new flash

[Ender2309]

so i got a 430EX for christmas and i've been playing around with it off and on.

i just pulled this straight off the camera, its bounced off the ceiling, because of the cat's eyes, and i was just wondering what everybody thought of it.

the flash is set to manual, 1/4th power, high speed sync (if that matters), 70mm focal length (lens was at 75mm). iso 100, ss 1/100th, f2.8. flash exposure comp was down 1 stop.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/mrlemon123/IMG_3886.jpg



i was also wondering whether ETTL was worth using, or if it was like the auto mode on my camera.
thanks.

[Robert_Lay]

Couple of minor problems here, but you did very well with the lighting.

Kitty should be moved a bit to the left in this frame so that there is a little less of the rump and a little more space to her left (our right).

The other problem is that those two shades of blue clash badly with her coloration. You need to surround her with harmonious colors.

[zacker]

looks good, just needs a bit of contrast like a curves adjustment and a bit o sharpening!

[Ender2309]

thanks guys.

robert, i'll keep that in mind for the future. this was just a quick shot of the cat so i wasn't really worried about that.

[PETERSYMES]

I think the lighting is spot on, i am puzzled by how soft it looks though.
A digital rebel XTi is a 400D in Europe (Right?) 10MP? cant quite understand where all the detail in the fur and whiskers is? perhaps the very shallow DOF you get from f2.8 is to blame, the cats nose looks like it is just about on the boundary of focus, or maybe it is just a very soft cat. I normally use ETTL and find Canon cameras handle it generally well even though i don't use a Canon flash gun. Was the image captured as a JPEG or RAW?