My family the guinea pigs

[jayhawk73]

As with a lot of poster here I just upgraded to a new camera setup so my poor family is helping me get used to the new gear.

Today I took some pictures using my 50D with 70-200mm f/4L and Canon 430EX ii flash. I also used a reflector to get the light back in their eyes since the sun was behind them.

I still haven't figured out what I need to do to get the super sharp pictures I've seen on here. Any advice or tips would be appreciated.



Canon 50D
70-200mm f/4L at 100mm
f/7.1
ISO 400
1/250
program mode
spot metering w/b

[Jerry.Hammond]

For my taste the shot may be a bit too tight eventhough the composition does lend itself to a cinematic tight shot.

[SusanH1970]

Agreed that it's a bit too tightly cropped. I don't mind head chops at all, but the chin chop is a bit awkward.

Regarding sharpness, when viewed large it appears that your focus fell on the tip of his nose, which would explain why his eyes are a tad soft.

Just a side note - for fill flash, you'd have been better off bouncing your flash off the white side of your reflector (though an assistant would be needed to hold your reflector). The light would be softer and you wouldn't have the pinlights in his eyes. How was your reflector positioned? By the reflection, it appears it was on the ground perhaps? When using a reflector, it should be positioned up and at an angle to the subject's face - you'll know it's in the right position when you see the reflection in the 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock position of the irises. You may not have even needed to use fill flash. When backlighting, I rarely use fill flash, just my reflector.

Hope this helps.

[jayhawk73]

After Jerry mentioned it being too tight I looked at it again (without my personal bias) and completely see what you both mean.

A flash sync cable and/or wireless transmitter is next on the shopping list.

Just as you mentioned my reflector was on the ground. It was resting against my knee as I sat there.

Thanks for the pointers!