Practicing with the 550EX

My co-worker Xerix loves for me to take his pictures so he can email them to his family and friends back in the Philippines. So today I took him to the park after work and practiced on him with my new flash. I don't know if it's me or his little squinty eyes but the catchlights don't seem to be as prominent as I'd like them to be. In any event, tell me what ya think, and how I might be able to improve these.

Ray

add just a little more light ANDA they will still look like you DIDN'T use flash .

not looking flash shot is GOOD!

so tell me how you metered the middle shot and your settings

TRY spot metering his face and using negative comp too ;)

And here you were worried a few days ago about figuring this flash out ... near perfect exposures on each. Notice how the shadows in the first one have lightened and don't detract? Imagine if you hadn't used flash. The catchlights are always an issues with flash units, giving you those small pinpoints of light, so you'll never get them to look like you were using softboxes or large reflectors or natural light, but these are all fine.

I think you did great! Exposures look great. I suppose you could try and add a smidge more (+1/3) to the flash if you like, but if you really want those catch lights you could just add a touch more in PS. Brighten up what is there.

In the first and second one I don't think you'd really need the catch lights anyway. You can kinda see them in the last one.

Thanks, Paul, Charles and Katt. I'm pretty impressed by the exposure also, as opposed to when I wasn't using a flash. Skin tones appear much more natural now. I will be sure to keep on practicing and post the results. I am really beginning to enjoy this flash.

Paul, the settings for the middle picture were as follows:

Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE...1/500, f/9.0
Metering Mode: Evaluative
Exposure Compensation: -1/3
ISO Speed: 400
Lens: 28.0 - 80.0mm
Focal Length: 28.0mm
Flash Type: External E-TTL
Flash Exposure Compensation: +1/3
Shutter curtain sync: 1st-curtain sync
White Balance: Daylight
AF Mode: AI Focus AF

Ray

While this doesn't really relate to flash, the first photo could benefit from some light blockage. Still use the flash but see if you can hold up a large piece of cardboard to get right of the light patch on his face.
I like whatcha did with the second one--seems well lit, <i> especially</i> considering where you're situated in relation to the sun.
I'm by far no flash expert, but how would the third shot looked if you cranked up the flash a coupla levels? I'm thinkin if you then adjusted the exposure that you could then get a less-blown-out background