Fill Flash practicing

Please excuse the expression on my wife's face , she had just got home from work and had to be put in front of the camera .

Anyway, I was wanting to get some practice with my fill flash technique with some strong backlighting (sunset-ish). Just looking for any CC I can get.

Thanks
Travis

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I like it! I think you did a nice job: No overblown highlights from the fill. Very cool. I'll bet she'd be a good model at a better time!

Thanks John for the comments. And yes she is a much better model than this for the most part .

Travis

the shot is well exposed, but it doesn't look very natural to me. the warm tones of the sun on her hair don't go well with the harsh white tones on her face from the flash. i think u might've used a bit too much fill flash, she looks like shes indoors and u just shot flash directly in her face and she standing in front of a sunset background imo.

So do you think a warming gel on the flash would have helped?

Let me say right at the outset that I usually find fault with flash used in portraiture, because it is usually too harsh. In most cases where flash is used it seems to need more diffusion (bounce from umbrella or ceiling), greater distance to the subject, etc.

In this case one can see bright areas as follows:
- a line across the lower forehead,
- a vertical line down the center of the nose,
- a bright spot right on the tip of the nose,
- and finally, a minor spot in the center of her chin.

Mind you, none of that is all that bad - it's just that otherwise the picture has good lighting, the backlighting is doing great things with her hair and the composition isn't bad, considering that that was probably not your area of concern on this shot.

My point is that these artifacts that are easily recognized as unique to use of flash are in fact somewhat un-natural and would not be seen if the lighting were from a more ideal lighting, such as open shade.

A separate issue is the backlighting, which is doing great for the hair, but is nonetheless providing too much white in the background, in my opinion.

Personal opinion, a 1/2 stop less flash fill would have done it perfectly. Overall, it seems to me a great job.

Technically it look good. There are a little hightlight area from the cheeks, but I think if you use a bit of powder to elimnate shine, it would be fine.