Ambient light with flash

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Philx1979

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Could someone with the knowledge help me out here, I am trying to get to grips with the basics of flash I want to balance flash and ambient light, I am using Nikon setup.

Do I have to use manual or is there a possibility of using aperture mode and ttl?

I'd like to under expose the ambient by around 2 stops and then use the flash to fill the subject/person I have read some many guides I can't make sense of them all, where do I alter the flash compensation on the camera or the sb-600 itself?
 
Philx1979 said:
Could someone with the knowledge help me out here, I am trying to get to grips with the basics of flash I want to balance flash and ambient light, I am using Nikon setup.

Do I have to use manual or is there a possibility of using aperture mode and ttl?

I'd like to under expose the ambient by around 2 stops and then use the flash to fill the subject/person I have read some many guides I can't make sense of them all, where do I alter the flash compensation on the camera or the sb-600 itself?
Click to expand...
If you want to use TTL, set the camera to aperture priority mode and dial the exposure compensation to -2, while you leave the flash-compensation on 0.

On manual you alter the ambient intensity by changing the shutter speed, but unless you're using FP-sync the fastest is 1/250-1/320. Both flash and ambient exposure are controlled by the aperture. There are a bazillion of tutorials out there explaining how you dial in the correct exposures.
 
Simplest way to do it in my opinion would be to set camera to manual and flash to ettl. Set cameras settings so that the meter is reading a 2 stop under exposure and take the photo. Check the flash brightness and adjust flash exposure compensation as necessary
 
Strobist: 102 deals with the concept, although it might be a bit off-camera-centric.

Phil - what kind of photography are you doing? I know you've said people but indoors? outdoors? Action? Posed portraiture? Could influence how best to work.... :)
 
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Philx1979 said:
this is the style i am liking, think i just need to get out there and learn hard

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenyarn/6463022521/in/pool-strobist
Click to expand...

That's pretty simple:

In that situation I would first take a shot without flash to determine how you want the background to look. Of course, if you're going to go wide like they have (f/2.8) then you need to drop the ISO so you're not exceeding your maximum sync speed. But once you have your settings them stick with them, taking into consideration any changes in ambient light levels. I don't think they've underexposed by much, probably a stop.

Then you can just add flash in until you have the level of power and the spread of light you want. They've used a large(ish) softbox, probably set just out of shot to give it the biggest apparent size and a soft fall-off.

They might have shot in open shade (i.e. the background was sunlit, the girl was in shade). This technique helps if you want to accentuate the effect of the flash and also minimises fill-in on the shadows from ambient light.

It's a really nice shot, probably enhanced by the amount of bokeh visible.
 
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thanks for the info and the reply guys, thank you Pat for explaining, gonna print this out.
 
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