how is the lighting in this

I have been playing around with carrying lights out and about, heres one i snapped of two friends. This is direct with no diffusers. What does the portable lighting do for you. My girl asked me if i had pasted them into the photo. This is out of camera.

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I think the lighting is good. The halo around the guys head gives the impression that there was some dodging and burning done. The shadow cast from the girls arm covering his hand and arm is quite distracting. Besides that it's a nice seperation from the couple and the background.

I really like the lighting in this. My dad was amazed at this. It took me a while to esplain to him this wasn't taken in a studio. Haha, excellent work and DOF. The only lighting issue would have to be the shadows. Particularly on his arm and on her side. They make it really obvious you used a portable light and not natural light.

yes. i have to shoot this for " real " next week when she is in a wedding dress. This is the place they met. I didnt bring diffusers with me , its 2 x 580ex right and left . On the right the flash is above and on the left below. Im wondering if i should put diffusers or something on the flashes or should i put them more level and try to kill shadow. heres another. I had 5 minutes with them as they were late and running off to do something else.


The second is the scene and i zoomed out to have a record of it so i could plan this pic ( of all the wedding ones this is the one that means the most to them ) They have already pointed out it will be over their fireplace well blown up I personally dont like the fence in the back of a wedding pic, but its there , would you advise not having it in frame , or going for full body. I was thinking about putting them a little away from the fence and going for a really narrow focal plane to blur it a bit.

I dont know how to use photoshop , so theres nothing whatever done to these and probably wont be in the " real " ones, any tips would be appreciated.

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The shot looks way too fake.

I think it's okay to do this...but the shadow is in the wrong direction. Look at the building in the back...natural lighting is coming from the left of the frame. I think you'd be better off trying to mimic that. And if light is good on the big day, just bring a reflector and do without the flash.

thank you for the comments. I will bring the reflector, but also the external flashes, i can buy more clobber between now and then and was thinking about lumiquest softboxes / pocket bounces for the flashes. I fired a few without the flashes and they were dull ( there was a thunderstorm to one side ) and the sun is acually coming from directly behind me but its obscured.

surreal looking