Anyone find it really hard to capture your kids this time of year? I do. Not enough light. And what light I can resurrect doesn't always work out right. I have a bounce flash and I recently got a diffuser (which I haven't been very pleased with). What I need is more practice I guess.
I did manage to get a picture worthy of sharing of my littlest doll this evening. Here it is.
I had fun shooting pictures at our company bowling night last night. Ideally in a bowling alley (or any dark place) I would have had a reflector-diffuser to avoid those hard shadows from my flash.
Here you can learn how to make your own reflector-diffuser. These work great. I have a friend that has made one and they create lovely soft indoor pictures. For a professional and compact one take a look at LumiQuest Quik Bounce, I just saw advertised in Photoshop User Magazine. I may have to get one for myself come Christmas.
Partially bouncing off the ceiling worked alright. Don't forget extra batteries for your flash when shooting at a dark location.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Here is my favorite picture from today. I was experimenting with my flash some more. Specifically, I was experimenting with High Speed Sync (H Flash on my Canon Speedlite). To my understanding, what High Speed Sync does is allows you to use a higher shutter speed than you otherwise would be able to and the Speedlite automatically adjust the strength and speed of the flash to match your setting. That's the best explanation I can offer for High Speed Sync right now. You can use this with night photography. Of course, your flash won't illuminate or freeze objects that are far away - they have to be in flash range. The downside to flash, especially when it's the only source of light, is that it's very one dimensional unless you are using multiple multi-directional off-camera flashes. I'd love to do that one day. Here is a neat blog dedicated to the purpose of educating photographers about off-camera flashes - Strobist. I think it's fun just to read about - even if I don't have the ability to delve into this area yet.
Here is my picture, taken at dusk.
30D, ISO 640, f14, 1/80th of a second, 70mm of 70-200L, at dusk with high-speed sync setting on 430EX Speedlite
