Candid Portrat Flash or No Flash

[ctcook]

This is a candid shot that I took at a family event. I didn't fire the flash because I thought it would wash out the subject, but now I'm starting to second guess if I should have or not.

Are the shadows on the face distracting from the subject?

EXIF:
Nikon D40
f/8
1/500 sec.
ISO-200
165 mm
No Flash

[zona5101]

are you sure there was no flash?? The catchlight in the shawdow side eye makes no sense unless there was some fill??? And tiny point source reflection is another tell that I must be misreading...

[ctcook]

Unless I'm reading the EXIF info wrong (which may very well be the case) I don't think the flash fired. Here is a screen shot of the EXIF:

>

[zona5101]

i do not know if "no strobe return" means it never fired or it was not significant enought to be detected...

It seems to me that the flash fired but it was not enough to be detected by the camera since there was so much ambient light. (eh,?)

As to the question if adding flash (or maybe in this case MORE flash) would have helped...I think it would not have helped if the flash was firing from the camera position because while you might have brought up the shadow side you would have also added more light to the sunny side and overexposed it. You would have needed to add fill flash from the left. Better/easier would have been to use a reflector on the left to fill in the shadow. Shooting with unscreened direct sun is tough not to get strong shadows.

Personally, the shot is so cute that I don't think the shadows would stop me from hanging it on my wall just the way it is.

[ctcook]

Yes, I see what yo mean by overexposing the sun facing side of the face if the flash (more flash) was used.

Thank you for your comments.

[naeno]

Utterly adorable. I would clone out the shadow on her nose, otherwise I'd leave this one alone! Very cute.

[Mad Ged]

A lovely photo of a beautiful child.

I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of doing a bit of Photoshop work on it.

I used the healing brush on a new layer to remove the distracting shadows and then blended it back down.

I then copied the layer and brightened the shadows then masked the layer so only the adjusted shadow areas are visible and flattened the picture.

This is what I usually do when there is too much shadow in my pics.

Cheers,

Gerard

[ctcook]

Mad Ged, I don't mind at all. I tried to duplicate your results, could you please go into more detail on the steps you took. I've been able to use the healing brush to elimnate the unwanted shadows on the nose and under the eyes. I'm not following you, howver, on what you mean by "copy the layer, brighten the shadows, and mask it.

[hugheser]

It could use a little cleanup in post but I like it. I know normally you don't like the hard shadows, especially on a little girl, but it works in this picture. You can tell with the sweat and slightly damp hair that she's been playing. The harsh sunlight adds to the tone of the picture and works in my opinion. The only thing that bothers me is the shadow on the bridge of the nose but that can be cleaned up easily.

I have a daughter about that age and I can understand the difficulty in getting a shot like this while she's outside playing. Their engines never stop.

[daddyoproductions]

The shadows aren't bad for direct sunlight, I've done lots worse
~C