Hawaii Beach Shots with Flash

DougRedding

Aloha from Oahu friends.

I've been goofing around with my 430EXii flash during the day. I'm severely conflicted here and would like you all to settle my internal mind debate. I think the below look good, maybe too good? As in fake. When I shot these swing pictures without flash my kids melted into the scene. When i experimented with flash, they really popped out of the scene. My Facebook friends, family and non-photography friends seem to enjoy the effect but i'm not sure if it's something I would want to put into practice when I do a pay-for shoot with a client.

I'm very new to flash photography techniques and embarrasingly enough, seriously, just last night after owning my Canon 7D and Canon 430EXii for over a year did i figure out I could use the flash off camera as a slave and fire it with my 7D's pop-up flash! Geez, i guess i should read the little booklet that comes with stuff, eh?

Anyway, always appreciate the C&C from you all..We're here for another 5 days and I plan shooting another 1,000 pics or so that I will share my fav's here.

Mahalo,

Doug

grimace

Doug,

These are great family photos!! I'm surprised nobody else has jumped in and commented.

Of the three, I think the lighting levels are best in image #2. It matches the background perfectly and doesn't give a flash feel at all.

#3 is great. The light coming off of the flash seems to be even in dristribution.

I like image #1 but the flash is a little strong and appears to be direct. Your son's hand is creating a shadow that is a bit distracting.

DougRedding

Thanks, Grimace. I was expecting some more C&C as well so thanks for yours. I appreciate the comment about the shadow on #1, I agree.

Kikoprice

Great shots! Amazing what flash can do isnt it?

powder

I'm a newcomer here...so am timid to jump in. I have been trying to figure out flash too, and these struck me as "great, but maybe dial it down a bit?" gorgeous setting

Hackbone

These are great. What is great about this type of photography is the variety of lighting you can produce. Most pros try to under expose the the sky by two stops and then light the subject to that f stop. Like I said you can get a variety of differences and some will like it and some not but that is how the game is played. Some folks buy red cars while others buy blue. Next time try to get more direction in you flash by moving it off camera to model the face more. Again, good stuff.

DougRedding

Thanks much powder and Hackbone. I completely agree, makes sense to dial down the exposure then shoot with flash. I'll be trying this out next time I'm using fill flash outdoors in bright light.

Appreciate all the C&C and to powder, I'm probably more timid than you to offer advice as I feel like the biggest noob around here. So extra thanks to you for speaking up.

Doug

kombizz

nice ones

sapphire73

DougRedding wrote: »

I'm very new to flash photography techniques and embarrasingly enough, seriously, just last night after owning my Canon 7D and Canon 430EXii for over a year did i figure out I could use the flash off camera as a slave and fire it with my 7D's pop-up flash! Geez, i guess i should read the little booklet that comes with stuff, eh?

I am also struggling to get a better grip on how to use external flash to enhance outdoor photography. Also shooting with 7D and 430 (probably an earlier model). I had looked online to find info on dialing down the exposure when I wanted to supplement the ambient light - especially in backlit situations. Still working on that, but thought I would pass along another approach which my "strobist" son showed me. You may have already tried it, but putting the flash in manual mode and setting it to 1/16 or 1/8 power is another way to seek a balance here. I'm still experimenting with this myself, but thought I'd mention it. Did you say whether you have anything on your flash to soften it?

Fun to see shots of your kids in this beautiful setting!

cr8ingwaves

I'm still a lighting rookie so I have nothing to add regarding that....other than I like the way these turned out.
I lived on Oahu for three years and if you have the time......get a pizza from Big Kahuna's.
Airport Trade Center
550 Paiea St
Honolulu, HI 96819
Seriously Ono Brah! I highly recommend the Kahlua pig and portugese sausage toppings and the garlic cheese balls. Oh, and Matsumoto's shave ice on the North Shore is the best on the island.
Aloha!