Learning with a professional photographer....

[SolidBrowser]

Yesterday I went with a professional photographer to take pictures of bathrooms to advertise a bathroom renovation business. He said to switch you camera to program mode (P) and lightly press the shutter button half way down and once you take note of the aperture, switch to aperture priority mode (A) and change the aperture to the previous aperture (the aperture noted in (P) mode) then, go about two f-stops up from there. He also recommends I get a flash . He says he uses the pice of equiptment to bounce the flash from the ceiling to the object so that the image does not review any indication of the flash's light (I didn't use the bouncer and you can see the flash in the first picture) he also says it will eliminate red eyes in portraits because the light does not reflect back from the eyes to the camera. Is this good information to go by? How can i take my portraits and bathroom shots to the next level?
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[MikeMc]

listen to advice from sage old pros......

Then grab your camera (I used to add notebook here) and with todays digital wonders the data will be recorded for you by the camera.Shoot the same subject a couple of HUNDRED times.....Yeah a tripod works well here. What you are doing is getting the camera OFF PROGRAM and learning about light that the camera sees....You will see it different, as you are photoshop, and your brain will let you see, but your camera doesn't so exposure and lighting will need to be learned.

Multi segemented light meters make shooting easy for most, BUT can be fooled, you have to know when to override the meter..go "spot",
shoot auto bracketed bursts (great for HDR also) and just play.

I will tell you, I can EDIT, but not CREATE behind a camera....I think that is what drives me in photoshop.

Good Luck, keep shooting and posting!



PS when I learned in the late 60's, the motto was "film is cheap in bulk!"...I love digital and delete!

 

[Steve]

I don't understand why he's asking you to meter the way you did.
P mode will find a nice combination between aperture and shutter speed.
in A mode, you pick the aperture and the camera picks the shutter speed.

If I do that with my camera in Av mode with the flash on, the shutter speed will lock.
Set that way the aperture adjusts the ambient light only and adjusting the flash compensation adjusts the flash output.

That's my Canon 60D but all cameras are different even inside the same brand.
If it works for you that's great but I'd love to know the reason.

I don't know much about flash photography but you'll need at least 1 off camera flash.
A soft box for your flash would really help and a scrim to bounce or diffuse light.
All that can be problematic in a small bathroom and and of course how professional these photos need to look makes a difference when you're laying out $$ for gear.

I'd also turn the lights on, you want the images to look natural.

 

[5600k]

Adding to what Steve said & Looking at your images, I think diffusing whatever light source(whether its a flash or not) you are using will get you a long way. And it always works well if you expose a stop or two higher for these sort of shots. Try not to light them with an on camera flash. Have a key and a fill to get some directionality to the light and that will help you get some depth as well.