Welcome, Mike. I always like to see new talent with good attitudes.
As Mado pointed out, the focus is off in this one.
Some other things to notice are the line of lights in the background, and the light on her face. Because your light source is from the top, the eyes are in shadow and don't show well.
If you want a nice picture of the child with her doll, turn the camera to portrait so that you include all of the doll in the picture.
Some excellent advice. Question for you: If I wanted to just capture the girl listening to the doll (with the girl being the important aspect, and the doll being secondary), should I still try to capture both items in focus? I agree that the girls eyes are being shadowed and don't pop as well as they should.
I've taken this without a flash using high ISO (1600). (Tho I have a 430EX with Diffuser, I find that the photos don't have as much character when I use it. I have no doubt this is left over from my Leica days). Do you have any suggestions in order to keep that natural look while getting the right light?
mikehummel wrote:
Some excellent advice. Question for you: If I wanted to just capture the girl listening to the doll (with the girl being the important aspect, and the doll being secondary), should I still try to capture both items in focus?
I agree that the girls eyes are being shadowed and don't pop as well as they should.
I've taken this without a flash using high ISO (1600). (Tho I have a 430EX with Diffuser, I find that the photos don't have as much character when I use it. I have no doubt this is left over from my Leica days). Do you have any suggestions in order to keep that natural look while getting the right light?
Thanks again for the advice!...Show more →
What to put in focus? - it could look good either way. You get to choose what the subject is, what to put more emphasis on.
As for the 'look', comparing flash to high ISO, I suggest using good window light. That might take some positioning of her near a bright window.
Alternatively, you can dial down the FEC (Flash exposure compensation) with the button on top of your 40D. Compose so that the flash doesn't fall on anything that will reveal the presence of flash. For example, if there was an object in the forground, it would get more light than your subject and would make it obvious that flash was used. Try this out and show us what you come up with.
Mike, it looks like your shutter speed was sufficient, so it could be a bit of camera shake, or it looks like the girl's left shoulder is more in focus than her eyes. You didn't list what ISO you were at, but shooting at f/1.4 is very tricky.
Mado