edges making things look just a tad sharper.
