At the beach

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

I personally love this photo. Adorable little boy wrapped up in that big beach towel, with that "I'm done" look on his face. Love the contrast and great DOF and sharpness. I wouldn't be surprised if someone comments on too much fill flash though.

I agree that there is a little too much fill flash, just a little. You might bring up the contrast a little to help with that. Is he taken outside or in a studio? The blur in the background seems a little too perfact. Maybe I am just looking to hard.

This photo is not manipulated. It was taken outside under natural light with some fill flash. The DOF is natural through the aperature I chose. No blurring via Photoshop. Thanks for your comments.

Michael... if you don't mind me asking, what time of the day was this taken? And was it overcast or cloudy? The only reason why I ask, is that I get accused of using too much fill flash. Personally found it attractive until other photographers showed me what could be accomplished with natural light and reflectors. Overcast is the most perfect/natural light we could deal with. I'm just now learning about bringing the fill flash down a couple stops. Haven't had an opportunity to expiriment with it, but when I do I'll be sure to post the pictures for feedback. By the way... I appreciate the DOF. But I'm also learning that it's also a personal preference. I, myself, like to lose as much detail in the background to bring more attention to the subject. If you don't mind... sharing the technical details behind this shop would be appreciated.

Sherry,

 

This picture was taken August 10, 2005. The time was 6:34pm. The location was Fripp Island, South Carolina with a low sun and moderately overcast. Your initial comments were exactly right. We had been at the beach all day and he was "done." I used the D70 18-70 kit lens set at 56mm and F5 for 1/100. The flash was auto so I don't exactly know how much fill was used. I had my D70 for about 3 months when this picture was taken. Back then I did not shoot raw. I shot this in JPEG fine mode. Today I shoot almost exclusively RAW and can control exposure better. This is one of my early favorites because I learned how to read the camera histogram to see if the whites were ok or if they were blown out. The picture has good detail in the white terry cloth. I love his skin tone and the shallow DOF.

 

I too have been trying to turn the flash off and use more natural light. If you look in my photo gallery you we see other examples of exactly what you are talking about. I will try to attach them here. I rediscovered an old lens that I hadn't used for 15 years. It is a Nikkor 50mm F1.8 lens. I put it away years ago when I bought an F3.5 35-70 Autofocus Zoom lens. Now that I have come to apprecaite apperature and DOF, I can say, "Wow, what a difference a few stops makes." The picture of my son with his blue soccer ball is a good example of how far I've come in a short period of time. It was taken inside my house. He was sitting on the dinning room table. I shot this at F1.8 1/30 @ ISO 200 using only available light (handheld). It shows much better modeling on his face.

 

If I could reshoot the "At the Beach" photo, I would switch lenses and try to shoot at F1.8 before I would turn on the fill flash. Hopefully this helps you.

 

 

Sherry,

 

This is a picture of my daughter. The light on her face is the window light coming through our living room window. I positioned the couch she is laying on to take advantage of this light. It was shot at F4.5 for 1/50 at 48mm. No Flash was used. I love the modeling on her face. Let me know your comments on this. Thanks for your interest.

WOW - Michael... thank you so much for taking the time to share all the technical details behind your images. This is helpful information. I will return the favor when I gather that info. I shoot with an old/heavy Nikon D1. It does what I want it to do. I also shoot in nothing but RAW for total control of final output. And I'm addicted to the sharpness of my NIKKOR Macro 60mm. I use it faithfully. I'm very limited because I have to move to make my subjects fit, but I'm just not willing to give up that sharpness of a fixed lens. Do you use the flash built into your camera? Another tip my husband (who has taught me everything I know) is the further away from the lens the flash is, the more we can avoid the "hot-spots" caused by fill flash. So I use a Speedlight SB80-DX along with a flash-bracket, that pushes the flash out another 12 inches from the lens and has the ability to flip from landscape to portrait. The SB80 DX flash straight-mounted also allows me to change the angle degrees, giving me the ability to bounce the light off surrounding walls or the ceiling if indoors. Again, avoiding direct light onto the subject. But I have some personal friends (photographers) that it hurts them when they are forced to turn their flash on... and they give me hard time about using the fill flash so much. I think I'm going to stop worrying about what they say and just learn how to make fill-flash work for me. Again, thank you and I'm enjoying the increased knowledge.

very nice photo....