Fill in flash

R

rhardy

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Name
Ross
Edit My Images
Yes
Hey guys,

I'm currently living in OZ and tried using fill in flash for the first time the other day!

Now, it was only a spare of the moment thought when we happened to be out in the sun, but had been thinking of trying it for a while.

I shoot with a D300 and an SB900, when i fired the flash (facing upwards) it blew everything out, just leaving an over exposed image!!

I had the flash set up on TTL, and was shooting with my 50mm at F8, at ISO 200, what was i doing wrong? the flash to powerful??

Thanks in advance
Ross
 
Why were you firing the flash upwards outdoors? Why were you firing the flash at all? Can you show us an unedited sample image with EXIF left intact?

If your subject was sunlit then at f/8 and 200 ISO you'd need a shutter speed of around 1/800 for a correct exposure, before adding flash. As soon as you turn the flash on, even if you're not pointing it at the the subject, the shutter speed will be forced to drop to your sync speed of 1/250 (I assume) unless you have enabled high speed (focal plane) sync. Thus you may well have blown your image without any contribution from the flash at all.

If you were shooting the shaded side of your subject then using fill flash is fine, but again you need to watch that shutter speed, or engage FP sync. Again, though, why aim the flash into the air outdoors? What is that supposed to do to your subject/scene? I'm a bit confused about what you are trying to accomplish.

Oh yes, and welcome to the forum. :D
 
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Hi Ross & welcome, as Tim has said, you are trying to bounce flash off of thin air ( ain't gunna happen ) have a look in your manual & there are possible some diagrams for bouncing flash that might help.
 
Hey guys,
Thanks for the replies!

I can understand the confusion as to pointing towards the sky, i usually only do that inside, but as i'd first of all fired it directly at the subjects face which was covered by shadows, it just blew the picture out, so i fired it towards the sky with the reflector up thinking that may reflect the flash towards the face, clearly not!! thanks for the advice!

Sorry i don't actually have an unedited picture as i deleted them as they were just completely blown out!!
I was just hoping to shed some light on the shadows across the face.

Also, what is "high speed (focal plane) sync", i can't say i've seen/heard of that before?

Thanks again
Ross
 
Thanks tdodd, i'll watch through those and let you know how i get on!
 
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