Outdoor lowlight portraits

[unclened]

I am going to be taking some outdoor lowlight portraits next week at a wedding.

I wanted to just double check my technique and assumptions were correct or could be improved.

If I wanted to take a picture with the couple in the foreground with potentially the venue in the background. My mind tells me, I should setup my tripod, expose for the background, take picture and close the end of shutter closing, pop an OCF angled at the couple. Setting the power on the flash will take quite a few test shots and potentially the use of a lightmeter. Is there any diffuser I could use to control my light spillage or tone down the harshness of the flash. I was think a stofen angled straight at the couple would work well?

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Garry Edwards]

Any diffuser, for example a stofen, will help with the softness a bit - but will eat a lot of the already limited power, because the light goes just about everywhere and there will be no reflective surfaces for it to bounce from, so all of the light not going directly towards the subject will be lost.

You need to test, but my guess is that you'll be better off with bare flash and with maybe a reflector to bounce light back into the shadows.

 

[Marcus Geezer]

If you have enough flashpower then any portrait can become a lowlight portrait.

Before the wedding you'll need to have mastered this technique so that you can set up your kit and pretty much know what settings will work and possibly with one or two test shots nail it. I think I quote AliB when I say 'a wedding is a lot of portrait shots just done at very high speed in a very short period time'so you won't have time to mess about on the day.

I would take the time to read the strobist blog where he has covered ambient vs flash and also about the use of diffusers to soften the light, then get to practicing your technique so you have it nailed.

EDIT: Sorry hsuffyan if this seems a bit patronising, wasnt meant to be as I know your are an experienced chap.

 

[david1701]

Any diffuser, for example a stofen, will help with the softness a bit - but will eat a lot of the already limited power, because the light goes just about everywhere and there will be no reflective surfaces for it to bounce from, so all of the light not going directly towards the subject will be lost.

You need to test, but my guess is that you'll be better off with bare flash and with maybe a reflector to bounce light back into the shadows.

sod that, if you have a reflector, make soft light by pointing the flash into it. Quick, dirty,efficient and effective, done it with on camera flash and an assistant before for usablly good ttl perfect shots

 

[Garry Edwards]

sod that, if you have a reflector, make soft light by pointing the flash into it. Quick, dirty,efficient and effective, done it with on camera flash and an assistant before for usablly good ttl perfect shots

It's quick, dirty and effective but NOT efficient, because again it squanders flash energy.

But a useful compromise is to fire the flash into a white or silver reflective umbrella, partially collapsed to direct the light well

 

[Marcus Geezer]

Isnt the basics of this about the old...

Aperture for flash and shutter speed for ambient?

Re-reading the OP I think this basic technique has been missed? Please correct me if I am wrong?

 

[david1701]

It's quick, dirty and effective but NOT efficient, because again it squanders flash energy.

But a useful compromise is to fire the flash into a white or silver reflective umbrella, partially collapsed to direct the light well

its buckets more efficient than stofen and hope

 

[unclened]

Isnt the basics of this about the old...

Aperture for flash and shutter speed for ambient?

Re-reading the OP I think this basic technique has been missed? Please correct me if I am wrong?

Hi marcus, thanks for the original comment. dont think anyone has called me experienced before, so thank you

I think my post may contain a lot of gibberish, but its kind of what I meant by exposing for the background. I am kind of trying to say that I wanted tips on nighttime/lowlight outdoor fill flash technique.

 

[david1701]

Hi marcus, thanks for the original comment. dont think anyone has called me experienced before, so thank you

I think my post may contain a lot of gibberish, but its kind of what I meant by exposing for the background. I am kind of trying to say that I wanted tips on nighttime/lowlight outdoor fill flash technique.

manually expose bg to look good, then

bring in off camera flash to look good or use on camera ttl with a mod of your choice (see quick and dirty reflector ect)

 

[loplyg]

A flash diffuser will just waste power unless the diffused flash bounces off something.

i.e. if you aren't stood next to a wall or have a roof over your head - then don't waste your time, you'll just be redirecting flash light into the sky.

This clearly won't make the flash any softer at all. Only if the flash bounces off things and then onto the subject will it soften.

Agree about shooting into a reflector if you don't have a big softbox or umbrella available, as the reflector is muchos bigger than a flash head.

 

[Tyke Tiler]

I can try to help but as I have no idea what kind of background or lighting conditions your up against I'll be throwing a fair few knives into the dark here

What you can can get away with in terms of ambient light and flash balance, will largely depend on how much ambient light there is.

If it's dark then you might have to accept that a perfect balance between flash and ambient may be asking a little much of the circumstance.

Take a few shots to see what shutter speeds you can get away with, use your tripod if the shutter speeds are out of the realms of even the steadiest of hands.

If the venue has plenty of interior lighting filling up the windows then a little detail in the architecture is all you need IMO. I'd try to have the background at least a stop or a half stop under.

I wouldn't be too heavy handed with aperture either, you may have to go plenty wide if the light is really bad.

ISO may also give you a slice of flexibility but avoid underexposure at all costs. I'll happily increase ISO sensitivity with even the crappiest of ISO handling, noise and grain won't be so much of an issue of the exposure is not under.

Contrary to belief, using a Stofen does not significantly soften or diffuse anything.
It will assist in spreading the light out in a similar way that a naked light bulb does but as the source of light is still small and pokey it will remain harsh.

