My son - Bounced flash reflections on glasses!

[candidrachel]

Hi there! I'm still learning how to use my flash. This photo was taken at night with poor lighting all round and I bounced the flash off the floor as there was nothing else to bounce off. It was taken at a cave bar (see flickr for more photos) so tripod and off camera flash wasn't an option. I dialled the flash right down because I wanted it to look as natural as possible.

Questons are:

1) How do I get rid of the reflections in his glasses.
2) Is the lighting still too harsh?
3) Overall how is the pose? I tried to get his eyes in the top third. Is that OK?

The hat is a bit spazzy but he insisted on wearing it!

Any other feed back would be great.



0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 1600

I also took this on P mode to get the damn shutter speed above 1/60. I can really see the limitations of this lens - hubby get me that Canon 24-70 2.8.

[RichardTaylor]

Some of these tips may be handy.

Flash reflection on glasses - Elements Village

Similar ones here.
Eye glasses and flash glare? - Photo.net Wedding and social event photography Forum

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I am not a portrait photographer (except for the odd candid).
The lighting & pose look fine to me.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by candidrachel

1) How do I get rid of the reflections in his glasses.
2) Is the lighting still too harsh?
3) Overall how is the pose? I tried to get his eyes in the top third.
I also took this on P mode to get the damn shutter speed above 1/60.

1) Glasses are tough! Sometimes the best choice is to take them off. The glass reflects at angles so you can have him move his head until the reflection ends up off camera. Easier to do with a modeling light, trial and error with a portable strobe.
2) I think the overall lighting is fine. You stated you wanted to keep the lighting subdued to better reflect the actual environment and I think you have. The key part of the shot, his face, is illuminated fine. The top of the hat is underexposed and that is just fine as it allows the background to go dark.
3) The pose is fine, pretty straight forward. The composition/crop is also fine. Its a portrait and what you have put together is pretty standard fair.
- not sure why you had to use P mode to get 1/60.

[candidrachel]

Thanks for the tips and links!

Bruce I still have problems with slow shutter speeds using AV and flash. I posted once about this before but forgot what was said and got flustered. Duh! It was from the "flash bang, what a crap picture" thread I did. I'm going to go back and this time print off the replies and have it in my camera bag for future reference. The reason for using "P" mode is that the camera automatically sets a shutter speed higher than 1/60 to prevent camera shake and motion blur. Kind of like a get out of jail free card. Plus it's a lazy way....

Do you think I should just go full manual? I reckon that way "I" am in charge.

See the attachment for an example of what happens when I use AV and flash. The shutter speed went right down to 1/8sec.

[zona5101]

If P is what gets the job done then ok! I guess I am mostly surprised that when the flash is mounted on the camera and you choose AV to select your aperture the camera chooses such as low shutter speed. I would think that it would keep the shutter speed at the sync speed and max the flash output to make the exposure. Maybe it's doing that and still needs more light. dunno.

[Doug Sundseth]

1) Shooting subjects with glasses (I wear them and so do my wife and son) can be thought of as playing pool with light. The light will go out, hit a reflective surface, and bounce off at the same angle ("angle of incidence equals angle of reflection). If you want to move the reflection down and off of a surface, raise the light source. If you want to move the reflection to the left, move the light source to the right. Alternatively, you can change the angle of the reflecting surface to accomplish the same thing. That said, glasses aim a bit down, so using a large reflector just below the glasses is going to be a problem.

2) The light here isn't harsh. (If anything, I'd say it's a bit flat.) To reveal the form of a three-dimensional structure, you need both light and shadow. I know you said you couldn't do off-camera flash here because of the place you were in. The combination of the hat, which means bouncing light from the top or sides will give you a shadow in the wrong place with your other constraints means that you have a very difficult problem to solve.

Now, if you could use a short sync cable and hold your flash even a foot or two to the side as you shoot (I've done this fairly often, even in very constrained places), you could solve your reflection problem and give flattering light without too much trouble.

3) Your pose and composition are fine, especially with the constraints imposed by your subject. I have an 11-year-old son, so I know how that can work.

HTH