Fill flash outdoors

Eighth Avenue

Eighth Avenue

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Iain
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Hey guys,

seen a could of vids online about a technique to get the subject exposed properly with the background looking really contrasty but after trying it im confused as hell.

It said to expose the background to how you want it (I chose a couple of stops down on the correct exposure to give it a bit or a darker, crisper feel as it was a bright day and didnt want to wash it out). Then to light the model with strobes, turning them up more and more until she is lit - ends up with a really nice effect.

First time i tried it I put the strobe (580EX II) at 1/4 power - silhouette
Second time I turned it up to full power - silhouette
Third time two strobes at full power - silhouette
Fourth time two strobes on full power about 2 inches from her face - guess what?! silhouette!

Do I just need better lighting or am I doing it all wrong?

Here's the pic:

rubbishu.jpg
 
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You was using 1/1250th @ F4.
The flash just isnt going to have the power to light it I dont think.

You need to be using a lower aperture such as F8 or F9 which will allow you to get your shutter speed down (ideally to 1/200 or below) and that will mean you dont have to use High-Speed Sync (which drains LOADS of power from the flash)

If you still want to use F4 etc, then you will need to use an ND filter to stop down the light to give you something like 1/200th @ F4

Hope that helps
Many Thanks
Jamie

EDIT: Just a quick thought I dont think that wireless Canon flashes work with HSS OFF camera, so the flashes will not be affecting the image at all. That's where you problem lies. So you HAVE to get below 1/200 or use some pocketwizards.
If you have just one flash ON camera that will work in HSS and will change the exposure of the person
 
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J4MIE_P said:
You was using 1/1250th @ F4.
The flash just isnt going to have the power to light it I dont think.

You need to be using a lower aperture such as F8 or F9 which will allow you to get your shutter speed down (ideally to 1/200 or below) and that will mean you dont have to use High-Speed Sync (which drains LOADS of power from the flash)

If you still want to use F4 etc, then you will need to use an ND filter to stop down the light to give you something like 1/200th @ F4

Hope that helps
Many Thanks
Jamie

EDIT: Just a quick thought I dont think that wireless Canon flashes work with HSS OFF camera, so the flashes will not be affecting the image at all. That's where you problem lies. So you HAVE to get below 1/200 or use some pocketwizards.
If you have just one flash ON camera that will work in HSS and will change the exposure of the person
Click to expand...


That makes perfect sense, I'm a muppet, i need to use them at under 1/200 in the studio so obv i need to do the same outside - it just clicked...
 
Two flashes at two inches from her face no wonder the poor girl's wearing shades:lol: My take is that you're missing the flash with your high shutter speed as Jamie has said try dropping the ss to 1/250 with the corresponding aperture. You will need to move the flash further back too I'll bet;)
HTH
 
RJL2005 said:
Two flashes at two inches from her face no wonder the poor girl's wearing shades:lol: My take is that you're missing the flash with your high shutter speed as Jamie has said try dropping the ss to 1/250 with the corresponding aperture. You will need to move the flash further back too I'll bet;)
HTH
Click to expand...

I only had them so close to see if I could get ANYTHING!

Back to the same place tomorrow :D
 
Yes High-Speed Sync only works with ON camera flash (including on camera hotshoe flash) but will not work wirelessly only with the use of pocketwizards.
Like I said just set it to Tv and 1/200th and see what it suggests for the ISO and Aperture, if it's maxed out both settings and flashing in the viewfinder then that will mean you'll need an ND filter to get a well exposed photo.

But you can use an ND filter even if you dont max out your settings, in order to get a wide aperture to blur out the background.

Also as a future note, if you want a blurred background a longer focal length will make the background more blurred than being close and a wider aperture.
So if you took the photo at say 70mm, 200mm rather than the 28mm you used then it would give you a much blurrier background even if using a narrower aperture.
 
Some confusion here. You can do high speed sync with remote full E-TTL wireless control. It's only second-curtain sync you can't do without a hard wire connection (or four hundred quid's worth of Pocket Wizards).

Problems here include the fact that Exif data says 1/1250sec shutter speed was used, and that actually no flash was fired. Either way, there is zero flash in that image, as you would expect anyway at that shutter speed - the shutter would be closed even before the flash has fired.

However, all that aside, this kind of shot is an absolute doddle. Camera on Av and select any aperture you like within reason. Evaluative metering. Enable high speed sync and shoot. Done.

The camera will balance the ambient and flash exposures, and if the background means the shutter speed will run over the max x-sync (1/200sec in the case of a 5D2) then it will automatically engage the HSS mode. If the shutter speed is below 1/200sec, HSS will not engage anyway.

If the subject is too dark/bright, adjust that with +/- compensation on the gun; if the background is wrong, adjust that with +/- compensation on the camera. Between these two controls you can get any exposure level or ratio you like.

It really couldn't be easier and always looks great :)
 
david1701 said:
high speed sync kills like 3 stops, if thats ok (which for fill it usually is) no problemo
Click to expand...

That's probably not a bad way of putting it, as a rule of thumb.

As the flash duration is made much longer, so the brightness is diluted. Then in addition, most of it is wasted by the action of the focal plane shutter. As shutter speed increases, for every stop you loose another 50% of the power. (Basically it behaves like normal ambient light, because that's actually what it is.)

At the end of the day, what this means in practise is that the flash has to work very hard to maintain a decent f/number, and recycle times are increased. Ultimately, it runs out of puff much sooner, so range is substantially reduced.

There's still plenty of power for fill-in at normal distances, but if you're pushing it, use the longest shutter speed you can. For example, with HSS you'll get two more stops of flash power at say 1/500sec than 1/2000sec.
 
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