Balloons

[dennylee60]

Hello everyone,
I am starting to mess around with taking candid pictures of people. I took this one tonight at a birthday party; any suggestions? I am still struggling with using the flash indoor. I had a diffuser screen in front of the build-in flash (I am using the Nikon D50 DSLR) but the lighting still seems kind of harsh to me.

ISO = 400, 1/60 sec, F/3.8

[sweetdeal22]

she has a really cute expression i would try a crop that would take out the food... i may just be hungry... but my eyes seem to float there first.

oh, and something my photo journalism teacher taught us about the flash... you can put your hand over a part of the flashbar so its not as harsh

[swmdrayfan]

Dennylee.....while I agree with the suggestion to crop out the food, what really bothers me about this is the girl's face is partially obscured by the ribbons. I would have loved to see this taken from an angle to her left. I understand though, that kids and animals don't always cooperate. It's a nice candid though.

John

[CLKunst]

Fun Candid.
A suggestion for future candid images you might make; just because it implies that it is a found shot doesn't mean you can't influence it. Helping her reign in those balloons and then poking her face out of the middle would have been an awesome capture and would have helped keep the shadowy lines of the strings out of her face. Playing with your subjects first and taking the picture second is something I always encourage, especially when it's kids. Good luck with your future photos! Show us some more!

[GB1]

Denny - The colors here are amazing.. seem to almost leap out at you. And the child's expression is nice too. Yeah, the composition needs a little work, but that will come. Stick with CL's advice, she's the professional on this stuff

Good luck - GB

[dennylee60]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I never realized how fast kids can move, especially the younger ones! I think I need a faster auto-focus lens, humm, I think I just came up with an excuse for a new lens that my wife would go for...

Anyhow, here is another one from last night, not as interesting but really cute. He was playing model cars with another person and would stay in this position for only a few seconds at a time. I finally caught him after a few tries.

Again, please feel free to make any suggestions.