Bright sky as a backdrop - want catchlight.

[FlyTVR]

Took a shot of my lad the other day. Scene - in garden, me on my back, him peering over me. Backdrop bright blue sky.

Now, the problems.

1. Because it's a bright day, even though he's looking at the ground, he's squinting.

2. Looking at the results of the shot (which I'll post later - at work at mo), even though his face is pretty well exposed, his eyes really are not as bright as I would like.

I appreciate this is not the easiest shot to take. But I'd like my cake and eat it. I'd like a bright sky, perfectly exposed face and eyes (even with some catchlight).

Any pointers? e.g. avoiding the squint, lighting up the eyes without over exposing the face etc

This was my approach -

Camera (5DII) fully manual, RAW
Exposed for sky
580EXII flash on camera (ETTL and FEL set).

 

[ryanyboy]

Fill flash - set the shutter speed to expose fpr the sky - even under expose it a tad if you like. Put your flash on high-speed sync mode. Fire.

The flash should expose the lads face and provide the catchlight you're after. And the shutter speed will expose the background.

Go try and let us know how it goes.

Of course you could use a reflector to bounce back the light into his face - try that too

HTH

 

[ryanyboy]

By the way - your F Stop will dictate how much flash power you get. In this scenario I would suggest a small apperture so that you get more oomph out of the flash gun and so that the shutter speed comes down. The nearer you can get the shutter speed to 1/250 the better as this is the proper sync speed for the gun

 

[FlyTVR]

Fill flash - set the shutter speed to expose fpr the sky - even under expose it a tad if you like. Put your flash on high-speed sync mode. Fire.

The flash should expose the lads face and provide the catchlight you're after. And the shutter speed will expose the background.

Go try and let us know how it goes.

Of course you could use a reflector to bounce back the light into his face - try that too

HTH

Thanks for the response Ryan. Helpful as always.

The Canon flash will be in 'fill mode' in these conditions (I believe). From what I recall my shutter speed was within the sync range of the flash (without putting it into high speed sync mode). F-Stop was quite high as I wanted the sky / clouds + lad's face in focus.

So, I'm not sure what else I could have done. The eyes simply were not illuminated enough. Maybe this is just down to him squinting. But how do I avoid the squint - without FORCE

Cheers.

 

[ryanyboy]

There is a recipe that goes like this - 1 stop under expose for ambient. 1 stop over expose for flash. Try that - it sounds like the flash wasn't putting out enough power to beat the sky.

 

[admirable]

Little tip here,

you need to wear all black when he is looking down at you to reduce the glare/reflection from the sun or cover yourself with a black sheet of some sort. This will stop the squinting as there is no bright light bouncing back at him from your clothes when he is looking at you.

If you have a Canon 580ex flash there is the catchlight card that slides out, this may suit your needs.

 

[FlyTVR]

Little tip here,

you need to wear all black when he is looking down at you to reduce the glare/reflection from the sun or cover yourself with a black sheet of some sort. This will stop the squinting as there is no bright light bouncing back at him from your clothes when he is looking at you.

Quality!!! I love it. Thanks!

If you have a Canon 580ex flash there is the catchlight card that slides out, this may suit your needs.