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Hey again, I see what you mean about the moving subjects and whatnot. I take it by what you wrote that she does a sort of natural, candid photography that captures the child's true self. On that note, she may have to take a little different approach to her portrait sessions. Instead of capturing the moment when it happens, she may want to start coaching the children more and give them guidelines or tell them to start doing something (like playing on a swing set and so forth). From there, the children are kept busy and forget that they are even being photographed(but we know that it is hit or miss when dealing with children!) That is when I dial in my settings, get my angle and distance and fire off some test shots and modify from there. I did some research for you and found a website that may be helpful to you:
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index2.html That will pretty much give you more info on how to fix your issue. Now in regards to your Nikon D80 vs. Canon question: I think what will happen is that the new camera (either the Nikon or 30D) will end up getting used the same way by your wife and she will still be unhappy with the results of fill flash on either body. All in all, the Av and P modes aren't going to do it for her because: P: does its best to keep the shutter speed high enough for you to hold it and to eliminate any camera shake from a slow shutter speed. It is dependent on the ambient light for it to use its brain to make the flash fill (fairly bright ambient light) or (less ambient light) full blown! Av: You pick the aperture and the camera decides the shutter speed. The constraint here is that the shutter speed will only really go from 30 to the highest sync speed of the camera. Granted, Canon will automatically put the flash to fill in this setting but it will fail to go any higher or lower unlike in manual mode. The secret really is to use Manual mode and set your aperture and shutter speed to properly expose the ambient light (ie. the background). From there dial in your flash to about -1eV in TTL mode and stay within the bounds of the flash unit. The LCD panel on the flash should give you the approx. distance as to how far away you can be until the flash starts dropping off. The technology is there in both cameras. See where the problems lay with those settings? It's tough to say but with what you are saying and without seeing samples of her work and of the fill flash issue then she will have to simply get more technical and do more research. The technical aspect of the digital cameras has been known to eat up or take a huge hit on some reluctant photography studios who will not make the switch. The way I see it is that Canon is being blamed for taking the poor photos and that Nikon may be the answer. Granted, I do prefer Nikon's flash technology, but I like it for the reason of being able to easily have 6+ flash units working on a set with a couple quick settings. I just got married and my wedding photographer was using a Canon 20D and a 580ex flash the whole time. A great photographer can take great shots with whatever is in front of them. Don't take any of this as disrespect, I am simply informing you both on what you can possibly do to make that little "part time" children's portrait business into something more profitable and so you both can be the best on the block! Good luck and as always, PM me if you have any further questions or comments.
July 24, 2007
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