I did it…I finally worked through part of lesson 4 of 12 Weeks to Better Photos. Granted, I did stay indoors (instead of going outside as I was told to do), but when I came home and walked upstairs, one of our bedroom windows had this wonderful sunset beaming through and I thought “backlighting!” – that’s kinda like being outdoors, right? Here’s the assignment:
Take on one (or all 3) of the following parts of the challenge. You can use almost any shooting mode (such as AV or portrait – I went manual) to accomplish parts 1 and 2, as long as the mode allows you to turn on your flash.
- Use fill flash to “pop” colors on a gray day.
- Use fill flash to eliminate dark shadows on the face on a bright day.
- Use fill flash to combat backlighting on a shadowed subject.
Remember, I’m lacking good subject matter right now, so I had to use a fake potted plant in our bedroom (Kitty Paw wasn’t going to give me the benefit of sitting still). I took the first shot in manual mode (without the flash – f/4, 1/80 sec, ISO 800 – what was I thinking?!). The second shot, I used my new 430EX II, but stayed in manual mode (f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO 100 – dragging the shutter). Now that I think about it, I probably need more practice in this area.
