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On the Dance floor



Group shot, Left female is my wife


Trying to make it look pretty with christmas lights in background, think the flash killed it though .....

Just need some Critiques on my images as it's the first time shooting in such low lighting with the camera flash

What improvements can I make to these when shooting

Feedback welcome

Ben, not sure if it was onboard flash or not, but you can dial it back on the camera, the falsh seems too bright in 1 and 3, especially 1

yes 1 and 3 is tooo bright, even viewing at my cheap dark work monitor.

The skin tones / colours just don't look right. Did you do any conversion or manipulation before posting them ?

myarhidia wrote:The skin tones / colours just don't look right. Did you do any conversion or manipulation before posting them ?

didn't do anything at all straight from my card to the computer.....

would you say that the middle one was a good shot and exposure or it could have been done better ?


thanks all for your comments

Ben, with the second one i might suggest that you be mindful of what is your subject. Sure, you wanted to get the Christmas tree in view as well, but the real subject is the young ladies so make them fill your viewfinder. The tree will still be visible but won't overpower your subjects.

With this one the rule of thirds is a good guide. Try to keep the eye-line of your subjects about one-third the way up your image. (Not exactly 1/3 up but line it up so it feels natural)

Not that i am the best portrait taker in the world, or anywhere near it but an example or two might help, here's some i prepared earlier;
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/36387141-M.jpg
or this one
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/36387240-M.jpg
or this one of a couple of our forum members, Matt and Michael. Matt is the one hiding behind his camera.
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/23924542-M.jpg

Killakoala wrote:Ben, with the second one i might suggest that you be mindful of what is your subject. Sure, you wanted to get the Christmas tree in view as well, but the real subject is the young ladies so make them fill your viewfinder. The tree will still be visible but won't overpower your subjects.

With this one the rule of thirds is a good guide. Try to keep the eye-line of your subjects about one-third the way up your image. (Not exactly 1/3 up but line it up so it feels natural)

Not that i am the best portrait taker in the world, or anywhere near it but an example or two might help, here's some i prepared earlier;
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/36387141-M.jpg
or this one
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/36387240-M.jpg
or this one of a couple of our forum members, Matt and Michael. Matt is the one hiding behind his camera.
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/23924542-M.jpg

Any advice is good advice, thanks.... its frustrating trying to get decent shots, trail and error practise practise and practise.

Try setting the flash on rear curtain sync and the camera on shutter priority.

Then set the shutter speed to about 1/15th of a second.

This will allow enough ambient light to get the background lights and flash to fill the foreground. it takes a bit of practice to get the balance but it does look good when it works.

there seem to be a tad bit of highlight blow out use your histogram to make sure your overexp.