Bright outside light - fill in flash?

[jedipie]

Hi I've been out shooting today in the midday sun and my model (aka the wife) either had to face the sun for proper even exposure, but squinting/covering eyes (so no good), or her back was to the sun which resulted in the face being under exposed.

Is the answer fill in flash? What sort of flash power would be ok? I got nikon SB600 but not really used it!!

Any comments ideas please??

 

[Frobius]

I've been playing with my SB600 as a fill in flash too recently. Makes quite a difference. If you've got a camera that will do high speed sync, called Auto FP in the flash sub menu, it seems to work well for outdoor portraits. Be aware though that the way it works means that your flash range will be reduced - fine for portraits tho!

There's a good guide out there somewhere on Auto FP as it's pretty complicated how it works but I like the effect.

 

[Nawty]

I've not figured out Auto FP yet so if you assume that your synch speed is 1/200 then if it's a bright sunny day you need to be careful not to overexpose, especially if you're looking for DoF effects.

 

[nano]

Is the answer fill in flash?

Yes*

What sort of flash power would be ok?

1/4 is where i'd start if i had no idea but...

I got nikon SB600 but not really used it!!?

The SB-600 is a really clever flash, left to its own devices it'll figure out what you need. I'm not a Nikon guy but i'm pretty sure if you just took the same picture and plonked your SB-600 on top of your cam in ittl-BL mode it'd magically work. (I think thats what its called, flick through the manual for back lit images)

With regard to the auto-FP stuff the other guys are talking about, might as well enable that setting but don't worry about it, just know that if you are using flash at faster than 1/200 or 1/250th shutter speed (depends on your cam) then sometimes odd stuff happens, but it'll still happen mostly. If you disable auto-FP then it just wont let you.



*Not the only or best solution really, but you seem to be asking about flashes

 

[Nawty]

And rest assured that Nikons have by far the best flash system of any camera so if IT gets it wrong then you certainly would have