I like the look of Wiggy with the wide angle and a HK background. But I did have to do a little PS work to completely burn out the background. I just couldn’t bring myself to letting that all look like a Blown Highlight!:) Am I wrong, should I have just blown it out right away?

Thanks James,
Eliminate shadows, I can do that. For so long I've worked to keep from blowing highlights, then here I am aiming for some. I assume as you say “registering close to 255” but not pushed to far “beyond” is the goal. I have three flashes, next time I will attempt to prevent all shadows and minimize clipping the whites. First I have to build up the ambition to prepare myself to the battle of wills to get Wiggy to sit still long enough:) Once the flash hits, he is gone!

Hey Jeff,

You are quite correct. Pushing close to 255 is definitely not blowing out. You want to see detail in the muzzle and hair. It is very hard to do. I have been working on this and believe I FINALLY have it right. I am currently using a 4 flash system - two bounced off the cieling to control shadows, and two direct flashes to highlight areas I want highlighted. I may add a 5th at some point for periodic back-light shots.

ChrisA has inspired me with some of his awesome portraits. I have been testing out my system and so far it works (most of the time). LOL. The Nikon wireless system, in my opinion, is nice than Canon's.

-JM

Unfortunately I am not using the Nikon system. I have to scrounge up a spare grand:) Until then I go manual with a couple old flashes. It works, and it's cheap. But I do end up with more of a headache from over-fiddling. I was thinking I would at least like to pick up a SB-800 and a softbox.
I will play again one of these day. I also need a few grand to add an addition on the house so I don’t have to clean up every time I am done with a shoot:)
I did this shot with 3 flashes. A small slave for backlighting. And two tilt heads with bounce cards. I will set my goal on shadow elimination and no blow highlights unless they are on the background.

I love this shot!!!

Been thinking, too - at $30 less than an SB-800 flash unit, an Alien Bee 400 unit might be great for blowing out the detail in a background like this?

I love this shot!!! How close were you physically, and approx. what focal length?

Been thinking, too - at $30 less than an SB-800 flash unit, an Alien Bee 400 unit might be great for blowing out the detail in a background like this?

Thanks Chris!:)

It was at 12mm, all the EXIF data is still there. And he was about 1-2 feet away. I would have to verify that at home for sure, but at 12mm I was very close. I am very pleased with this shot too. It is what I was looking for, and Wiggy hammed it up just right with his, “What you talking bout Willis” head tilt.

The price of the Alien Bees and other setups are the one reason I have not went for the SB-800 yet. While I will get one, for some simpler uses, I do like the idea of starting a more serious studio setup.

I will work more in the future to reduce my background PP, but here are a couple more shots from that session.

... because of the artifacts that may generate on the edge of the subject! This is typical of what I get before post processing ... note that the background isn't blown:
When I do decide to intentionally blow the background, it's with a separate light (so the foreground isn't overexposed as well.)

Hey Kenny, thanks!
I thought that would be the case. So I guess you adjust the flash to subject distance to get the white background up to near white. My current problem is without a softbox or umbrellas I have issues obtaining uniformity. Thanks for the pointers and inspiration with that great shot! I just love that shot.