Playing with Flash Photography

[apt10photography]

Looking for some critique on my use of flash. We had one shoot through umbrella on either side, I like how the background is pretty seemlessly black. Should I have had the flash on camera right a little stronger? Are the shadows on the face too much?

From Blogger

I like the pose, there are a few things I would fix, like her hair on the left, and my jeans showing on the right and her foot in the back, between us. Other than that I really like the pose.
Any other C&C welcome.

Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 50mm
Flash LumoPro160 camera left, and old Vivitar camera right both with shoot through umbrellas.

[tyasa81]

Hi apt10,
i'll try to give it a shot... this is my first time critique a flash shoot, so hopefully it'll help...

first thing i noticed is the unbalanced power from your main light (left camera flash)... you may be trying to get it close to the subject to soften the light, but since you are dealing with 2 subjects, you are getting uneven light from the lady and you (notice the lady face on the lady is nearly blown whereas urs look fine... you can put the flash further and diffuse with a bigger light modifier and up the power... you aren't trying to overpower any ambient here so you should be fine...

as for shadows is too dark, i believe that's up to taste, you can just up the fill light in post to lightened the shadow...

personally i like a white background for "happy" shots like this, but again... that's up to taste... just my 2 cents, happy new year and happy shooting!