Photography is HARD!

[Village Idiot]

Note that this histogram does not show this light "pollution" and did not register as being blown out.

Your statement indicates you don't yet understand what a histogram is showing you.

There is no doubt the histogram shows the 'light pollution'.

Your umbrella wasn't to close to the subjects. The power of the flash unit was set to high.

To get the cherry blossoms in the shot you needed the camera to be pretty much on the ground and pointing upwards, a different pose, or a different location.

I'd say it was too close. The light fall off is huge and this instance here shows why speedlights can be an issue outside in full sun. To get a nice even light without the fall off, he'd have to pull it back and even at 1/1, it may have been an issue if they're not in shade.

And It's harder to avoid glare with shoot throughs rather than refletive umbrellas or softboxes since it's throwin light back into the lens. A hood may help with this some. That or better positioning.

And if you want to shoot your family, you should find a less busy venue to pratice at. The cherry blossoms are always nutzo packed with tourist. We had the local strobist group shoot down there once and they managed by meeting down there at about 4:30-5:00AM.

 

[chuasam]

lol... if it were easy we would all have Facebook photography pages and be independently wealthy.

The easiest part of professional photography is actually the photography. The hardest part is keeping at it long enough till you make enough money to survive.