Shadow from Fill-in Flash

[newPerspective]

Took this picture around 10:00 am on a Sat morning when the sun was pretty high. I know, I know, but the weather was so good, we HAD to go out.

What do you guys think about the shadow (under her chin) from the Flash, is it too harsh? Is it taking away from the picture? First thing hubby commented was "ewww, Flash!".

Wanted to know if you guys thought it was that bad.




Camera: Nikon D70s
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Auto, Fired, Return detected

[WooD]

It's not that bad. I bet most non photographers wouldn't even notice it.

I'm drawn more to the blown out area next to her head.

[newPerspective]

Thanks for pointing out the blown out spot, Dr. WooD. Thats helps. I dint notice while I was taking the picture.

What would you do in a situation like this? Treat it like any other distracting background and try to reposition the subject and recompose? Or, use a technique to solve the problem. Metering?

Dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to fuss over this picture. I know its not a good one, but I want to learn from my mistakes.

Thank you.

[villafane928]

i thought it was a nice shot...i just thought a little cropping, a little rotation, some softening and a little sharpening on the eyes and a vignette for the blown area. i came up with this



hope you dont mind me playing with it.

[zebthepilot]

Since you were using bare, on-camera flash, the easiest way to deal with bright areas is to move them. Using modified flash or off camera flash and you could have (more effectively) dropped the ambient exposure by 2/3ev.

But, in your case what I would have suggested would be to recompose to account for the overly bright areas in the background; then turn down your flash a bit. With a lower flash output you'd still get the fill effect but the shadow, the "flash" look, would be greatly diminished.

[Chip]

newPerspective -

I've got a lot to learn about using flash, but here's one thing you might want to try (and if I give some wayward advice, someone please correct me):

1) use manual exposure and spot meter for that bright spot in the background;

2) instead of getting a balanced exposure, pursposefully underexpose by 1.0 to 2 stops (this will let in some, but not too much, light from the background);

3) recompose and focus on your subject's face, if neeeded;

4) then use your camera's TTL flash to properly expose your subject's face (which should be done automatically);

5) to my eye, the more light from a flash dominates the ligting of a shot, the cooler the photo will look. So, with some practice, its possible to figure out in advance how to adjust your white balance. In your shot, the shadow under the chin isn't really noticeable, but the skin does look a little too blue; and

6) if the shot looks to "flashy" or blue, use the flash compensation to turn down the power on the flash, or maybe try a smaller aperture (with a correspoding increase in ISO or decrease in shutter speed).

Hope that makes sense, and hope it helps a bit.

[newPerspective]

Thanks Jeff, I really liked what you did. Even the tilt. I would have never thought of that. The picture really pops.

Thanks zebthepilot, I have to learn control the flash and get it to do what I want it to do.

And Chip, thank you so very much for the detailed suggestions. They do make a lot of sense. But I'm not sure I clearly understand what you mean by the following ...

5) to my eye, the more light from a flash dominates the ligting of a shot, the cooler the photo will look.

And could you actually tell from previewing in the camera that the image has a blue tone. Maybe .... I should go back and try it.

6) if the shot looks to "flashy" or blue, use the flash compensation to turn down the power on the flash, or maybe try a smaller aperture (with a correspoding increase in ISO or decrease in shutter speed).

Thank you. The weather is looking good again this weekend, so crossing my fingers that my 2 brats will let me practice my photography on them.

[kencaleno]

I wouldn't worry too much about the shadow- In future you need to get down lower(on child's eye level) I've played a bit and come up with this:

[Chip]

newPerspective -

When using a flash, there are 2 general sources of light: ambient light (sun, indoor lights, everything that's not light from the flash) and flash. Each of these two sources of light emit a different color and, by themselves, will greatly influence the color cast of a shot.

Also, when using a flash, both light sources will be present to some degree in your photo: ambient and flash. If you shoot in manual, you've got a lot of control over how you use, or balance, each of these light sources in any given shot to get a proper exposure. You may want to use just a bit of flash (as "fill") so that the ambient light dominates. Or you may want to have the flash overpower, and therefore dominate, the ambient light.

In this second situation - where you decide that you want the flash to dominate - the color cast of the shot tends to be more blue. At least to me. You can compensate for this with a white balance adjustment.

To beat on this point just a bit more, in the shot that you posted, if the flash hadn't fired, I doubt that the skin would've had any blue cast to it at all.

Now, with a TTL flash (and this part is still a bit of a mystery to me), the flash will do its best to expose your subject properly. But, what it does automatically for exposure may not be what you're after. So, if the camera selects flash output that's too dominant (too strong for the particular shot), you can compensate for this by turning down the flash's power, which is technically called "flash compensation." I'm sure there's a way to do this on your camera. Or as another potential way of having less flash light in the picture, you could use a smaller aperture (higher f #).

And finally, I guess with practice and looking at your LCD with color cast in mind, you might be able to see if the color is what you want.

Practicing inside on a stuffed animal, etc has helped me a good bit.

Hope that helps. Have fun!

Edited: because what I said the 1st time wasn't clear.

[zebthepilot]

just to clarify what was said a bit...

when using an auto metered flash (ttl) adjusting f-stop won't make any difference as the camera will compensate for it. If using a manual flash, yes, your aperture will effect your flash while the shutter does not. So if you are wanting to tone down the flash a bit, lower your flash power (flash compensation or whatever your camera calls it). If you set it to -1 your camera will chose a flash power setting based on TTL metering then lower it by 1ev.

As to the blue cast... This is a WB issue. The camera is having to decide what color temperature to chose and in your case picked something between flash, daylight and shade. Most camera flashes are temped close to daylight but aren't quite there. Which is why your camera will have a flash WB. Your camera chose to set the WB between flash and shade (probably) and thus where the flash is strongest you get a touch of blue.

Try playing with your flash compensation, take the similar pics with it at 0 (normal) plus 1, minus 1, plus 2 and minus 2. Try it in a couple of different scenes too.

I don't use on-camera flash much, as I carry a pretty full bag of gear including off camera strobes.. But there are times when I'm in a hurry and will turn on -1 or -2ev just to fill in under someone's ball cap or soften existing shadows...

good luck