My first shoot...help me please!

[MLM]

Hello All!

Yesterday, I had my first photo shoot with my friend's child. The child is very cute but did not want her picture taken. So it was a very interesting day! This shot was taken inside on a white sheet on the couch. There was a window behind her that was letting in alot of light. I used a 430ex speedlite with the flash boucing off the low white ceiling. But as you can see the white sheet is gray and her dress is not very red.

What should I have done? My first guess is overexpose by 1.

I want to re do this shoot. Please give me advice on what I can do better.

Thank you!







Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: On, Red-eye reduction

[kencaleno]

Little girl needs to be at least 4-6 feet in front of the white sheet,and the sheet needs to be lit 2 stops brighter than the child. Ken

[MLM]

Ken:

Please be patient with me. When you say lit 2 stops lighter. Do I open my apeture 2 stops or overexpose by 2? Thanks!

[spencer28n]

He's saying that the sheet should be brighter than the child. You want to separate the girl from the background. Moving the girl farther from the background would help.

[RexK_Cozumel]

if you want the sheet to be pure white you need some way to light the sheet with out lighting the subject. So you will need to get some separation between the subject and the background and then some way of putting light on the the background and subject separately.

2 stops brighter means that the background should have 4 times as much light as the subject. You do not change your aperture to overexpose 2 stops because you will blow out your subject as well.

The reason that the sheet looks grey in your photo is because there is no direct light falling on those areas. It is blocked by the couch. where there is light falling on the sheet it is white.

[MLM]

Thank you to all of you! I will be re-doing this shoot this weekend. I am going to move her from the couch to another area that is closer to a bigger window. Then I will put her in her small rocking chair or just have her standing looking cute! I will post a pic when I am done!