Bridal Portrait

Shot with 85mm and fill flash

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nice shot and well-executed in terms of lighting and exposure. However, the gross concrete pillar kind of ruins the beautiful bride and background scenery. Could you have moved her 10' to the left?

dave

1. the lighting is flashy and flat
2. the pillar is very distracting
3. the crop needs work you chopped her at the elbow, chopped half of her bouquet, plus bridals about the bride and the 'dress' which we can only see 1/2 of....

Move her just a litlte bit left in the frame - maybe leaning against the column(?), move the column to the right edge of the frame and I think you might have a better shot ---- next time.

Good expression, great white balance and focus, but his was not "fill flash" the flash was the main light. The pose is rather static and the post behind her is distracting. Also the crop could have been better.

Benji

Thanks all for the CC!!

Your points are all noted and well taken. I do have quite a few of the whole dress though and wanted some close ups of the bride with the nice marina background. I struggled with where to put her in relation to the pillars. I may post another with her in a different position.

Yes, cutting off the elbow was an oops...

I had the 580II set for fill + high speed sync and the camera on Av. In some shots the light from the flash was overpowering (like this one) in others it was too low to even classify as fill. The Canon flash philosphy remains somewhat of a mystery to me.

Thanks again for the help!!

Flash is definitely an art. For me I prefer flash that looks like natural light. Some prefer a more flash-like look and some prefer the over the top dramatic flash type lighting [I like this too in the right images].

Read the strobist....tons of great OCF info.

Unless I'm shooting snapshots, my flash is off camera and everything is on manual. I am a heckofalot smarter than my 580EX when it comes to me getting what I want.

Benji