C & C Please

[GDHugh]

I knew I had problems from the start. The room was so big, light just disappeared from the flash when I tryed to use any type of defuser. So I ended up with over exposed hot spots like white dresses and shirts and dark everything else because I had my mind made that I should shoot low ISO for IQ.
I know somethngs I should have done different but I feel this is the best place and the best group of people to seek advise about technique.

40D 580EX II w/flash bracket
EF-s 17-85mm f/4-5.6 is USM
Manual exposure
ISO100(mostly) f/9-f5.6(mostly) 1/160-1/200-1/60 <--- trying different settings

http://gdavidhughes.zenfolio.com/p819001579

[viet]

Some sample shots here would help as people tend to not click on links.

I looked at some of your shots and they weren't too bad technically. But to get better, learn to bounce your light effectively, shoot higher ISO, open your lens all the way, lower your shutter to get more ambient in. With your gear, you could shoot up to 1600 ISO, 1/60 and let your flash deal with the rest, I believe it'd look a lot better.

Diffuser is a misleading term, the tiny piece of plastic on your 580 is called an omni-bounce and it'll waste your light unless you know how to use it.

[GDHugh]

Yes, I should have started with higher ISO and a wide open lens. I didn't want to open the lens up because I know it is sharper when stopped down just a bit. I tryed a Omni-Bounce which was only good close up with in a few feet. I could not bounce off the ceiling as it was just way to high.
Part of the problem is also my PP skills, or lack there of. I am useing PSE-6 and mostly just color and exposure correction in RAW converter then levels and and sharpening in PSE-6. The problem I found most difficult was brightening low light ares and toning down high brighness ares without making skin tone look burnt.
Here are a couple of the bad ones.
http://gdavidhughes.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p440687349-3.jpg

http://gdavidhughes.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p576799046-3.jpg

http://gdavidhughes.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p79584735-3.jpg

A couple of better ones.
http://gdavidhughes.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p790128978-3.jpg
http://gdavidhughes.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p509400584-3.jpg

[supracuhz]

Too much depth of field