Im having trouble!! Shooting outdoors

Alysia · Aug 23, 2011

I don't know how to shoot outdoors.

I have all the means necessary (I think) to have good pics but its just not working out! I have a fast lens, I have a reflector, and I have a speedlight. I tried shooting my daughter last night around 6pm and the pics came out bad because of the flash I used. Where do I point the flash? The pics came out bad. The background was dark and she was exposed by the flash like a deer in headlights. I read that if I meter the background so its exposed right she will look perfect if I use flash. I used TTL but it was still too much. How much do I underexpose her? What metermode should I use? What should my aperture be? I'm just stuck

tirediron · Aug 23, 2011

Post an example shot or two to help with the analysis.

The first thing you need to do is get the flash off of the camera and learn how to shoot manually. TTL flash is great if you can bounce the flash off of a nearby wall or ceiling, but out of doors it doesn't work terribly well. Wht you might try doing to diffuse the flash is to angle your flash head at about 45 and tape/elastic-band a white index card to the top of it to function as a bounce card. This will greatly reduce the 'deer in the headilghts' look characteristic of an on-camera flash pointed straight at the subject. Spend a little time reading the Strobist Blog for some great information on off-camera flash work.

Alysia · Aug 23, 2011

Well whats the point in doing it off camera if there is a hotshoe for it? Why do paparazzi use their speedlights on camera? What's so bad about being on camera? I'm just so overwhlemed! That card idea sounds great, but what should my settings be? I don't know what im doing wrong. Are you talking about shooting manual flash? Isn't that a lot of work?

Alysia · Aug 23, 2011

So if im in the middle of a field with trees around and nothing to bounce the flash off of, what do I do? Where do I point the flash?

tirediron · Aug 23, 2011

The point of the hotshoe is to be able to mount a flash, BUT that doesn't mean that it's always the best way. Paparazzi use that for convenience and speed; they usually more worried about getting the shot than the technical perfection and don't have time to set up light-stands and reflectors.

Having the flash on the camera isn't so bad, but having it off is better. Try this: Go outside on a bright, clear summer day and have someone stand so that the sun is right in their face - notice how things seem over-bright and washed out? This is what happens with your flash when it's on-camera. The more diffuse or softer the light is (generally) the better your image will be.

Using a flash manually is really very easy once you get the hang of it (again, some time on the Strobist Blog will help you with this).

You aren't doing anything wrong per se, you just don't have quite enough experience to be able to work with flash as well as you want to. Like anything else, it requires some effort, reading, learning, and experimenting.

What kind of camera and flash are you using?

KmH · Aug 23, 2011

You have discovered that just having the gear leaves you a long way away from understanding how to use it all effectively. You need to do more reading.

When using flash the in-camera light meter is essentially useless, because it effectively never see's the flash of light. In TTL mode the camera has the flash unit fire pre-flashes. TTL means Through-The-Lens. The camera senses the light that relfects back into the camera from the pre-flashes. The camera programming that was written by a committee of Japanese camera software engineers then tries to decide what you are trying to make a photo of and what your artistic intent may be.

Often the software gets it wrong.

If the flash in on the camera, and un-modified, the lighting will be harsh and flat. Harsh because the light from a hot shoe flash is apparently to small to provide soft light, and flat because the light is right on the lens axis which kills any sense of depth on the subject.

I wonder what shooting mode you were using?

Using strobed light you don't need a fast lens, because you should have plenty of light that is provoded by the flash unit.

What light was the reflector going to reflect back onto the subject? If I read your post right, you only had one hot shor flash unit, and it was mounted on the camera hot shoe.

To make the light less bright on her when jusing TTL you use the Flash Exposure Compensation adjustment.

It is much easier to put the flash unit in manual mode, set to 1/8th power, set the shutter speed to the camera's x-sync speed, set the ISO to 200, set the lens aperture to f/8, focus and shot.

Then look at the photo on the rear LCD. If the subject is to bright or to dark you can do one of 2 things, open the aperture a stop (f/5.6 for 1 stop brighter, f/11 for 1 stop darker), or change the flash unit power setting 1 stop (1/4 power for 1 stop brighter, 1/16 for 1 stop darker) or a combination of both that add up to 1 stop brighter or 1 stop darker.

tirediron · Aug 23, 2011

Alysia said:
So if im in the middle of a field with trees around and nothing to bounce the flash off of, what do I do? Where do I point the flash?

"What you might try doing to diffuse the flash is to angle your flash head at about 45 degrees and tape/elastic-band a white index card to the top of it to function as a bounce card."