Question on how you would set up for a runway shoot

burnws6 · Feb 3, 2010

As far as flash, I'm not going to be able to set up off camera flashes and trigger them, so I'm going to have a single sb-800.

The runway, is ground level, but it's plenty long, therefore different intensity of light needed at certain spots of the runway.

What would I adjust my settings to be in my flash(without going into full TTL mode) so that I have some control of the output but at the same time the camera is doing most of the work.

And any other suggestions if anyone has shoot runway before would be great!

Big Mike · Feb 3, 2010

What I usually do, when shooting with on-camera flash...is to keep the flash in E-TTL mode, but put the camera into manual mode.

I set the aperture for the DOF that I want, keeping in mind that a smaller aperture makes the flash work harder. I set the shutter speed for the ambient (background) exposure that I want. Keeping in mind that I might get blur if I go too slow (depending on the amount of ambient light). I set the ISO...keeping in mind that higher ISO give more noise, but higher ISO also gives be more ambient exposure and makes it so the flash doesn't have to work so hard.

My typical starting point might be F4, 1/125 and ISO 400. If I need more ambient (background) exposure, I first use a larger aperture, like F2.8. I will drop the shutter speed...but watch out for blur. I'll up the ISO to 800 or maybe 1600...but make darn sure you nail the exposure.

If the flash exposure is too bright or not bright enough, I'll adjust the FEC.

burnws6 · Feb 3, 2010

That's the exact answer I was looking for. life saver BM....one question though...isn't f2.8 a pain in the ass to get good sharpness considering how much moving the models are doing? But everything else is what I had in mind you just cleared it up. Thks again man

Big Mike · Feb 4, 2010

isn't f2.8 a pain in the ass to get good sharpness considering how much moving the models are doing?

Not really. I use Servo autofocus so that I'm constantly focusing on the subject. I only use one focus point (usually the centre) so that the camera doesn't inadvertently focus on something in the background or foreground.
As long as your focusing is accurate, the shallow DOF won't matter. It actually helps the final image because it isolates your subject from her surroundings.
Plus, your DOF gets deeper, the farther away you are from the subject. So unless you are right on the runway with the models, your DOF is probably going to be deep enough to cover them while walking.

Of course, if you find that you (or the camera/lens) can't keep up with the focus, then you may have to use a smaller aperture for a deeper DOF...or maybe even pre-focus and wait for the model to walk into your focus area.