First Portrait of Daughter

[guitarman]

Taken with my 20D and 17-40mm F4L. It was just a quick snapshot that I played around in PSCS2 with. Anyone care to tell me how I could make this better. Would a flash help. I'm considering buying the 580EX. Even though I know virtually nothing about flash photography. I love to learn though.

http://guitarman.servepics.com/Brit1.jpg

[guitarman3]

Interesting effect with all the black. Pretty girl with good focus on the eyes. Personally, I prefer a more colorful background or at least a lighter one. But you were apparently trying to get a certain 'look' here and you did just that! Good job for what you are trying to accomplish. I'm no portrait photographer so my opinions are just from a laymen's viewpoint.

[Andy_T]

Hmmm .... can't see it.

WebWasher blocks the site, claims it's in the category 'Pornography' :confused:

Best regards,
Andy

[CrazyCrease]

well, its def. not porn

good capture, i agreee though, needs more light in the back ground to provide some sort of contarts bewteen colors(subject vs bacground) This is only my opinion i am far from an expert:D

[DavidEB]

It's a good shot, and a good concept/setup. The expression is great -- my kids always grimace when I try to take their photo. I'm not sure I could do better, but here are things I'd attend to if doing it again:
1) clone-stamp out the object in upper left corner
2) the on-camera flash left you with an under-chin shadow, and some glare spots on the forehead and arm. An external flash bounced off a wall-ceiling corner could give you much softer light with similar angle of illumination. A 3x5 white card attached to the flash will preserve the catchlight in the eyes. Bounce flash is the single easiest way to make a huge improvement in your flash photos. An alternative is a diffuser, which you can buy or build.
3) If you have two flashes (getting fancy) you can put one behind her pointing at her hair with the output turned way down, to provide a highlight. One of the two flashes has to be capable of wireless master (550EX, 580EX, or sigma 500 super), the other can be one of the above or a 420EX. Cheapest way to get into this kind of thing is 2 sigma 500 supers. This, combined with bounce flash, makes great shots.

that exhausts my repetoire of flash portrait techniques. Real photographers can give better advice, I'm sure.

[guitarman]

Thankyou for the comments and the good criticisms. As I said it was just a quick snapshot that I processed heavily with PSCS2. The background was rather boring and distracting. So I cloned it out. Thanks DavidEB for noticing some that I missed. Also thankyou for the tips on flash, as that is something I do want to get in to. I have been contemplating a 580 EX. I never heard of the sigma flashes I will have to check them out. How do they stack up against the 580 EX?

[Titus213]

I think it's a pretty good picture. Add in the fact that you used the on-board flash and it's even more of an accomplishment.

As to the flash - I would go with a 550EX before I went with a Sigma. In fact, I did go with a 550EX rather than a Sigma. I also added an LSII to the kit for onlyh $40 and it is an amazing tool in my book. It softens the light and the shadows considerably but at the price of power - although I'm still getting very good battery life. I'm learning the ins and outs of flash photography now and really like what the 550EX and the LSII delivers. If money weren't a concern I would have gone with the 580EX.

As an aside - I wonder how many of the folks who don't like the kit lens opt for the Sigma flash?

[AjP]

good pic, nice job

flash definately helps, I use mine sometimes even during daylight for fill.
580 is really nice flash

[Rendezvous]

Yes, the background is too dark. There is not definition between clothing and background, meaning you can really only see the face, the rest is just blackness.

[guitarman]

Yes, the background is too dark. There is not definition between clothing and background, meaning you can really only see the face, the rest is just blackness.

Whether the effect works for you or not, that was the intent. Although it was my intent to have a black background I wish that I could have somehow seen more definition in the hair area. As for the clothes I wish that the shirt was a brighter color to contrast better against the black background. But as I had said initialy, this is just a spur of the moment shot that I decided to do some experimenting with. I wish that I had something better than on board flash to experiment with. Hopefully within a couple of months I will.