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Brandi K. Mills |
Could use some advice on photographing
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Elaine Hessler |
So cute! I love the look she is giving you while kissing the baby. So sweet. I am not the expert on flash, but I do have a Speedlight that I MUCH prefer to the pop-up flash on the camera. I use a diffuser with it and it seems to help. But I still have A LOT of learning to do! The only thing I see that you might want to get rid of is a white spot on the couch above the baby's head and a white spot in the girl's hair, towards the back. The B/W works so well here-nice job!
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Dale Hardin |
It's a cute shot Brandi and you've done a great job. If you want to learn to use indoor flash, there is no better teacher of the subject than Neil Van Niekerk. Here is a link explaining his "Black Foamie thing" At the end of this article there are a number of links for using a speedlight mounted on the camera for beautiful indoor lighting. This guy is a genius with flash. Give it a read and then buy his book. http://neilvn.com/tangents/the-black-foamie-thing/
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Brandi K. Mills |
Thanks for the feedback you guys! I appreciate it!
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Peter W. Marks |
I do like this Brandi; love the expressions. I don't know why it is but there is something about black and white family photos that for me work much better than color. For instance, when I look back over the shoebox of family members' prints going back over the decades the B&W always appear to display the character of the subjects better than the colored ones do. Now I do realise that in the '40s, '50s, and even beyond we probably didn't have access to good color prints. If they weren't kept in a dark place they faded and looked pretty bad whereas B&W snaps dating back a century still look good. I believe too, that using monochrome, whether B&W or sepia, helps the viewer concentrate on the subject rather than being distracted by the surroundings. Brandi, I just know that at least two thirds of our Phellos will disagree with me but just like my wife, I have "a propensity to plow my own furrow". I told her that recently following a conversation at 5.30 on a dark morning and she spilt her coffee laughing. Yeh, only a Brit could come up with a sentence like that at such and early hour. But as for your flash question; just go with Dales' and Elaine's thoughts. Now, I do have a $500 Canon 580EXll Speedlight that I purchased three years ago and I have never used it!! Now that is 'procrastination to the nth degree so you will understand that it is not a time to DWPD!
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Stephen Shoff |
External flash is the traditional and well-proven solution to your dilemna...if you are willing to use it when the time comes. My experience...I have a Speedlite and have rundimentary but working knowledge and experience with the concepts of bounce and fill flash necessary to avoid deep shadows and hard shadows behind the subject. My problem is that I am very reticent to pull out a "big" (a Canon 50D) black camera with its lens staring at you and a 6-inch flash protruding on top of that and start flashing lights in social settings and small rooms. My watershed incident occurred a couple of years ago in a family setting in my daughter's home in a converted old stone farm building in the Lake District of Cumbria, UK. Peter will be able to relate to this and the small, irregular, low-ceilinged rooms filled with extended, and unfamiliar, family. I didn't get any pictures of my first grand-daughter's baby dedication, or of the extended family that I've only really ever been able to spend time with a couple of times. My solution, which works for me at least, was to add a camera for these shooting situations that would be significantly less intrusive, provide equivilent image quality, and have good low light capability that might allow me to avoid flash altogether. What I found was the Sony NEX line of mirrorless cameras with their small size but full APS-C sensor size, and excellent low-light performance and extended dynamic range JPG image rendering. I have some very nice pictures of my grand-daughter's 2nd birthday.
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Beth Spencer |
I very seldom use my flash although I have a speedlight. It is on my list of things to do, one day. I just always feel intimidated by it. I know I should get over it. Brandi, this a precious shot and I wouldn't have any useful advice for you. Dale I like the website and have marked it.
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- Rita K. Connell Contact Rita K. Connell Rita K. Connell's Gallery |
what a great shot of these cuties. I to like that you made this monochrome I also think color may have been distracting. I use a speed-light with a diffuser but I have used my pop-up many times I know all my Nikon's I can adjust my flash.
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Brandi K. Mills |
Very helpful input you guys. Thanks so much! I'll let you know if/when I get money and purchase anything :)
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Kristin Duff |
Thanks for posting this Brandi, I learned a lot in this forum
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Jeff E Jensen |
Yup, it is well worth the time to learn to use a flash. I've still got a long way to go, but what I have learned has been well worth the effort.
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Anthony L. Mancuso |
Very cute portrait Brandi.. Definitely agree with Dale about checking out Neil V N's website..I have learned a TON from his tangents blog about on and off camera flash and wedding photography. Until you can get your hands on a speedlight you can try using your pop-up flash with the flash exposure compensation dialed down about one stop. This will fill in the shadows while avoiding the harsh shadows pop-ups are notorious for. Also, if you have a lens with an aperture wider than then f6.3 you would be able to use a lower ISO. The 50mm f1.8 is an excellent and relatively inexpensive lens for indoor and/or low light shooting if you don't have one already..
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Dale Hardin |
Another thing to consider if you are low on funds for a speed light. You only need the very expensive lights if you want to do TTL exposures. You'll spend $250 to $550 for the flash. But you can get a very good manual speedlight (you'll probably do more manual lighting than TTL anyway) for about $80. I have two plus my TTL unit.
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Elaine Hessler |
I bought mine used from our local photo shop. I think they guaranteed it would work for a year. I am very happy with it and got a very good deal on it!
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Debbie E. Payne |
Great shot, Brandi! I spent a couple of years before I even USED my speedlight and now I regret it, because I have lots of shots that could have benefitted from having one on the camera. My thinking goes along with Stephen's -- if someone is intimidated by the big honkin' camera then how are they going to feel with another six to ten inches (with it extended up to the ceiling for bounce) staring menacingly at them? You just have to get over it and take the shot and use what you have. Thanks for the link, Dale. I will go there one of these days. Like maybe later today. It is a snowy day and has been all day. No desire to go out.
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