Can I have some BRUTAL feedback / advice on this shot please?

freefall

freefall

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I was at a birthday bash...got a fair bit drunk and had my canon 400d on me so I decided to take some shots. The one below was taken outside.

I used the 400d with the kit lens and set the flash to fire. It was f5, iso 200 and it exposed at 1/4 sec...I used apeture priority. I hate the way it has come out, it took ages to focus and I thought that the flash could have coped well but it barely froze the subject...so much so that he looks like he is smoking.


IMG_3623.jpg
 
You have a handle on the shutter speed so you know why it turned out the way it did. Why Av when using flash? Better to have gone for a fast shutter speed.
 
Should I have gone for manual and gone for f3.5 and a faster sutter speed hoping that the flash and a high iso would have captured it right?

I didnt put this in portrait mode as I dislike all the multiple flashes it fires out before taking the shot
 
ah you are on OE flash still.

Makes it a bit of an arse, when i used to only have that in clubs people used to move out of the frame on the focus flashes lol!

Faster shutter speed will stop the blurryness. You could have allways gone shutter priority but i tend not to for people shots.

To be honest my best advice is play with the camera, the general 'rules' can be flexed depending on how comfortable you are with each setting.
 
In Av and Tv modes the flash will only fill the foreground, so motion blur is still a very real possibility.
 
I would have thought that the flash would have stopped the blur but obviously not. I should have taken a few tests shots then had some fun getting some candids
 
how still were you standing? since you mention you were a bit drunk, you may well have been moving as well, which wouldnt have helped.
 
freefall said:
I would have thought that the flash would have stopped the blur but obviously not. I should have taken a few tests shots then had some fun getting some candids
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The flash did stop the blur - you can see where it's sharp. Unfotunately it can't also stop time ... the 1/4 sec of exposure before / after the flash is what causes the blur underneath the sharp bits.

If you're going to use Av in this situation, use exposure compensation - at least -2 stops - that way the ambient light won't creep into the shot so much, and your shutter speed will be higher.

Even better would have been to use the camera on manual - set it to expose 2-3 stops below the ambient level and the flash will do the rest.

Duncan
 
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As said above - the camera will try to make an exposure with available light if you let it (Av or Tv).

If you use manual and use settings where the available light is not enough then the camera will adjust the flash power to give you a good exposure for those settings. If you don't want a fill flash exposure try just setting 100iso f8 1/200th in manual and let the flash make however much light is required.

Focusing will be a problem in low light. A flash gun will help as it puts out focus assist red light. On board flash will pulse for focus and usually spoil the moment!
 
RobertP said:
If you don't want a fill flash exposure try just setting 100iso f8 1/200th in manual and let the flash make however much light is required.
Click to expand...

... but if you do this, you will lose all the background ambient light - the only thing lit will be your subject, as if they were in a cave.

Personally I would bump up the ISO to 800, manual, open the aperture wide, and then play with the shutter speed until your camera meter is showing 2 stops underexposed. Then your flash will light the subject correctly, and you will retain some ambient light from the background.

If your shutter speed goes over 1/200 (or your cameras flash sync speed) then close down the aperture until you can get the shutter speed below this.
 
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