Glad you like the DOF and composition. I have no clue as to how to respond to the comment about your uncertainty about the 250 ISO. LOL!
As for the flash, I used one. I had to have, or I would have had a seriously underexposed face here. Even with the flash, I boosted the curve a bit here. I like to birghten the face way up, on women's portraits, in order to reduce wrinkles. Ok, you know, you got me wondering about this. I figured you must have looked at the EXIF and saw no flash fired. So, I decided to go back to the image and double check it. As it turns out, I apparently had turned the flash off for only a few frames. I don't really recall doing that, but it's possible I might have. I certainly would never have intentionally shot backlit without a flash, knowing the results would be an underexposed face. It's possible I took a few frames before remembering that I'd turned it off for a few of the prior ones, taken in a different position. However, come to think of it, I knew I had this really strong direct sun out there, on the terrace, and I knew I had to pump up the flash to compensate. So, I was playing around with a +2 to +3 compensation on the 580EX. So, for the life of me, I can't figure why this would show no flash. Hmmm... perhaps the flash wasn't ready to go, so didn't fire, therefor didn't register. Further looking shows the flash was on and off within this part of the series. I guess it wasn't keeping up at times. I thought the 580 was supposed to partially fire when it wasn't ready for full power. No?
I looked at the eye sparkle under 350x magnification, and it seems that my silhoutte is reflected in her eyes, and behind me are the sliding glass patio doors, which are reflecting.
I do try to keep my portrait sessions fun, so the clients relax. I've gotten good feedback, with them saying they had fun and I put them at ease. I enjoy doing the shoots. I like to keep the conversation flowing, which also helps with the eye contact.
Dof is perfect and nice off-centered composition. Not sure about the 250 ISO. Interesting how you got a sparkle in the right (her left) eye and the absence of shadow with out a flash. Nice natural expression with good eye contact. -- LC
