Another Day, Another Lesson Learned

After work and a good tennis session, I was all psyched to try some studio shots.  I had thought about the lighting set-up I wanted, I had a fresh bag of treats, and I wore the girls out with their own tennis ball session.  I was Ready To Go!

And the first couple photos seemed OK, but for the fact that trying to wrangle both girls was a bit of a challenge. 

Improperly wrangled Doodles.  (And blogger freaking out with photos that have the exposure tweaked.)

Luckily, I was able to persuade the husband to distract Abby, and I was all set for some one-on-one time with Fi.

I had my two big soft boxes set up, and I was all set for some fantastic portraits of Fi.

And instead, I got this...

 Not quite what I was going for; I had the soft boxes set up on either side of the camera, and so I expected Fi to be lit from both sides.  Since that didn't happen, I checked the power setting on the speedlight in the soft box on camera right, and upped the power.  Bridge to engine room!  Scotty!  I need more power!  And I need it NOW!  *ahem*

It still didn't work.  Figuring that something must be wrong with one of the flashes, I went with one soft box to see what I'd get.

It was definitely a power issue.  At this point, Abby was scratching on the door and Fi was getting restless, so I broke out the strobe and decided to go for Dark and Mysterious.

While I like the Dark and Mysterious look, it would be nice to make that an option, rather than the default.

The lesson learned here?  Always make sure the batteries are properly charged (for the camera, the flashes, the hot shoes, etc.) before a photo shoot.  Actually a full check-list would probably be handy.  Something else to add to the checklist? A skinny black leash (like on a retractable leash - I hate those for regular walking, but for ease of removal in Photoshop, it would be optimal).  Why, you ask?  Let's just say Yeti's bright blue leash was a wee bit distracting.... And tough to remove!

Not the best Photoshop job in the world, but that blue leash was distracting.  Yep, lesson learned there, too. I think we've got an old retractable leash around (or a thin leather leash, which would at least be less distracting if still not super-easy to remove) to put in my bag of 'things to take to a doggie photo shoot'.

Day  294/365.