Cc please

[sibebabe]

 

[STM]

It's a cute picture, the tilt works here, but the fill flash is too "hot". The fill exposure here dominates the ambient on the child. When using fill outside, you ideally want to balance out ambient with flash exposures so that it really does not look like you used any fill at all (if that makes any sense). Foreground and background exposures should be matched as much as possible. Ideally, the flash should not contribute any more than about 20-25% to the total exposure in most situations.

 

[sibebabe]

I'm pretty new to this. It was shot with a D5100 on child I think (I was playing with settings). Didn't really mean for the flash to be on! So how would I fix that?

 

[STM]

I'm pretty new to this. It was shot with a D5100 on child I think (I was playing with settings). Didn't really mean for the flash to be on! So how would I fix that?

In this case it was probably good to use fill flash because the sun is coming from your right at a pretty oblique angle, which would have created some pretty deep shadows on the right side of the toddler's face. It can be fixed in Photoshop to some extent.

Super quick and dirty:


As far as fixing it in the camera, I haven't a clue. The strobes I use are 20 year old Sunpak 544 "potato masher" monsters which do not work with the camera's electronics. I use fill flash a lot in model shoots, but all my strobes are off camera and in manual and I use a flash meter to make adjustments in percent power to them so they contribute that ideal 20-25%. As for using one on camera, which I rarely do, I too use them in manual and use the calculator dial on the flash to get that ratio, which in most cases is 1/16 o4 1/32 power. Sorry I could not be of much help, I prefer to work in the "dark ages" ! You will have to get someone else to help you with that part, sorry!