As for the flash diffusion I'd use a shoot through umbrella over anything else in this circumstance. Flash power or lack of it, is not the issue here, so there is no point in stressing about which diffuser eats up power or whatever else will squander the flash output. It's the ambient light that you are going to be challenged by, so a large shoot through umbrella will diffuse and disperse the light just fine.

A hotshoe flash has more than enough power for lighting a couple after sundown, the limitations will be your working distance, so if your thinking of a lovely wide shot with the umbrella and flash a considerable stretch away from the couple - think again.

Respect the power output and for example light just outside the frame, then compose/include your background:

Shoot through umbrella just out of the frame, Full power to have a more efficient aperture to level out the sunlight.

Also a shoot through umbrella just out of the frame, flash at 1/8th power, loads left to play with, I could have really pushed a lot more distance between the light and the subject here.

 

[unclened]

I can try to help but as I have no idea what kind of background or lighting conditions your up against I'll be throwing a fair few knives into the dark here

What you can can get away with in terms of ambient light and flash balance, will largely depend on how much ambient light there is.

If it's dark then you might have to accept that a perfect balance between flash and ambient may be asking a little much of the circumstance.

Take a few shots to see what shutter speeds you can get away with, use your tripod if the shutter speeds are out of the realms of even the steadiest of hands.

If the venue has plenty of interior lighting filling up the windows then a little detail in the architecture is all you need IMO. I'd try to have the background at least a stop or a half stop under.

I wouldn't be too heavy handed with aperture either, you may have to go plenty wide if the light is really bad.

ISO may also give you a slice of flexibility but avoid underexposure at all costs. I'll happily increase ISO sensitivity with even the crappiest of ISO handling, noise and grain won't be so much of an issue of the exposure is not under.

Contrary to belief, using a Stofen does not significantly soften or diffuse anything.
It will assist in spreading the light out in a similar way that a naked light bulb does but as the source of light is still small and pokey it will remain harsh.

As for the flash diffusion I'd use a shoot through umbrella over anything else in this circumstance. Flash power or lack of it, is not the issue here, so there is no point in stressing about which diffuser eats up power or whatever else will squander the flash output. It's the ambient light that you are going to be challenged by, so a large shoot through umbrella will diffuse and disperse the light just fine.

A hotshoe flash has more than enough power for lighting a couple after sundown, the limitations will be your working distance, so if your thinking of a lovely wide shot with the umbrella and flash a considerable stretch away from the couple - think again.

Respect the power output and for example light just outside the frame, then compose/include your background:

Shoot through umbrella just out of the frame, Full power to have a more efficient aperture to level out the sunlight.

Also a shoot through umbrella just out of the frame, flash at 1/8th power, loads left to play with, I could have really pushed a lot more distance between the light and the subject here.

Brilliant stuff Tomas, I was hoping this thread would catch your eye, as your outdoor portraits are just fantastic!

I guess in a nutshell its not really too dissimilar from outdoor daylight shots, where the background is kept 1-2 stops darker than the foreground and the flash is fired directly.

 

[Tyke Tiler]

I guess in a nutshell its not really too dissimilar from outdoor daylight shots, where the background is kept 1-2 stops darker than the foreground and the flash is fired directly.

Quite right mate, except this time the flash power isn't the Achilles heel as it would be if you were shooting midday with high sun.

If you have another flash, you could stick this behind the couple, whack the stofen on and use it to give a little umph to the architecture maybe.
Longshot but it could give some interesting results if the time isn't too sensitive

 

[HoppyUK]

Brilliant stuff Tomas, I was hoping this thread would catch your eye, as your outdoor portraits are just fantastic!

I guess in a nutshell its not really too dissimilar from outdoor daylight shots, where the background is kept 1-2 stops darker than the foreground and the flash is fired directly.

Exactly. The principle is the same, just the shutter speed is longer to sort the lower ambient. And I would do it with your 430EX on E-TTL and Av - that will get you a decent result straight out of the box.

You probably won't have time to faff about with a meter or even too many test shots on manual, so use E-TTL and tweak it with +/- compensation. Comp on the camera for the ambient, and on the flash gun for the flash exposure. You can get any ratio you want that way, very quickly, and it will track any changes in distance if you want to move around, which will upset everything in manual.

There is another difference though between bright daylight and lower light, and that is the flash becomes totally dominant - there is virtually no ambient fill. So whereas in daylight you can get away with a dash of fill-in from an on camera gun, when the flash is dominant you have to make it look a lot better - basically move it off camera and fire it via a bigger diffuser (as stated, Stofens are useless outside. Completely).

If you have an assistant, get them to hold a brolly on the end of an E-TTL cord. Or fire it through a transluscent diffuser/reflector as David suggests. If you're flying solo, you can hold a Lumiquest Big Bounce http://www.lumiquest.com/products/big-bounce.htm in one hand and that will give a useful amount of softening.

 

[unclened]

So I had my event, I was quite pleased with my results, as I think I managed to balance background exposure with the foreground quite well.

I had the background roughly 1 stop below ambient exposure, and the flash about 7 feet away from the couple in a softbox, but still I only needed 1/64 power, anymore and the couple would start to clip. When I saw Tomas's examples earlier where he had flash at 1/8, I thought that was the sort of flash power I might have needed as well.

 

[Rough Edges]

Superb information and pics again Tomas.. Inspiring stuff... Love seeing your pics.