Adding Drama with Off Camera Flash

[willis_927]

I just wanted to post a couple photos to show people who have never used off camera flash before (or any supplimental lighting), just how much of a difference adding the additional lighting can make! Not really looking for C&C here, but by all means if you have any it is more than welcome.

These photos are taken in the exact same spot and probably less than 5 minutes apart.

1) No flash, metered on the subjects face.. Sky is blown

2) 430 EXII, off camera just to the right of me. Metered to have the background exposed properly, and then adjusted flash power accordingly.

 

[WilfordSy]

All I can say is BIG DIFFERENCE! I like the clouds/sky - adds texture into your background. I think the flash is too hard though - you can see it in the leaves. Would have been better if there was an umbrella/diffuser. Although, I'm not sure if that's what you're going. :mrgreen:

 

[willis_927]

^^ Good point, and I fully agree about the diffuser!

 

[honoryourlife]

I seem to have a hard time metering the background properly. Any tips on how I should do it?

 

[Edsport]

I seem to have a hard time metering the background properly. Any tips on how I should do it?

Put your camera in full manual and point it at part of the sky, half press the shutter button and move the dial until it's exposed properly. Now use the flash and take the picture...

 

[willis_927]

Yep what he said ^^^. Then is just a matter if adjusting the power of your flash so that it outputs enough light to light your main subject, which in my case was much darker than what I metered for.. so the flash power was fairly high.

 

[honoryourlife]

I seem to have a hard time metering the background properly. Any tips on how I should do it?

Put your camera in full manual and point it at part of the sky, half press the shutter button and move the dial until it's exposed properly. Now use the flash and take the picture...

Thank you, I appreciate the response. I'm an indoor concert photographer, so this is just a bit outside of my norm. Usually my sky is washed right out.

PS-All I shoot is in manual. I don't bother with any other mode.

Yep what he said ^^^. Then is just a matter if adjusting the power of your flash so that it outputs enough light to light your main subject, which in my case was much darker than what I metered for.. so the flash power was fairly high.

Ok, awesome. Thank you.

I got to wait until the 60D and one of my 580ex's go in for repair on November 6th. My built-in flash and my top LCD screen is busted. The 580's hotshoe connector broke right off at a concert.

So I just stop down my other 580 for fill, because that works.

UGH.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Second image could have also benefited from a CTO gel, just to get the color balance of the subject and the background a bit closer, but overall, nice demonstration. I'm a bit surprised your speedlight had enough power to bring the subjects up to the background level. Must have been firing at pretty close to 100%.

 

[tirediron]

Where was the speedlight (height/direction/aspect/distance) in relation to the subjects?

 

[willis_927]

Second image could have also benefited from a CTO gel, just to get the color balance of the subject and the background a bit closer, but overall, nice demonstration. I'm a bit surprised your speedlight had enough power to bring the subjects up to the background level. Must have been firing at pretty close to 100%.

It might have been, to be honest I can't even tell what the power is when in manual... I had an unfortunate accident which involved wind blowing over my light stand and resulted in a LCD display being damaged... lol. Flash still works great, just that I am shooting Blind when in Manual. I can however still tell if I am in Ettl or manual, because in Ettl I can see a little e in the corner lol,

 

[willis_927]

Where was the speedlight (height/direction/aspect/distance) in relation to the subjects?

Honestly I can'y fully rememeber, but I believe it was camera right, about 4' high, probably 30-40 degrees. And about 5' from the subjects

 

[tirediron]

Where was the speedlight (height/direction/aspect/distance) in relation to the subjects?

Honestly I can'y fully rememeber, but I believe it was camera right, about 4' high, probably 30-40 degrees. And about 5' from the subjects

Okay, about what I was guessing; something else you might want to think about is using a snoot and/or grid to contain the light a little more.

 

[kundalini]

2) 430 EXII, off camera just to the right of me. Metered to have the background exposed properly, and then adjusted flash power accordingly.

I'm not convinced that your example isn't one of over lighting rather than dramatic lighting. The proper exposure of the background is something to strive for, but your subject lighting is a bit of a miss IMO. Thanks for the example.