Flash Virgin

[NullMind]

Last night I bought my first flash, a used 550EX to go with my 20D

Now, I had taken some portraid pictures a few days back, the wife wanted to send the parents a portraid picture of her.. I had to use the built in flash, and later had to go overtime on photoshop getting rid of flash-spots on the skin, fixing the burned BG (wall) and trying to make the whole face more uniform.

I'm no big time photographer, just a noob, but Photoshop is my realm :) .. so I did a good job .. but took me all day.

So I decided it was time to see howw much better a proper bounced flash woudl make a portraid look, foudn a local seller with a slightly used 550EX to sell and went for it.

I got home, full of excitement to test it out, so I got the camera, asked the wife to stand still so I could take a picture of her (wichh she strongly objected complaining her hair was not this,, the clothes were not that, .. normal woman stuff, but eventually gave in), first I took one with the normal flash, then I got the 550, put on some batteries on it, mounted it on the camera, turned the flash head to the 60 (degree ?) position so it would bounce off the ceiling and pressed the shutter ... the next sound was of my privates hitting the floor.

Now, this is not a studio shot or anything even planned, the exposure is wrong, it's a quick handheld .. etc etc

but the result is clear ... :)

Now mind I mostly prefer to shoot outside, so I hardly ever tought of flash, but with XMAS aproaching, the mandatory family and kids only portraids are needed, and this just made my life allot easier, so my next purchase now is a ominibounce diffuser and a reflector (to soften the shadows).

Living and learning :)

1st is cam flash, 2nd is 550EX

[SkipD]

I can't tell which shot is what - you didn't label them - and thus can't provide much comment at this time.

There is a very significant white balance (color) difference between the two shots as well as an exposure control problem.

One thing that you should think about, though, is to keep the background further behind the subject when photographing people. I like to have at least six feet or so between a portrait subject and the background.

I suspect that the wall itself was affecting the exposures way too much and that's why the exposure of your wife's face was so different in the two shots (and both were underexposed).

[RTMiller]

Now try tilting the the lens to 45 degrees and pull out the white reflector card. I think you will like that even better.;)

[NullMind]

There is a very significant white balance (color) difference between the two shots as well as an exposure control problem.

One thing that you should think about, though, is to keep the background further behind the subject when photographing people. I like to have at least six feet or so between a portrait subject and the background.

I suspect that the wall itself was affecting the exposures way too much and that's why the exposure of your wife's face was so different in the two shots (and both were underexposed).

thanks, and yes, the exposure is off, I just could not believe how much smoother the 550EX makes the portraid

sorry, this picture was probably a bad example, I was just a bit over excited :)

[NullMind]

Now try tilting the the lens to 45 degrees and pull out the white reflector card. I think you will like that even better.;)

I shall try that, I'm also curious to see how the omnibounce will work :)

[SkipD]

I really like the Lumiquest ProMax System attachment system for my flash. There are many ways to use the package, increasing the flexibility to cover almost all situations I have run into. Here's a link to Lumiquest's web site describing it: http://www.lumiquest.com/lq931.htm

[Titus213]

Oh, you will have fun. The 550EX is more powerful than the pop-up, has many more options, and you can bounce it. I've still got to do some more testing with my Lumiquest ProMax system but from what I've seen so far it works pretty good with less light loss. I also use the LSII and find it very nice for around the house type flash shots. It uses lots of light but makes it very soft. Both attachments are about the same price although the delivery rate on the LSII seems troublesome.

[beardo]

Now try tilting the the lens to 45 degrees and pull out the white reflector card. I think you will like that even better.;)

The 550 doesn't have a reflector card only the 580.

[tim]

I saw a pro use a white piece of plastic he cut out of an ice cream container, held on by a rubber band. He swore by it.