Shadows of the Charras

[Lupe Talamantez]

I had attended a local charro event and thought that I had taken some pretty good shots.
When I view them on the PC, every one of them suffers from shadows under the wide-brimmed sombreros.

My question is how should I handle this issue next time? Will flash work? Do I have to set FEC to a lower value or a higher value? Should a diffuser such as the Stoffen Omni-Bounce be on my 420EX, or is direct flash the best route?

Thanks in advance,
Lupe

[engstrom]

If you have Photoshop CS (or CS2) you could use the shadow/highlight tool which would help tremendously.

[Texentric]

I had the same problem at a local festival a few months back. The shadow-highlight tool in CS2 wasn't that succesful however, the gentleman was black, but I imagine it will be the same with any dark skinned individual. The shadow-highlight tool made the rest of the colors look washed out and introduced noise into the shadows by the time his face was lightened enough to be seen clearly. Maybe I haven't been using it right, but I messed with it for quite a while and gave up. I've decided I'll need to use fill flash from now on. I know this doesn't answer all your questions, but I hope it helps some.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Originally Posted by Lupe Talamantez

I had attended a local charro event and thought that I had taken some pretty good shots.
When I view them on the PC, every one of them suffers from shadows under the wide-brimmed sombreros.

My question is how should I handle this issue next time? Will flash work? Do I have to set FEC to a lower value or a higher value? Should a diffuser such as the Stoffen Omni-Bounce be on my 420EX, or is direct flash the best route?

Thanks in advance,
Lupe

I would guess that you were at least 30 ft away from the closest horse? I don't know how much help a fillflash would do you in this situation unless you have a pretty high powered unit. Like mentioned above you need to do some post processing to lighten up under the hats.