Rex,
I’m always happy to help. Right off I have to say I like the glass
you’re using. 18-200 gives a tremendous amount of flexibility in
composition. You didn’t mention how fast it was so my first piece of
advice is to always try to buy lenses that are 2.8 or better. This
will help you get shots in dimly lit churches without having to boost
your ISO to the point of adding noise to your pictures.
You said that you are using a SB600 flash and that you had some
trouble shooting in fluorescent light. This problem has a very cheap
fix. You can use colored gels to make the light from your flash match
the ambient light or (in this case) to correct for the ambient light.
If you’re using flash outdoors you can make your flash match the color of
the sunlight, giving you that natural look that is so popular today.
It will also help turn a cloudy day into something a tad less
depressing. A pack of gels should run you about $25 and is something
you should always have on you.
You can also use a bounce board to put sunlight where you want it so
you don’t have to use flash at all. This method works great when you’re
dealing with portraits because you’re not distracting your client with
blinding light every three seconds. Office depot sell a pack of white
foam core poster boards for $20. I use these poster boards as a
simple bounce board. I also tape several together to make a giant
free standing “V” and either bounce sunlight or flash off of it. You
can also put your flash head on a stand and park it in the middle of
the “V” and put the light exactly where you want it. Put a “V” on
either side of a model, park a flash inside of each one and set the
flash to F8. This gives a very nice high fashion look.
Anyway, I could go on all day.
Go to www.Strobist.com, this is a great site that will teach you all
you ever wanted to know about flash. They also have a “boot camp”
section with assignments for you to send in and they will critique
them for you.
Also check out Youtube for free instructional videos. Never spend $ on
books or videos without looking on youtube first. Just search for
Photography lighting setups, Photography How to….you get the idea.
Feel free to hit me up with any questions you might have. I’ll give
you an answer if I have one and make something up if I don’t.
–
Have a good one,
Daniel Troutman
503.871.5505
www.troutmanphoto.com

