Outdoor Flash advice

[NicoleScraps]

So today I am doing a senior photo session. We had planned to start with indoor studio stuff and then at about 6pm move to an outdoor location. However, I just checked the weather and starting at 4pm we are supposed to have thunderstorms. So I am thinking of switching it up and doing the outdoor photos first, at one of the worst possible times of day, 2:30 pm. I told the mom that we can try, but it is a bad time of day for outdoors and if all else fails, I will do a re-shoot of the outdoor photos. But I am hoping that I can make it work somehow and I am thinking of using flash to try to overpower the sun a bit.
I am very confident with my flash use indoors. I typically set the camera at about iso200, f4-5.6 range, 1/25-1/200 range, speedlite setting between 1/4-1/16 depending on my situation. I always use it on camera, bouncing off of a reflector (white side) since I do not have a stand and triggers at the moment.
What I am wondering is if this is going to work in the same general way in an outdoor situation? Maybe I can start with a lower flash power, 1/32 ish and go from there. Will silver work better for outside or do I stick with white? So far, I love the white side the most.
Any tidbits of advice here? I am sure that I can work it out, but it would be nice to hear from someone who has experience with this set-up beforehand. Probably my biggest challenge is going to be squinting. I do have a diffuser panel as well to help with that.

Oh and I have to leave in two hours.....so hurry

[zona5101]

Go with what you know!
Bounce off white reflector, same power settings to start and adjust as needed just as you would do indoors. Be mindful you will have more "fill" light from the ambient but the basic process will be the same. If you find the ambient too prevalent in the shot, go to your max sync speed, increase your flash output, decrease your aperture. Good luck, have fun.

[RLucas]

Here's some down and dirty from http://neilvn.com/tangents/2010/10/0...light-wedding/
Made for a pretty quick and easy read Nicole.
I hope it helps!

[NicoleScraps]

Thank you thank you thank you!!!
This helps a lot!

Luke, this is the photo shoot that we talked about. I am taking my ninja blackbelt stepdaughter with me to be my "assistant." LOL

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

Thank you thank you thank you!!!
This helps a lot!

Luke, this is the photo shoot that we talked about. I am taking my ninja blackbelt stepdaughter with me to be my "assistant." LOL

Rock on! Good luck with it, and I can't wait to see the results!

The girl with the cat? She's in to martial arts too? Very cool! A girl after my own heart!

[NicoleScraps]

Originally Posted by RLucas

Rock on! Good luck with it, and I can't wait to see the results!

The girl with the cat? She's in to martial arts too? Very cool! A girl after my own heart!

Oh yeah. That is her. She can kick some butt. She is technically a junior black belt because apparently in kempo (sp?) you have to be a certain age to test for the real black belt. But she is really good. She makes all the boys in her class cry.

And she plays guitar.

[dlambert]

I tried some photos of my son outdoors using a LumoPro LP-160 flash off-camera, and I got decent results by varying the power on the flash. One of the problems I ran into was that I couldn't sync faster than 1/200 or so (if memory serves), so I couldn't set the aperture as wide as I wanted to narrow the DOF. Had I to do it all over again, I think I'd try a reflector in some of the shots (instead of the flash), but I believe I'd also want to have a ND filter so I could open the aperture on shots where I used the flash. I've got some of the shots online here.

[NicoleScraps]

Thanks again for your help. I posted some previews here. I really really excited about these photos. They are probably the best I have ever done. I am exhausted right now so I will post some in SYS tomorrow.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

Thanks again for your help. I posted some previews here. I really really excited about these photos. They are probably the best I have ever done. I am exhausted right now so I will post some in SYS tomorrow.

I think you did an awesome job. #2, #20 are a couple of them where I think your lighting is superior. Nice work all around.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by zona5101

I think you did an awesome job. #2, #20 are a couple of them where I think your lighting is superior. Nice work all around.

+1 on that.... I also like your lighting on #14 (lying down in uniform).... you have done a nice job on that too. She should be quite happy with your work.