Outdoor event

[doxastic]

Nikon D90
18-55mm f/3.5
Flash Sb800 with gary fong

1/60 at f 5.3
55mm
iso 800


1/60
at f 5.3
40mm
iso 800

The lighting on the photos is kind of soft, but still just looks wrong. The background is totally lost. Any ideas? Was shot in Aperture priority. Flash is pointed upwards with gary fongs on.

[RichardTaylor]

Re exposing for the background.

Keep in mind the aperture is controlling the exposure for the flash and the shutter speed is for the ambient light.

You may want to reduce your shutter speed (and bump up your ISO possibly) so more of the ambient light is recorded.

Here is something similar to your pics (although these guys had some of their own illumination in the umbrellas). I was using an on camera non diffused flash with the outpot dialed down.



Camera Canon EOS 5D
Exposure 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 47 mm
ISO Speed 1600
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired
Exposure Mode Manual
Flash Compensation -0.666666666666667

--------------
You may find this post of interest.
http://neilvn.com/tangents/2010/02/0...ient-exposure/

[MrJones]

shooting with a flash on camera is very tricky and I would recommend shooting manual and not aperture priority when dealing with the flash.
the basic rules for these kind of shots are:
the exposure of your subject is controlled by the flash output and your aperture.
the background exposure is controlled by the shutter speed and ISO settings.

to give you a more elaborated answer, I need to know what kind of ambient lightning was there.
from what I see in the pictures it seems like you were shooting at complete darkness and the flash on your camera was the only light source. is it true?

PS
just saw richard and I posted the same thing
great example richard.. beautiful picture!

[RichardTaylor]

Thanks.
That was the best one from that night.

[doxastic]

Ok. So manual mode, no aperture mode. How do I control the lvl of the flash? Any tips of what I should have done with the flash? Upwards? Straight forward? Diffuser?

[MrJones]

there is no clear answer about how to deal with the flash since it can be a different answer for different conditions.
on these specific conditions (outdoors, no ambient light) I think the best option is straight forward with a very low shutter speed and high ISO.
of course we're talking about on-camera flash options.. if you're using off-camera flash everything is different.

[Rentham]

Originally Posted by MrJones

the exposure of your subject is controlled by the flash output and your aperture.
the background exposure is controlled by the shutter speed and ISO settings.

ISO effects both flash and ambient exposure.