How?

hi Joe,

It might have been a case of something bigger than just a speedlight.
I would underexpose about 1 to 2 stops and than fire the strobe with a grid on for that nicely controlled directional beam of light.
 
ahh thanks for the advise... would this affect still be possible with a speedlight though if controlled and setup well?
 
purenvdesign said:
ahh thanks for the advise... would this affect still be possible with a speedlight though if controlled and setup well?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. You can use your speedlight but than you would do that when the sun is not that bright. At this time of the year I might try it at around maybe between 6- 7 pm maybe later (can't remeber know how bright it is at that time of the day:P) which effectively leaves you a short shooting time before it is too dark and you won't get such a nicely underexposed sky. Hovever, I do really doubt that your speedlight is powerful enough to give you such a nice depth of field as it is on the image you've attached. So I think, judging by the flash to subject distance, and the light falloff you would be looking at something around and between f3,5-f 4.5 maybe more. This of course can be tweaked by carefully positioning your models.

Wonder what others will say.
 
If you look through Matthew Seed's website http://www.horse-photographer.co.uk/ you will see it is a beauty dish with grid. I think the more technical side is how not to spook a horse. I guess the beauty dish is hand held. With experience and well planning ahead, he won't need to wave a light meter in front of a horse's nostril :D
 
This probably sounds like a really stupid question, but how do you under expose by 1-2 stops when it's quite dark already? Do you just focus on the subject to get a reading (which I would expect to be a pretty slow shutter speed) and then stop down? :shrug: Sorry for being a bit thick but I've not done much flash stuff and am keen to try some strobe shots.:thumbs:

Gareth
 
I would use a light meter - because I have one. But with digital cameras you can just meter in Av mode for example, not the shutter speed and use those settings -2 stops (6 clicks on the aperture control wheel if using default 1/3 stop steps) in Manual mode. Or sometimes easier, just guess and adjust after a test shot ;)

In the example you posted, just get the sky exposure right on your camera preview & histogram, then add the flash.
 
Very easy in theory - under expose the ambient and correctly expose the flash.

But in practise, first find two amazing and very cooperative horses and a nice location, then hoist a big studio head up high in a softbox/brolly/beauty dish to soften the light, then belt it with a a lot of power.

You could do something similar with a hot shoe gun fired direct if the ambient light was low, but you'd struggle to get it to fill a big modifier.
 
Purenvdesign - good attempt although I think one of the key factors why the original shot that you posted works is because of the light pool and amount if underexposed area around the horses.

Still, you tried and did a good job so 'respect' as the kids say :)
 
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