Indoor flash

[Rains]

I'm new to the forum and photography. I've done a couple of weddings. I've shot in the church with a 30D 50mm/F1.4 because I don't know how to use my 430ex sppedlite with a 17-85 IS USM without the photos lokking very "flashy."

Any help would be appreciated.

Here is a link to some of the photos. I've got thick skin.

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n169/srains_01/GasCard/

[MartinN]

Your pictures are way under exposed & attempting to do a wedding without the practice & any idea on how to use you flash i woud have not done the job.

My advice to you is practice alot more with flash indoor & outdoor & contact other photogs in your area & ask if you can work along side of them.

Dont mean to sound to hard but i wouldnt do anymore for now.

[Kristy]

I've never done a wedding because I don't know that I could pull it off... so whatever I say comes from a person who is not skilled at shooting weddings...

That being said... Your images look pretty dark in the faces, and learning to use fill flash would go a loooong way towards jump starting your success in the area of weddings.

Are you diffusing your flash with anything when you think they look flashy? Let us know your normal method of using flash, and maybe we can help to steer you in a good direction.

Personally I love natural light, but I also know that flash is needed in most situations and nature is not always predictable and available for a good quality light. You always want to be sure that the "mask" of people's faces are well lit. Using fill flash can definitely come through for you... It will also improve color, contrast and the amount of grain seen in the shadows, as well as the sharpness of your images.

You can underexpose for a blown out background and just use flash as main to light your subject, etc... the options are endless... and the learning curve can be challenging. But once you master it... You'll be hooked! :)

You're in the right place... lots of flash guru's around here.. I'm still in the trial and error place... but hey.. we all start somewhere. :)

[Rains]

What is fill flash? What setting on the flash do you adjust for that?

[johnstoy]

You could probably save most of these pics by running them through a post processing program... It would be better to shoot in RAW when doing a no flash series...

However, for now, I'd recommend getting some quality training as a second shooter.

Your flash should have worked OK in auto mode...

Personally, I buy a lot of books on the subject of weddings and posing... The objective is to get all of my pics to look, at least like the typical professional wedding picture should. I won't be comfortable selling the pics otherwise.

[Rains]

These were shot in RAW. By auot do you mean TTL? Thanks. BTW, these were done for a family member with Photoshop so I think most were very fixable.

[jptsr1]

What is fill flash? What setting on the flash do you adjust for that?

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=138907

Check out the link. Plenty info on fill and lots of other stuff as well.

J.

[Rains]

Thank you.

[Esemkaye]

I also noticed that you had your ISO set pretty low on a lot of those pictures. High ISO is definitely needed in dark environments like that. It will let you shoot with faster shutter speeds as well as capture a lot more of the background and detail behind the subjects.

Also... larger apertures (smaller F-Stop numbers) coupled with an ETTL flash for fill or even main light will get those pictures even brighter with better detail.

Check out the Bat Mitzvah shots on my blog... those were all in very dark settings. The temple shots were taken at about F2.8 | ISO 1600 | 1/40th-1/80th shutter speed on a tripod and/or monopod. The reception was shot very similarly, except with flash.

Blog - http://www.smkstudios.com/blog