I metered off the sky, and that turned out nice and blue. I think my subject was hit too dead on with the flash though, flattening the photo a bit. Thoughts?
I metered off the sky, and that turned out nice and blue. I think my subject was hit too dead on with the flash though, flattening the photo a bit. Thoughts?
You've got the general idea. Here are some observations:
While you've exposed for the sky, the foliage and umbrella behind the woman is underexposed. That makes her fill flash illumination look pretty unnatural (too bright compared to the background).
You have a particularly difficult circumstance here because you've got three different elements in the shade (the woman, the post on the left and the shady part of the umbrella behind the woman), all at different distances from the camera. That makes it impossible to get good fill flash on all of them. If you illuminate only some of them, you will have natural light in the background, shade in the foreground and fill flash in the foreground. People's eyes will know this can't be real. The best option is to pick a composition that doesn't have this challenge, but there are some things you can do in post processing.
Because the woman was so close to your flash (and I'm guessing, you didn't have any sort of diffuser on your flash), you got some skin shine reflections on the woman's face from the flash. Any sort of diffuser can help with this. A larger aperture (which then triggers less flash power) can also help with this.
The white balance on the woman feels a little bit off. I think she looks better when she's warmed up a bit. This also tends to lessen the flash shine for some reason.
So, here's an attempt to address some of these issues in post processing:
Shadow/Highlights on the left post, umbrella and foliage (with the woman masked out) to try to balance their illumination a little better
Some curves to warm up her skin tones (remove some of the cyan and lower the magenta a tad).
A curve with everything masked by her to balance her illumination with the surroundings
John's reply regarding repairing this image in post is excellent.
I think just a little -1/3 to -1/2 stop Flash Exposure Compensation might have helped the original shot some with a little more exposure for the backgound which seems underexposed slightly - maybe 1/2 stop or so. A diffuser over the flash would help also.
Because I suck at PP...... I think a diffuser over the flash would have helped a great deal.
I commonly deal with alot of white ballance issues when I use fill out doors. I'm sure everyone does.... I'm just having to muddle my way through post work. Your shot is basicly good - I think a diffuser would take you another step, though.
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Comments
You've got the general idea. Here are some observations:
- While you've exposed for the sky, the foliage and umbrella behind the woman is underexposed. That makes her fill flash illumination look pretty unnatural (too bright compared to the background).
- You have a particularly difficult circumstance here because you've got three different elements in the shade (the woman, the post on the left and the shady part of the umbrella behind the woman), all at different distances from the camera. That makes it impossible to get good fill flash on all of them. If you illuminate only some of them, you will have natural light in the background, shade in the foreground and fill flash in the foreground. People's eyes will know this can't be real. The best option is to pick a composition that doesn't have this challenge, but there are some things you can do in post processing.
- Because the woman was so close to your flash (and I'm guessing, you didn't have any sort of diffuser on your flash), you got some skin shine reflections on the woman's face from the flash. Any sort of diffuser can help with this. A larger aperture (which then triggers less flash power) can also help with this.
- The white balance on the woman feels a little bit off. I think she looks better when she's warmed up a bit. This also tends to lessen the flash shine for some reason.
So, here's an attempt to address some of these issues in post processing:- Shadow/Highlights on the left post, umbrella and foliage (with the woman masked out) to try to balance their illumination a little better
- Some curves to warm up her skin tones (remove some of the cyan and lower the magenta a tad).
- A curve with everything masked by her to balance her illumination with the surroundings
And here's what I got:I hope this was helpful.
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I think just a little -1/3 to -1/2 stop Flash Exposure Compensation might have helped the original shot some with a little more exposure for the backgound which seems underexposed slightly - maybe 1/2 stop or so. A diffuser over the flash would help also.
Good fill flash should be almost undetectable.
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I commonly deal with alot of white ballance issues when I use fill out doors. I'm sure everyone does.... I'm just having to muddle my way through post work. Your shot is basicly good - I think a diffuser would take you another step, though.