Kiddos

sillyphaunt · Mar 11, 2005

A couple shots of my daughter and my nephew. Any critique and/or advice on cropping is welcome.

Alison · Mar 11, 2005

Cute poses, captures them well! Looks like you've got some harsh lighting conditions, though. A reflector or fill flash could have help here to illuminate the shadowed portions of their faces. When I'm out with my kids I always keep the flash on just in case. I don't normally have the reflector unless I'm on a formal shoot.

dalebe · Mar 11, 2005

aww how cute are they! should have been posted on cute kids forum, good pics but i agree with AlisonS a fill flash would have transformed these images

sillyphaunt · Mar 11, 2005

Alison, I'm not good with the flash, so I usually keep it off. I have a few off camera flashes, but haven't used them yet (they're older, but work well). WHen you use the flash how do you compensate for the shadow they usually give?

dalebe · Mar 11, 2005

well your always better using an external flash anyway, you can always position it to create more or less shadows, reflectors are a great idea for reducing shadows, but i think i would be taking that external flash back out again, hope you do'nt mind my opinion.

Alison · Mar 11, 2005

It's easiest to show with an example I think. When you're using a flash to fill in the shadows you don't end up with the same shadow issue as when you're using flash as the main light source. Here's an example from a photo shoot a few monts ago. There was harsh light coming in through the window and left the little girl with a shadow on the right hand side (as you look at the photo) with the window light hitting on the left. Before fill flash it looked very much like the second photo you had. When I added the flash it took away the shadow on the right and left this: