Outdoor fill flash

mattchewone

mattchewone

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Matt
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I want to get some nice wintery/autumn outdoor shots with my new nifty fifty. I'd like to take advantage of the aperture and use it to create a nice background blur is it a good idea to use a fill flash to help light the subject.

I've seen some lovely outdoor shots where the background is well exposed and the subject is lit by a flash creating a fantastic overal shot.

If I have the lens wide open and shutter relatively fast 1/125th will the fill flash over expose the subject?

Matt
 
mattchewone said:
I want to get some nice wintery/autumn outdoor shots with my new nifty fifty. I'd like to take advantage of the aperture and use it to create a nice background blur is it a good idea to use a fill flash to help light the subject.

I've seen some lovely outdoor shots where the background is well exposed and the subject is lit by a flash creating a fantastic overal shot.

If I have the lens wide open and shutter relatively fast 1/125th will the fill flash over expose the subject?

Matt
Click to expand...

You're in luck, because your 430EX gun has high speed sync :thumbs: Which means that it can sync with flash even at high shutter speeds above the normal x-sync speed (1/250sec on a 40D).

When you're at f/1.8 in normal daylight, the shutter speed will naturally want to run quite high, but if you just turn on HSS the camera will automatically switch it in as/when the shutter speed runs above 1/250sec.

Use Av, f/1.8, flash on ETTL with HSS enabled, and just point and shoot. The camera will have a pretty good go at balancing the flash and daylight, but if you don't like the result, you can adjust the flash power and ambient exposures independently with +/- compensation on the gun and camera.
 
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It doesn't matter what you set the camera exposure settings to, the flash will always try to expose the subject correctly (providing it is in ETTL mode).

As said above on a bright day, if you wish to use a shutter speed above the x-sync of your camera you need to turn high speed sync on the flash.
 
ohara said:
It doesn't matter what you set the camera exposure settings to, the flash will always try to expose the subject correctly (providing it is in ETTL mode).

As said above on a bright day, if you wish to use a shutter speed above the x-sync of your camera you need to turn high speed sync on the flash.
Click to expand...

It certainly matters which metering mode you have your camera set to, especially if the principle subject only partially fills the frame and is substantially lighter or darker than the background.
 
GR3Z said:
I've this lens and found that wide open @ f1.8 I struggle to nail the focus on the eyes, and the lens seems to be sharper at 2.8 to my eyes and its easier to get the correct focus point,,,,

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

That's just technique. Keep practicing, it's completely possible :)

OP, another alternative is ND filters if you're pushing your max sync speed.
 
pahahaha ;D


op, just dial down FeV to like -1.3 stops, works nicely for fill.
 
Thanks once its a bit nice and not so damp and wet I will go out and experiment!

Only thing is im going to be using it off camera so no ETTL so i'll have to experiment with the power settings on the flash.
 
If it's manual trigers off camera then at f/1.8 (or thereabouts) you'll need to get the ISO low so you can control the ambient better. On a bright day you'll probably be getting higher than your 1/250th maximum sync, so as Dave says, you may need to fit an ND filter to help out
 
you need to be more clear about what you are trying to achieve and where

Assuming you are going to use the 1.8 end of your lens, overall the lens is going to be letting MORE light into the camera, it wont differentiate between the background or the subject. The subject will be brighter, the background will be brighter as you open the lens up

If you then additionally light the subject, the subject will become reliability brighter compared to the background (is this what you want to achieve?)

If on the basis, you still want the shot at 1.8, and you want to additionally light the subject, you have the choice - higher shutter speed (will darken the background) or ND filter - will darken the whole scene
 
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