Je ne sais quoi

Did you ever wonder what gives professional photos that crisp, sharp look? ...that balanced, seemingly unattainable touch? ...that certain je ne sais quoi? I always figured it was the fancy camera and a lot of know-how. I'm certainly not near professional-level by any means, but now I have a better idea of what it takes: more fancy lens than fancy camera, a lot of know-how, and LIGHTING!!!

This shot was an attempt at balancing a flash with bright sunlight. I say "attempt" because although I captured a nice moment, I was too lazy failed to gel the flash to match the warm afternoon sunlight color, so the flash's light looks white while the sunlight is more orangey/yellow.

As a learning experience, that was actually a good thing because you can see the light from both sources independently and how they balance each other (in intensity and direction). The flash's light is coming from high camera right and you can see it in their faces and on the wood in the top left corner as a white-tinted light. The sun's light is coming from the back left and you can see the much warmer colored light hitting the wood down the right edge of the picture as well as on the camera left edge of his face. Strobist info: Bare SB-600 high camera right, zoomed to 50mm, and fired at 1/2 power. Giant sphere of golden light 93 million miles away, back camera left at full power.