Hi All,
I have often seen members having a fear about taking baby pictures with flash. I take pictures of my grand children with flash and here is how I do it.
First of all DO NOT take the picture standing too near to the child and NEVER flash straight in it's face.
Assuming you are in an average or small room use at least a 85mm and be about 10 feet from the child. I usually use a short zoom like 24-120. Use an external flash and shoot at an angle from the child's face. Using a longer lens also has the advantage of blurring the background and makes for a better image of the child.
If you have to shoot directly at the child's face (and not at an angle) then use a Lumiquest Untra Soft bounce, if you don't have that then bounce your flash off the ceiling or wall.
You can also use the built in flash bounce card attachment on the SB 800 and bounce off the attachment at an angle.
If your external flash has no bounce card attachment and cannot be turned to bounce at an angle then put a white handkerchief or cloth over your flash and shoot. This is the last resort. It is also possible to use this kind of flash with a long flash cord (Nikon SC 19) and then you can hand hold the flash and bounce off the ceiling, or angle it or do what ever suits or works in your situation
If possible I try to shoot in available light, but even with that it is nice to have some fill flash and any of the bounce methods above works for me.
I do not know how to attach sample pictures but if some one can tell me how I shall be glad to post some samples.
Eb
I have often seen members having a fear about taking baby pictures with flash. I take pictures of my grand children with flash and here is how I do it.
First of all DO NOT take the picture standing too near to the child and NEVER flash straight in it's face.
Assuming you are in an average or small room use at least a 85mm and be about 10 feet from the child. I usually use a short zoom like 24-120. Use an external flash and shoot at an angle from the child's face. Using a longer lens also has the advantage of blurring the background and makes for a better image of the child.
If you have to shoot directly at the child's face (and not at an angle) then use a Lumiquest Untra Soft bounce, if you don't have that then bounce your flash off the ceiling or wall.
You can also use the built in flash bounce card attachment on the SB 800 and bounce off the attachment at an angle.
If your external flash has no bounce card attachment and cannot be turned to bounce at an angle then put a white handkerchief or cloth over your flash and shoot. This is the last resort. It is also possible to use this kind of flash with a long flash cord (Nikon SC 19) and then you can hand hold the flash and bounce off the ceiling, or angle it or do what ever suits or works in your situation
If possible I try to shoot in available light, but even with that it is nice to have some fill flash and any of the bounce methods above works for me.
I do not know how to attach sample pictures but if some one can tell me how I shall be glad to post some samples.
Eb