Using strobes outside at night?

[snoop69]

If i were to use strobes outside and at night, would i set up the same as in a studio? Also, how would avoid making anything lit in the background like a castle etc become dark or would that not happen? Thanks in advance.

 

[specialman]

To burn in background detail (i.e. streetlights etc) you need to leave the shutter open as well as doing your bit with the flash. This should help

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/09/lighting-102-33-balancing-flashambient.html

 

[david1701]

hola paul, strobes as in studio strobes or speedlights?

the fundamentals are the same kinda but you add 1 element

you need to consider there to be 2 exposures the flash exposure and the ambient exposure as opposed to in the studio where you kill the ambient and use the flash exposure exclusively

so say work on a lower flash power and up the iso a little maybe iso 400 f4 then scroll down the shutter from the sync speed until the ambient looks awesome (if you have a tripod to play with)

or pick the slowest shutter speed you can hand hold and expose the ambient there, then adjust flash power to taste

or if the light is changing rapidly (ambient) set up a flash exposure and use Av with appropriate compensation to make the ambient look cool and it will track it as it changes (like a sunset)

 

[whittyp]

Just another note. Make sure you have some sandbags to weight the light stands down.

 

[snoop69]

Thanks for the advice guys, this will be a fun learning curve lol. I have two lencarta flash heads and softboxes and a 580ex. I also have a keen lady who wants to do some glam in the snow. She is brave. Going to have a read of the link and keep me fingers crossed that it doesnt rain.

 

[JonathanRyan]

The real trick to remember is that the flash only lights things that are close and that is doesn't remove light from anywhere else. So if you set an exposure where the castle looks nice and then add flash on your subject without changing the exposure then the castle will still look good. You just need to figure out the right amount of flash.

To make things easier, place your flashed subject in a dark part of the picture - that way they will be lit only by flash and so will be sharp no matter what your exposure (kind of...).

This was shot at 1/15s to bleed the background in but on the high res I have all the beading in the dress.

BTW Lencarta studio heads in the snow... Hmm...... I did that recently. It really isn't recommended. When the rain kicked up we started getting a couple of missfires - I swapped heads and it was fine and the wet head now works OK (don't worry Garry...... ). That's true of any indoor studio head of any brand - they aren't designed for use outdoors and have loads of cooling holes that are great for getting water or moist air in.

Pics worked out OK though.....