Happy families...

[KevC]

Heya,

Just got my 420ex. So happy that I don't have to shoot wide open and ISO1600 anymore.

Family friends, in a darkish restaurant.

These are my first flash shots so please be nice. Thanks!

http://img110.echo.cx/img110/3168/crw35677ss.jpg
http://img237.echo.cx/img237/8333/crw35667ow.jpg

[smittymike19]

hey these look great as far as the flash goes. the first one looks a little blurry to me. but the flash looks great, not washed out or uneven. did you use an omni bounce or just bounce it off the ceiling. Good job!! also, what parameters did you use, exif info is always good!

[KevC]

This was shot with the kit lens @ f/8 (love it :D) and omni-bounce bounced ~75deg up. The colour temperatures were difficult to work with... as you can see the yellow light in the background, and blueish light from the ceiling.

The shutter speed was extremely low though, I was hand holding at 1/6 to 1/4 of a second :eek:

I really need to install the hack... FEC :)

[smittymike19]

Couple of things:
1. excellent job on the sharpness if hand holding at ¼ of a second. Did you make everyone freeze when you took the picture, as this is pretty slow, and I would suspect that SOMEONE would have blinked in that time.
2.Why didn’t you use the 50/1.8 at f 4, this may have been better lens for several reasons:
- Would have decreased the DOF and blurred the background out a bit.
- At F4 vs F8 you would have doubled the SS.
- The sweet spot for the 50/1.8 is around 3.5 so it would have been ultra sharp.
Just some questions , sorry if any seem dumb, but I am just learning myself. But really considering the parameters you used, excellent shots. :)

[KevC]

Couple of things:
1. excellent job on the sharpness if hand holding at ¼ of a second. Did you make everyone freeze when you took the picture, as this is pretty slow, and I would suspect that SOMEONE would have blinked in that time.
2.Why didn’t you use the 50/1.8 at f 4, this may have been better lens for several reasons:
- Would have decreased the DOF and blurred the background out a bit.
- At F4 vs F8 you would have doubled the SS.
- The sweet spot for the 50/1.8 is around 3.5 so it would have been ultra sharp.
Just some questions , sorry if any seem dumb, but I am just learning myself. But really considering the parameters you used, excellent shots. :)

Hey, thanks for the reply!

1. My elbows were resting on the table, so that gave me extra stability. Also, flash freezes motion so that's why they were really sharp. However, I'm still surprised I didn't have too much camera shake. I told them to "smiiiile" I guess it's just a natural reaction to freeze. I'm glad they didn't blink though :)

2. It never really crossed my mind to use the 50/1.8. I should've actually. However, I didn't have the mobility to move around, we were all sitting down at the table after dinner so I really welcomed the zoom. Next time I'm out I'll definitely try the nifty fifty. They say it's tack sharp, but I've never tried it stopped down very much.

Don't worry about seeming dumb, you're definitely not :) These are great questions, and I'm learning myself too!

I'm still loving ISO100 though, even at 1/4s. Hahaha.

[monkey_wrench]

the girl in the centre on the last shot does not look happy

[smittymike19]

I'm still loving ISO100 though, even at 1/4s. Hahaha.

Ok now you are killing me. ISO 100? you could have definitely helped yourself a ton by moving to 400 and given yourself almost a reasonable amount of time to avoid any camera shake.

Do you notice a difference between 100 and 400? I'm going to do a bunch of experimenting this weekend to see for myself. iam hoping the difference is negligible. Though i did shoot at 800 thsi weekend for an indoor event (i dont ahve an external flash yet). so my approach was to open up the 50/1.8 to 1.8, use 1so 800 and i was getting like 1/40 second. 2 problems with that, DOF is very limited at 1.8 and as i was shooting kids, they often moved and the focus missed their eyes. 2 iso 800 is definitley grainy. i may have to process with one of the grain removing progs. I guess ill have to get me a flash.

[KevC]

Ok now you are killing me. ISO 100? you could have definitely helped yourself a ton by moving to 400 and given yourself almost a reasonable amount of time to avoid any camera shake.

Do you notice a difference between 100 and 400? I'm going to do a bunch of experimenting this weekend to see for myself. iam hoping the difference is negligible. Though i did shoot at 800 thsi weekend for an indoor event (i dont ahve an external flash yet). so my approach was to open up the 50/1.8 to 1.8, use 1so 800 and i was getting like 1/40 second. 2 problems with that, DOF is very limited at 1.8 and as i was shooting kids, they often moved and the focus missed their eyes. 2 iso 800 is definitley grainy. i may have to process with one of the grain removing progs. I guess ill have to get me a flash.

Hehe. I know. At *least* ISO200. But I dunno, I was just so sick of shooting ISO1600 I was glad to play with ISO100 for a while you know? I will definitely try ISO200-400. But 800+ for me is too noisy. The 350/DrebelXt and the 20D are way better up there.

f/1.8 is very dangerous, the DOF is so narrow one eye is in focus the other isn't :) But don't be afraid of going high ISO. A usable noisy image is better than a blurry one!

Here's another one: I call it... friends.

[smittymike19]

yeah the more you post teh more i realize taht maybe the flash aint such a bad thing after all, if i can get it down like you have. these are really great shots. the flash work on them is great looking to me. nice job

[KevC]

Haha. Yeah, flash photography's really convient. But I think I just got lucky with these shots. I need to practise more.

Did you just recently get into photography? I have. Well... I consider a few months recent. Do play with available lighting before jumping into flash. I just got my flash several days ago, and I've been playing with available lighting for a long time before.

Gotta set the foundations, right? :) But when you are ready to get a flash, you're probably gonna love it. It's gonna be a tad overwhelming though, at least it was for me. It opens so many doors, so many more variables to play with.

Good luck! and most of all, have fun.

[smittymike19]

yeah i just started for real, last month when i bought the drebel. man have i learned a lot since then. i still have tons to go, but at least now i have a decent foundation. i figure in another month i will be a pro at the rate i am reading and participating in these forums..lol