What am I doing wrong?

[stowheliman]

This picture is typical of the images I've been capturing on my G2 with its 420EX flash. The image was shot in "Portrait Mode" using a flash. It was set to F2.5 and ISO 1/100 w/ AWB and evaluative metering. Like most of my shots using this flash unit, a large portion of the subject is overexposed. What the heck am I doing wrong? The flash seems to fire with too much intensity.

http://home.neo.rr.com/thestings/images/Gorge%20031.jpg

[stopbath]

The file is huge, I could not see the entire image in the web browser, but the picture seems rather unfocused, but exposure seems ok. Perhaps a bit harsh, but that's flash anyways.

At what distance was your subject away from the camera, you may have been on the short side of the effective range of the flash (too close and the subject will invariably be overexposed.) Check your manual on what distance range is best for taking flash pictures.

To reduce over exposure on your subjects, move further back (for each foot back the flash is half as brilliant) or select a smaller aperture (allow less light from flash into picture.)

[Leighow]

I rarely use the built-in G2 flash, so I canot help.

This is tought to comment on when you do not know the darkness of the girl's skin and eyes. I 'd drop the image's brightness 2 - 3 points in curves.

But I wanted to say that the face seems to me be beautifully exposed. So when you say the subject is way over, I assume that the shirt must have been a light grey because on my monitor it is close to a dull white on the top left hand side.

Of course, the rest of the picture is flat due to the cloudy weather conditions, Even so, the fall colors look quite accurate to me and typical of what I would expect late in the season when leaves are coming down in wind storms and the reds have moved on the an orange-pink stage.

On close, I like this image. It is soft, the face is lovely and happy, and the overall image is relaxing and a reminder of the woods on a cloudy day.

Nicely done.

HOWIE

PS: Another idea might be to adjust the WB using a "card" (see the G2 instructions) and shoot in RAW.

[Mark Kemp]

Not sure about a G2, but most Canon cameras have a flash exposure compensation feature that lets you turn down the amount of flash. I usually use about 1/2 or 1 stop less than the camera would do otherwise. It just takes that overbright edge off a bit. Look in the G2 manual for 'flash exposure compensation'.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I have to say that the image does look very nicely exposed to my eyes as well? The flashh doesn't look too harsh at all. :)

[stowheliman]

Thanks for the suggestions. The color of my daughters sweatshirt is pale blue and the flash was so intense it seemed to wash out the color and make the word "nike" look faint. The orange and yellow background colors were captured great and I'm satisfied with that.

I was about 10 feet away from her when I took the picture and had the G2 telephoto fully "zoomed-in". Is that a word? ;-)

[RichardtheSane]

TO me the scene looks correctly exposed also.
If you are having colour balance issues then maybe the white balance is what you need to be looking at, as Howie said. :)