Question About Lighting Balance

Lime

Lime

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I was wondering if anyone knows how to strike a balance between subject and background lighting.

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Take a look at this photo. The subject is underexposed, but the background is at a happy medium. When I extend the shutter duration the subject reaches a happy medium, but the background blares out.

Is there any way to strike a balance with these?

indoor-photography.jpg


Also, I'm wondering how absurdly clear, non-grainy images, such as this one, are achieved. What techniques could I utilize to achieve this? Say I wanted to take an absurdly soft and crystal clear portrait of somebody. How can this be done?
 
Flash. Light the subject with your flash, and expose the available light for the background.

For that second shot trying to look at the catchlights at this size is hard, but looks like bounced flash off the ceiling. There's a small point of light (flashgun) and then a large spread of light at the top (ceiling lit with flash).
 
Jayst84 said:
Flash. Light the subject with your flash, and expose the available light for the background.

For that second shot trying to look at the catchlights at this size is hard, but looks like bounced flash off the ceiling. There's a small point of light (flashgun) and then a large spread of light at the top (ceiling lit with flash).
Click to expand...

:agree:
Control the flash exposure with the aperture, control the ambient exposure with the shutter speed
 
The first one has a ceiling that is too high to bounce light off of. Flashing directly onto the subject would bleach her out a bit and look kind of crappy. Without lugging a soft box or umbrellas into the school, how can I balance it out?
 
Instead of bouncing the flash of the ceiling, fire it into a reflector just to the right of the picture.
 
richpips said:
Instead of bouncing the flash of the ceiling, fire it into a reflector just to the right of the picture.
Click to expand...

Right, well, without lugging extra equipment into the place is what I mean.
 
soft light suggests a big (relative to subject) light, so try and get them in front of a window full of natural light, a gauze curtain if the sun is shining directly through can smooth the light out.

'non-grainy' and 'clear' is a mixture of good focus control, low ISO and the correct amount of sharpening/smoothing etc in post. I am not sure exactly what you have to do to reach the levels of 'absurd'!
 
You'll be surprised sometimes how much light you can get from a hot-shoe flashgun, firing it into the area behind you, or even off a very high ceiling can still add some light.

In your shot I probably would've just exposed a bit more. Partly just because I'm not a huge fan of flash in those circumstances. But the BG is still pretty dark in some areas, and there's nothing of interest in the windows. Give it another stop or so and you should still be able to see it's a classroom, but it will give a much lighter, airy feel to the photo.

Failing that, a giant bounce card, or other modifier on your flash may help. Just be wary of some which eat flash output without giving you much gain.
 
Thanks, guys. Sounds like helpful advice, I'll try it next time I'm in that situation.

Unfortunately my flash just died on me. F***ing thing [*** it was only like thirty bucks]. I'm going out to Doylestown to pick up a new one tomorrow. Might also pick up a new lens.

Any advice on what kind of flash and lens to get?

*edit*

What the? This forum filtered out "t-h-o" to ***. Does "t-h-o" mean something obscene in the UK?
 
Easy to practice with a mate at home, as it's a very common lighting situation. Just play without flash, see the different feel it gives.

For your main flash, esp. on camera I don't think you can go passed the 580EX ii. Heaps of others work fine, but the 580 just does it better, faster and is easier to use.

As for lenses, the world is your oyster. Depends on what you want and what you want to spend. Heaps of info on here if you have a search around. :thumbs:
 
I'm thinking of picking up a $130 50mm lens with a 1.8 aperture. Hoping to stay on a budget. Know of any good flashes in the $150 - $200 area? The 580ex seems a bit pricey to me.
 
Nifty fifty is always a good starting point, handy little portrait lens that will show you a new way of shooting if you're used to slow zoom lenses.

Cheap flashes I don't know much about. If you want to use it on your camera with TTL metering, then you're limited in what you can use. Someone with more knowledge than me will be along soon I guess.
 
Lime said:
I'm thinking of picking up a $130 50mm lens with a 1.8 aperture. Hoping to stay on a budget. Know of any good flashes in the $150 - $200 area? The 580ex seems a bit pricey to me.
Click to expand...

430 ex? less power but cheaper



I'd if it tilts point it zoomed in tight at a small reflector (fold to the size of my wallet) that an asistant (grab someone who looks bored) is holding will be directional and quite soft

even better option is to use wireless trigggers and manual flash to get it over there and then use it on her

things look massively flashed when the flash lights the high and mid tones but leaves black holes for shadows, so 2 ways round it are to lighten the shadows so that the dark tones don't fall too far or I forgot while typing it'll come to then I'll respond
 
if you dont want a harsh light and cant carry the gear etc you can try using a diffuser to soften the light to
 
Robbo said:
if you dont want a harsh light and cant carry the gear etc you can try using a diffuser to soften the light to
Click to expand...

good shout, an off camera flash through a diffuser (shower curtains rock but are silly big for this). 5in1 pop up reflectors often have a diffuser in the middle
 
Lime said:
What the? This forum filtered out "t-h-o" to ***. Does "t-h-o" mean something obscene in the UK?
Click to expand...
It is a forum quirk. To reduce the amount of txt spk that people use. Maybe it is a British thing to want people to show they are taking care of there questions and answers by using whole words :)
 
Jayst84 said:
Nifty fifty is always a good starting point, handy little portrait lens that will show you a new way of shooting if you're used to slow zoom lenses.

