Portrait with on camera flash

Don't have a speed light yet - do they really help?? What should I do to make this better - Thanks

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The speed light will allow you to bounce the flash off ceilings, walls or whta ever is handy, which will make the light source much large thus softening the light and also preventing the awful shadow behind the beautiful young lady. A speed light can be removed from the camera, either with the Canon ST-E2 or the Canon Sync cable both allowing complete ETTL control. Or even better a generic sync cable or radio controlled triggers that you use with the flash or flashes set to manual giving you complete control of the light. Off camera you can use various light modifiers like umbrellas, softboxes, grids, snoots etc.
By the way this picture is very good for using the on board flash and that smile sure is wonderful

Jack

Very nice. You have found the problem of a direct flash. Harsh and hot spots. The hotspots can be correct in Photoshop.

Its very good for on board flash.

Speedlite will not be so harsh, and if bounced of something white or silver it will give much more even light, so you wont have that harsh shadow behind the subject.

Another benefit of the speedlight flash is the af-assist in low light. Think you have the mouth more in focus than the eyes, the af-assist won't fix that but it will make sure when you pick a focus point the camera will be able to lock onto it without doing that annoying stobing thing the onboard does (so your subjects will be less annoyed at you and smile more )

Man just get a speedlite, you will feel so much better. My 430EX does the trick.

Before I bought a flash... I used to use an index card or a spoon to redirect the light

Thanks - You guys talked me into it! My 580 Canon flash will be here tomorrow......Now I just have to learn how to use it! Paulie

Another mountain to climb.
To fix those hot spots in photoshop...Use the clone tool with the mode set to darken and opacity at 20%. Sample an area near a hot spot and then clone onto the spot. Do it till you like it.
Did you whiten her eyes? If so, take it easy. If not....Wow that's amazing!
Have fun with the 580.
Remember with flash you get two exposures. One if from all the settings of the camera and the ambient light. The other is from the flash. Shutter speed does not affect the brightness of the flash exposure because of the fast speed of the flash pulse. So...changing shutter speed lower can improve the brightness of your background. Be careful though as you can still get motion blur from the ambient light and movement of the subject.

No major adjustments just a slider here or there in DPP. Her eyes are that white. Hey what do you mean "Remember with flash you get two exposures" Could you explain it better for me?? Thanks for any help - Paulie

Read the stickies in the flash section. I would love to go into detail but it has already been done. I didn't mean two images just that you have two different and simultaneous influences on your exposure. Ambient determined by ISO, f stop and shutter speed. Flash determined by ISO, f stop, strength of flash.
Practice with your flash before you do anything that doesn't allow a second chance.

Excellent, concise explanation, Poloman.

Thanks Mike
One more important note. Your camera has a sync speed. This is the maximum speed that your camera can be set at and still be timed with your flash. On the 30D, it is 1/250. If you need a faster shutter speed than this (if your outside maybe) you need to set the flash for high speed sync. It will pulse to be assure that it mates with the shutter.
The 580 also has a stroboscopic mode that will allow you to do the strobed multiple exposure appearing thing.

Thanks for the help........I am just going to have to play with it. I also bought the DVD that goes along with it. Should help. It seems there is more to the flash thing than the camera Again Thanks and I will start reading that forum. Paulie

You will enjoy being able to control your light.
I would also suggest a Lumiquest Pro Max system. http://www.lumiquest.c​om/

I would also suggest a flash bracket of the camera flip variety. This will help you keep the flash head over your lens and avoid shadows. In order to use this, you will need an off camera flash cord.

Sorry to throw all this at you. I really think it will benefit you though. Especially the Lumiquest system.

No throw it all at me.....I want to improve and whatever I can do I will listen. I do want to get a bracket.....I was looking at Delta....they seem to work real good for macro work also.........I like it when my heads is spinning!