Feedback please

R

rsphotography

Messages
37
Name
Robert
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi everyone, very new to photography. I took these photos at a party a few days ago on my new Canon 850D. Edited slightly (mainly brightness). Some with flash, some without. Please can you give me some feedback on what you think I should do. My main goal is to make photos sharp, crisp and clear. Thank you!

https://flic.kr/p/2ppf29e
View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/199861210@N08/53427913025/in/dateposted-public/

https://flic.kr/p/2ppevZw
View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/199861210@N08/53427814964/in/dateposted-public/
 
Last edited:
Its difficult in situations like that but watch the background, they easily become distracting, a wider aperture would blur the background a bit.

Was the flash on the camera? Bouncing it off the ceiling or wall would avoid the "flash" look you have in the last.
 
As @sirch says, watch the backgrounds.
In your first shot you could possibly have moved the people slightly to the right to give a clear background which would have (in my opinion) resulted in a much better composition.
In the second, have a look at all the stuff that possibly doesn't need to be in the shot - fish tank, tree, radiator, ceiling lights - you could crop in heavily (or better still, zoom in when taking another similar shot) so that you have just the head and shoulders, which I'd guess are the main subjects.
In the third, bounce flash (as suggested by @sirch) would lessen the harsh shadows and again, heavy cropping to remove all that doesn't add to the shot - you may want to keep it for context, but to me a fairly square crop removing whatever is on the wall behind, as much of the radiator (if that's what the black thing is to the right) as possible but keeping the hands and drinks would give a more impactful image.
This is meant as constructive and is only my opinion, and I'm no David Bailey so please take them as just my thoughts.
 
stevewestern said:
As @sirch says, watch the backgrounds.
In your first shot you could possibly have moved the people slightly to the right to give a clear background which would have (in my opinion) resulted in a much better composition.
In the second, have a look at all the stuff that possibly doesn't need to be in the shot - fish tank, tree, radiator, ceiling lights - you could crop in heavily (or better still, zoom in when taking another similar shot) so that you have just the head and shoulders, which I'd guess are the main subjects.
In the third, bounce flash (as suggested by @sirch) would lessen the harsh shadows and again, heavy cropping to remove all that doesn't add to the shot - you may want to keep it for context, but to me a fairly square crop removing whatever is on the wall behind, as much of the radiator (if that's what the black thing is to the right) as possible but keeping the hands and drinks would give a more impactful image.
This is meant as constructive and is only my opinion, and I'm no David Bailey so please take them as just my thoughts.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much, this is exactly the sort of feedback I wanted. I'm going to research 'bounce flash' as others have mentioned this aswell.
 
The basic idea of bounce flash is simple.
The light source of a flash is a small area (ie the size of your flash head, so maybe 80mm x 30mm or so. This creates a very small beam of light which thus ('cos I can't explain it better) gives hard shadows behind the subject. By pointing the flash head up towards the ceiling or off to a side wall it spreads the light out, so by the time it reaches the subject it's a big softer source of light, so gentle and more flattering shadows.
It works best when you have a white ceiling or wall, and while there are all sorts of ways to create a larger light source from a flash (modifiers etc) but the above might give you a starting point.
 
Last edited:
When you say "Some with flash"

Was this the little pop-up flash that's on those cameras or a separate flash gun that's mounted to the hot-shoe?

If it's the first one, these exaggerate the small-light-source effect. You can't really bounce them, as they don't swivel. Although depending on where you are, I have seen someone jam a business card in front of one to bounce it up and off the ceiling.

https://www.cnet.com/culture/how-to-make-a-supersimple-bounce-flash-for-your-dslr/

One of the things that made the biggest difference to my 'party' shots was buying a proper flash gun.

You don't have to spend Canon money, I bought a Yongnuo flash SH from here for less than £100 (might even have been £60-ish) and it's equivalent to the Canon Speedlight EL580/600.