Cheap flashes I don't know much about. If you want to use it on your camera with TTL metering, then you're limited in what you can use. Someone with more knowledge than me will be along soon I guess.
Click to expand...

why

the issue is the scene is backlit (very backlit). why is a 50mm 1.whatever going to help

by throwing more light at the subjects (fill light) and choosing a fast(ish) shutter sped, the ambinet backlight will be reduced, and the fill light will be balancing the shot

i.e. faster shuter speed = less ambient, wider apeture = less fill


the shot inst helped by a wide open lens and little or no fill
 
Fragglerock said:
It is a forum quirk. To reduce the amount of txt spk that people use. Maybe it is a British thing to want people to show they are taking care of there questions and answers by using whole words :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, dude, your claim is a total a paradox. All modern languages are a result of evolution from casual utilization. That which is considered "proper" is an arbitrarily selected standard which only reflects that which was preferred at an specific point in time. I'd understand if I'd been saying "r-o-f-l-copter" and the like, but "t-h-o" isn't exactly an obscene instance of taking liberties with language via keyboard.

Anyway, I went down to Doylestown and picked up both the "Nifty Fifty" 50mm f1.8 lens and the Canon 430 EX II Speedlight and have been taking shots all day. The 50mm lens is so compact and adorable I think I'm starting to develop feelings for it.

5z411y.jpg


ev4dns.jpg


1zapgh.jpg


se848k.jpg


2zebas4.jpg
 
is just luverly, wait till you try a 1.4

I want a sack of L primes :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

(and wtf is this about 12 smilies max omfg)
 
Richard King said:
why

the issue is the scene is backlit (very backlit). why is a 50mm 1.whatever going to help

by throwing more light at the subjects (fill light) and choosing a fast(ish) shutter sped, the ambinet backlight will be reduced, and the fill light will be balancing the shot

i.e. faster shuter speed = less ambient, wider apeture = less fill


the shot inst helped by a wide open lens and little or no fill
Click to expand...

Why? Because I was offering a different way of shooting. And the shot would definitely be helped by more exposure. Not every shot has to be balanced foreground to background all at 0EV. As I explained here (you'll see I also suggested flash solutions).

Jayst84 said:
...

In your shot I probably would've just exposed a bit more. Partly just because I'm not a huge fan of flash in those circumstances. But the BG is still pretty dark in some areas, and there's nothing of interest in the windows. Give it another stop or so and you should still be able to see it's a classroom, but it will give a much lighter, airy feel to the photo.

Failing that, a giant bounce card, or other modifier on your flash may help. Just be wary of some which eat flash output without giving you much gain.
Click to expand...

Also, the OP wanted a lens on a budget, and was already considering the 50 1.8. I suggested it's a good starting point because:

Jayst84 said:
.. [it] will show you a new way of shooting if you're used to slow zoom lenses.
Click to expand...

Of course the above shot could be improved using any lens, but as the OP is looking at a lot of indoor portraiture, a fast prime is the obvious way to go.
 
What bunkum

How does using a 50mm lens (or any other specific lens) answer the OP's question....
"I was wondering if anyone knows how to strike a balance between subject and background lighting"
 
You don't have to rely on ceilings and walls to bounce light. Even someone stood nearby wearing a white t-shirt might well reflect enough flashlight to provide adequate fill.
 
Everyone stop fighting!

And thanks for the good words on my shots :)

Anyone have any advice on which angles to bounce light onto a subject from?
 
Lime said:
Everyone stop fighting!

And thanks for the good words on my shots :)

Anyone have any advice on which angles to bounce light onto a subject from?
Click to expand...

:) I'm not looking for a fight, just irritating when people keep prodding you for one.

Any angle but from the bottom is the general rule of thumb. Just think about where light naturally comes from.

Back in the days of cooking and living around an open fire, a photo lit from underneath would probably look ok. But now we're much more used to seeing the face lit from above. Bouncing off the ceiling is also much easier. ;)

The main thing to watch for though is raccoon eyes. If the light ends up coming from almost directly overhead, you can end up with too much shadow over the eyes.

If there's a nice wall handy, you can use it to bounce a bit of sidelight in, and get some modeling on their face.
 
How high was the ceiling Lime? You say it was too high to bounce off - yet a speedlight will produce enough power to bounce of a gym ceiling at 25 feet high and still light the person in front of th elens - you may have to open up to f2.8 and go to 400ISO, depending on distance from camera - I rarely go above 200 ISO, I really need to have to before I do.
 
I only had a 3.5 aperture on my lens, and the ceiling was a good two stories above [it was a big open library which had an area on the second floor with a big glass window where people could look down into it, so yeah, kinda tall]. I also didn't have an external flash at the time.
 
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