Beach portrait: flash fill question...?

[istephallard]

So I did a beach photo shoot a couple days ago. The family was lovely, the lighting was perfect (golden hour/overcase at the beach). I probably rely on flash fill with the stock mounted flash more than I should. Does anyone else think her chin took the brunt of the flash. Any tips how to correct this in Aperture software. Any tips for improvement in general would be appreciated also! I do not have any other gear other than my camera and a flash diffuser that I keep on my camera. This shot was taken with my canon eos d40, 50 mm 320 iso, stock flash with diffuser, 4.5 ap, 1/250.

"http://www.flickr.com/photos/55145397@N07/6028136270/"

[zona5101]

Stock flash? You mean your pop-up/built in flash? pop up = lighting fail.
I agree with you the angle you shot this from is not helping matters. Besides the chin, the pin-sized catchlights are less than wonderful. I would clone or paint those out. The angle also lets us see right up the guys nose, also less than wonderful. Unless this was one of their favorite shots, I'm not sure I'd spend a lot of time on it. Its a fine snapshot/memento photo.

[John Hendry]

Originally Posted by zona5101

Stock flash? You mean your pop-up/built in flash? pop up = lighting fail.
I agree with you the angle you shot this from is not helping matters. Besides the chin, the pin-sized catchlights are less than wonderful. I would clone or paint those out. The angle also lets us see right up the guys nose, also less than wonderful. Unless this was one of their favorite shots, I'm not sure I'd spend a lot of time on it. Its a fine snapshot/memento photo.

Yes I would not spend a lot of time on this you can burn in the area through a darker second layer with a mask.

all the best

[istephallard]

Thats funny I did not even notice you can totally see up his nose because I was so frustrated about the glowing chin. Thanks for the feed back.... I really appreciate it. I'm really really new to photography... (my friends are kind enough to let me use them to learn/practice on I'm not sure what you mean about pin sized catch lights. Where do you see them just so I can train my eye to look for them as well. So I know that using the pop up flash is not the best solution but do either of you have any suggestions for when you really need to fill in the lighting and don't have reflectors or extra hands to hold them?

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by istephallard

Thats funny I did not even notice you can totally see up his nose because I was so frustrated about the glowing chin. Thanks for the feed back.... I really appreciate it. I'm really really new to photography... (my friends are kind enough to let me use them to learn/practice on I'm not sure what you mean about pin sized catch lights. Where do you see them just so I can train my eye to look for them as well. So I know that using the pop up flash is not the best solution but do either of you have any suggestions for when you really need to fill in the lighting and don't have reflectors or extra hands to hold them?

Pin sized catchlights...the tiny white dot in the eye created by a tiny light source (your flash). These small catchlights are not appealing. You would rather have larger catchlights, even directional catchlights ( located on the sides/edges of the eye). With a pop up flash that will never happen and is one of the typical tells of pop up flash. What to do? Get a flash that swicwls/bounces and shoot into things like a lumaquest or omnibounce. Off camera flash is even better. All those you can do without an assistant. Short of buying new gear, you might try and get your subjects into lighting where you don't need fill flash.

[autofocus]

You can use a reflector (one of the multi 5 optional side ones are good) and not have to use your on-camera flash at all. They are about 10x less expensive than buying a speedlight (~$30 - $50 US) and it will produce better catch lights than what you have here. You also can make one out of white foam core board...very inexpensive

[istephallard]

Thanks for the tip on the catch light. Just for comparison sake I was looking at some other photos with larger catch lights and see that it does make a big difference. I have been wanting to try working with reflectors for a while... and there they sit on my Amazon wish list. I shall purchase those to help steer away from using my popup flash. I love the effects you get with natural lighting so much more anyways. A new element to work on. Ahh lighting is something I have so much more to learn about (amongst other things). Perhaps someday I will be able to invest in some better lighting equipment also. I was able to edit the chin light for the photo easily and I shall also edit out the catch lights as well. As for the lovely view up the nose... at least there is nothing up there I need to edit out! haha fortunately we got some other shots they were happy with also. Again I really appreciate having all the feedback to help me learn to improve my photography!