Outdoor Portraits - Advice on eliminating shadows

[ddt0725]

Ok, I dragged my daughter out of bed this morning much, much earlier than she cares to get up on her Saturday off and attempted this once again! First off, I should have realized how busy it is there on a Saturday morning with joggers, bikers and dog walkers! Buddy had lots more on his mind than sitting pretty for the pictures!!! Next time, the dog stays home! It was very hard to concentrate on flash, composition etc. and the dog!

But even with all of that ...mission accomplished!! No shadows!! Worst thing is because we did this so quickly to get in and out of there, I don't know my exact set-up for each photo. I tried the speedlight on camera, on a stand and with and without the sto-fen omni bounce. Still, for the most part all the photos were shadow-free.

For some reason, I can't get a "browse" computer box to upload the photos directly and I know she wouldn't want these on flickr so I will try again in a little bit.

Anway, thank you for all of the help an suggestions!! I am actually starting to feel like I know what I am doing now ...LOL!

Denise

[ddt0725]

The first photo pretty much had nothing done to it in post, the second I did enhance the sky and make a few minor enhancements. I did brighten the bottom of the photo slightly which I guess if I had the flash lower on a stand, it would have been ok. Although, it wasn't bad and I probably could have left it alone.

[ddt0725]

For some reason it only loaded the first image normal size and three of the same second image in thumbnail view when I tried to resize them. The last thumbnail is the largest size.

[ddt0725]

Loading from flickr is so much easier!

[Sheiky]

I'm a bit late I guess, because I see you have improved your shots quite a bit already.
I'm definitely not a fanatic flash-user at all, but sometimes when I really need a little fill light and just have my bag with a bare 430EX with me. I just use it for on camera flash. Dial the ETTL setting to -1 or so(what suits you) and use the build-in diffuser. It works for the simple things and with using the ETTL you can check one shot and just rely on ETTL to do the same every shot. Having your ETTL on 0 or + often gives me serious white-balance problems or "fake/flat" looking photos. Obviously in the middle of summer, the flash could be too weak to counter the strong sun.
Of course my method is just a last minute solution. If I planned a shot I probably would go with the umbrella or softbox.

Loading from flickr is so much easier!

If it's a privacy thing. You can upload your photos to Flickr. Set them as private and you're still able to share them with the BB-code. But without that nobody can see it. I'm not even sure if people can use the link to the image.