They make a huge difference and the swivel head allows you to bounce it behind you and enlarge the light as discussed above.

(Not sure on current thinking, but it always used to be up and over your right shoulder. For some reason 135 degrees sticks in my head as the angle to aim at, but don't quote me on that).

What I'd say is that this technique works well in smaller rooms, in places like music venues that might have very high ceilings, I've never really mastered what to do with flash in those instances. As it's too far away to bounce it.

As for your pics, half the battle is getting them in focus, so a tick for that.

My criticism would be that they lack a little atmosphere - but I'd say that is a criticism of the party rather than the shots themselves.

There was a great YT video I watched that explained how you balance flash and ambient using shutter speed and aperture.

I don't use my flashes often enough to have mastered them, so feel free to ignore everything I've just typed - especially as I can't point to anything where I've got it right.
 
Last edited:
Kell said:
When you say "Some with flash"

Was this the little pop-up flash that's on those cameras or a separate flash gun that's mounted to the hot-shoe?

If it's the first one, these exaggerate the small-light-source effect. You can't really bounce them, as they don't swivel. Although depending on where you are, I have seen someone jam a business card in front of one to bounce it up and off the ceiling.

https://www.cnet.com/culture/how-to-make-a-supersimple-bounce-flash-for-your-dslr/

One of the things that made the biggest difference to my 'party' shots was buying a proper flash gun.

You don't have to spend Canon money, I bought a Yongnuo flash SH from here for less than £100 (might even have been £60-ish) and it's equivalent to the Canon Speedlight EL580/600.

They make a huge difference and the swivel head allows you to bounce it behind you and enlarge the light as discussed above.

(Not sure on current thinking, but it always used to be up and over your right shoulder. For some reason 135 degrees sticks in my head as the angle to aim at, but don't quote me on that).

What I'd say is that this technique works well in smaller rooms, in places like music venues that might have very high ceilings, I've never really mastered what to do with flash in those instances. As it's too far away to bounce it.

As for your pics, half the battle is getting them in focus, so a tick for that.

My criticism would be that they lack a little atmosphere - but I'd say that is a criticism of the party rather than the shots themselves.

There was a great YT video I watched that explained how you balance flash and ambient using shutter speed and aperture.

I don't use my flashes often enough to have mastered them, so feel free to ignore everything I've just typed - especially as I can't point to anything where I've got it right.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your comments. Yes it was the pop-up flash on the camera. Will look into investing in a separate flash.
 
rsphotography said:
Thank you for your comments. Yes it was the pop-up flash on the camera. Will look into investing in a separate flash.
Click to expand...
If you’re buying a flash; think about buying one you can easily control and fire remotely.
Bluntly a camera mounted speedlight pointed straight at your subject will give almost identical results to what you did.

Next option is to bounce the flash which when it works well gives a more natural looking result. But to improve on that you’ll want to move the flash away from the camera and maybe add a brolly. Then the world is your oyster.
 
Not sure if you have access to the 'For Sale' section yet, but there's a 430EXII just been put up for sale for £65.


As Phil says above, having off-camera lighting is almost a must for natural lighting, but event photography can (and often does) have obvious flash. Depends on the look you're going for, but in almost every case, the little pop-up flash is next to useless. Too small and too close to (and on the same plane as) the lens.

It's still an area where my knowledge is sorely lacking (there seem to be a lot of those), so you're better off getting advice from pros like @Phil V
 
My understanding on portraits is you should focus on the eye. As for flash, I'm not the person to suggest much!
 
Don Fischer said:
My understanding on portraits is you should focus on the eye. As for flash, I'm not the person to suggest much!
Click to expand...
Yep
Though I’d extend that to ‘nearest eye’ but when shooting multiple people you have to make a judgement call on which of your subjects is most important (80% of all social photographs are bought by women) ;)

The exception to the obvious might be where there’s a new child thrown into the mix.

And I did the thing about flash earlier :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top