A bit more fill flash

Gary Kinghorn

Gary Kinghorn

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Mucking about with fill flash this afternoon and I thought I would share an image and ask a question on it. This was taken in the afternoon in the shade. My assumption is that I needed to increase the shutter speed slightly to ensure the background was correctly exposed. When you have a large dark background such as this and a bright sky behind it, how do you deal with it? Where do you expose for, the sky or the hedge?

Any help, comments etc gladly received.


Messing about with fill flash by Click U, on Flickr
 
Thanks for the reply Mike.

As is normally the case my daughter gave me around 2 mins before she got bored, so I had to work quickly. Originally I had exposed for the sky, but the hedges were so dark that I decided to decrease the shutter speed (not increase like I said in the original post - silly mistake) and get a little more light into the hedge as I didn't like the effect. Ideally I think I should have exposed for the hedge on the camera, rather than the sky. I picked my aperture and stuck with it, the same as I did with the ISO. The flash was in ETTL with no compensation. I don't mind the shot, but think the background should have been a chunk lighter, especially being as though I cropped most of the sky out anyway :facepalm:
 
Could have gone for a large aperture to blur background and separate your daughter. Then just set flash for your camera sync speed. Or expose for the background still with large aperture and just fill flash and ambient and add a reflector
 
Ignore the background etc, but I convinced number 1 to stand outside for 45 seconds yesterday afternoon. Straight out of the camera other than a small crop. A little happier with the way it turned out. Still lots to learn, but it's a start.

 
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Definitely less 'flashy' and more natural.

When there's no room for improvement it means you've disappeared up your own arse. So don't be too disheartened.
 
I agree, but its better than disappering up someones elses arse:)

That first picture is a gem.

And you know it.

As a bessotted grandad she should be another of my models, lovely pose and great smile, she has a great future in twisting dad around her fingers:)

To me they are the best pics.
 
I have the ability to do that Mike. Baby steps etc. Will have a bit more of a practice at this, then stick the flash / flashes on stands and see what I can achieve with that.
 
When using Flash I normally shoot in manual everything. Expose for the background first without the flash at all, then set flash accordingly
 
Gary

The second shot is a great improvement. I am not sure what flash you are using, but you could soften the effect even when mounted on the camera by adding a cheap diffuser (couple of pounds from ebay). I am no expert, but there is a fine line when trying to balance flash with ambient especially on a lively subject. You could bring the shutter speed down to 1/15 (or less) and the flash will expose the subject without any chance of blur where the flash is the main light source. Where you want to balance the light and the subject is also lit by ambient light, then movement may be captured with a low shutter speed as the flash is not the primary light source.

I read up on taking indoor photos in the past and settled on onboard flash (usually bounced or diffused) with shutter of 1/30-1/60 (for people shots) Aperture wide open, Exposure compensation set at -1.5 or -2 (to allow some ambient) and flash compensation (FEC) set to either 0 or 1 by trial and error to properly expose the subject.

What settings are you using? You could increase the ISO to get more ambient light and keep the shutter at 1/60
 
Very much enjoying fill flash.

Nipped to the park this afternoon for half hour and the kids allowed me to take the camera along. Both are under the weather, so not bothered for posing, but I was able to crack a few shots off with the 580EX on the camera.

I'm reasonably happy with how things are progressing.

1. Scooter



2. The boy



3. Charley




As is normally the case, these rascals won't stay still long enough for me to think about additional off camera flashes, they are far too busy enjoying themselves.

As always any comments or thoughts appreciated.
 
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I am just looking at using lighting myself and I found this video lecture interesting and I feel I learnt loads. Others may disagree but well worth setting an hour and a half of your life aside for in my opinion. Now I need to watch his others.
 
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