Flash Overexposed, Help pls

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izharqu

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Hi All

I used the canon 530 ex flash and increased the flash light by +2. I normally bounce the flash of the ceiling and did so with these images however i feel the flash and been over exposed on the faces.

Im using cs4, anyway i can reduce only the over exposure on the faces? The picture is perfect but is ruined by bright faces?
Any other software out there either

Thanks in advance
 
It's impossible to say without seeing the image. :shrug:
 
Any reason you needed plus two stops on the flash? My guess would be to light more of the subject. If so, a cheap reflector in these situations can be invaluable for balance.

You can always dodge/burn in CSx (press 'O' to toggle), make sure you lower the exposure % on the tool. However, it's not advisable to burn highlights! Lightroom / Camera Raw will let you recover some of the highlights which make them more manageable.

Might be worth duplicating the layer, isolating the faces and trying some overlay modes, that can sometimes (edit: rarely) bring out detail (can't remember the specific combination, so have a play).
 
Taking a wild guess here but I suspect that you added the two stops to get the background properly exposed.

ETTL (Canon flash system) uses the selected focus point to determine the area used to calculate the flash exposure. By increasing the flash exposure (adding two stops) and focusing on the face the flash will overexpose the face by two stops.

When using flash you have to think in terms of two exposures. One is the ambient (typically the background) and is determined just as you would for any other image by using the exposure meter and adjusting ISO, aperture and shutter speed to get the required exposure. The other exposure is that lit by the flash and is dependent upon the amount of light put out by the flash which is calculated by the ETTL flash system.

There are a range of techniques for balancing flash and ambient available. The one I use frequently is to 'drag the shutter' and manually set the flash. Dragging the shutter is simply a term used to describe the use of a slow shutter speed to capture the ambient. As the subject will be exposed by the flash (which is very short in duration) the subject should still be sharp despite the low shutter speed.

The other technique is to point the flash into a ceiling corner behind and slightly to the side of you. This will lift the background and still retain proper flash exposure on the subject.

There are a lot of tutorials on the web about the ETTL flash system.

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

These two should get you started.

John
 
I think it's also possible that he's added the 2 stops to account for light loss from the bounced flash? Decent modern guns are often capable of making the adjustment in output anyway, depending on the height of the ceiling or the distance of the bounce surface obviously.

It's a shame to be in this sort of trouble with an image when the problem must have been evident on the preview screen with the first shot.
 
Yeah, eTTL still works when the flash is bounced. Adding flash comp is asking for trouble if you have limited opportunity to take multiple shots to get the effect you are after.

Did you shoot in RAW? If so you may have a bit more latitude when it comes to saving the shot. A visit to photoshop is in order.
 
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