Some help on the settings please

[sobolik]

Did ya all miss that part about using rear curtain flash?

 

[Chamelion 6]

Did ya all miss that part about using rear curtain flash?

Nope...

See my earlier post...

 

[Josh66]

Did ya all miss that part about using rear curtain flash?

If he was using TTL, that shouldn't matter at all - as far as exposure goes.
edit - even manual, I don't see why it would matter... (Assuming that the settings were right.)

I've shot second curtain sync & TTL many times and didn't get results like this...

 

[Josh66]

Did anyone else notice that OP used ISO 3200 with 1/6 shutter speed?? That should give you the answer.

I realize That this is bad setting for this picture, but would be more in line for shooting this one, for correct background light?

If you had turned the flash off - this picture would likely be exposed fine - from what I see.

 

[sobolik]

Did ya all miss that part about using rear curtain flash?

If he was using TTL, that shouldn't matter at all - as far as exposure goes.
edit - even manual, I don't see why it would matter...

I've shot second curtain sync & TTL many times and didn't get results like this...

TTL will respond only to the light out put of the flash and being returned by the scene as being adequate. It has no idea if I did a "double exposure' i.e rear curtain flash. In other words TTL does not regulate the flash based on what is on the memory card.

Likewise any other method of controlling flash output responds to the light received returning from the scene and not what has already been recorded on the memory card. Thus the camera/computer looks to have been confused by all the light wash out areas and stuff when trying to produce a photo like the sample one where all of the scene has been treated with "long" exposure and flash as well. Actually it faithfully produced what was recorded we just declare that it was confused.

I can easily produce the same thing with a film camera, rear curtain flash and an old auto flash unit where I can vary the output. The only difference would be that the film would have a much better chance at rendering graduation of tone in over exposed areas while digital tends to just go blank.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Josh, if you use TTL with 2n curtain, you would see the preflash then? Maybe the preflash overexposed this? LOL

 

[Robin Usagani]

Ok, what you are saying doesnt make sense. I really think the preflash of the TTL overexposed this. I never thought you could do TTL with rear curtain. I guess I need to read the manual.

Did ya all miss that part about using rear curtain flash?

If he was using TTL, that shouldn't matter at all - as far as exposure goes.
edit - even manual, I don't see why it would matter...

I've shot second curtain sync & TTL many times and didn't get results like this...

TTL will respond only to the light out put of the flash and being returned by the scene as being adequate. It has no idea if I did a "double exposure' i.e rear curtain flash. In other words TTL does not regulate the flash based on what is on the memory card.

Likewise any other method of controlling flash output responds to the light received returning from the scene and not what has already been recorded on the memory card. Thus the camera/computer looks to have been confused by all the light wash out areas and stuff when trying to produce a photo like the sample one where all of the scene has been treated with "long" exposure and flash as well. Actually it faithfully produced what was recorded we just declare that it was confused.

I can easily produce the same thing with a film camera, rear curtain flash and an old auto flash unit where I can vary the output. The only difference would be that the film would have a much better chance at rendering graduation of tone in over exposed areas while digital tends to just go blank.

 

[Chamelion 6]

Assuming the camera was set to rear curtain flash at all... That's why we need to know what he used and how he shot it. At least on canons you cannot do a rear curtain flash with the pop up. Likewise in many Auto modes it won't do it. So even if it was set to rear curtain and the mode changed or the flash unit removed there's a good chance this was just a normal flash exposure.

Unless Nikons are very different than Canons. This doesn't look like a rear curtain flash exposure...

 

[PavementPilot]

I had the flash set to Slow Sync.

 

[Chamelion 6]

I had the flash set to Slow Sync.

Is it a Nikon flash?

Slow sync allows the flash to sync with the camera at fast or slow shutter speeds... Unless it has different properties on a Nikon. I have no experience with their flash systems.

Do you know if the exposure mode was set to TTL, Through The Lens? That would be a mode that the camera reads light from the flash to make an exposure.

That's what happened to me in the photo I posted earlier. I set the camera to rear curtain, then set the flash output. The way I did it I bumped myself out of rear curtain and didn't realize it till I looked at the shot when I got home.

 

[LightSpeed]

Why do people get technical over images like this? Nothing saves this picture. Period. The exposure could have been perfection and still would not save this. It's not even a good snapshot. If I lived to be a million years old I would never post an image like this and ask for help. It's a Before, Jenny Craig, image, while the OP bumps his thread.
There I said it. Shoot me.

 

[Chamelion 6]

Why do people get technical over images like this? Nothing saves this picture. Period. The exposure could have been perfection and still would not save this. It's not even a good snapshot. If I lived to be a million years old I would never post an image like this and ask for help. It's a Before, Jenny Craig, image, while the OP bumps his thread.
There I said it. Shoot me.

Because understanding what went wrong here saves you from a 100 more pictures with exposures just like it.

Learning process... And I'm learning here too. :thumbup:

 

[Destin]

Assuming the camera was set to rear curtain flash at all... That's why we need to know what he used and how he shot it. At least on canons you cannot do a rear curtain flash with the pop up. Likewise in many Auto modes it won't do it. So even if it was set to rear curtain and the mode changed or the flash unit removed there's a good chance this was just a normal flash exposure.

Unless Nikons are very different than Canons. This doesn't look like a rear curtain flash exposure...

nikons do allow rear curtain with the pop up flash. At least my D40 does.

And you clearly don't know what you are talking about. Not trying to rude, but if there is nothing moving in the frame, than normal and rear curtain flash will give the EXACT same results, given the same exposure settings

It looks to me, like what happened is that the camera metered to expose on the woman. Most likely because he had it set to spot or center weighted metering. Getting proper exposure on her gave him an overexposed background. And since it's white, it blew out. Was that really that hard to diagnose?

To the OP: Change your camera to matrix metering mode and you should be all set. Nikon's meters are pretty good, and if set properly for the situation, are usually very close to perfect exposure.

 

[Chamelion 6]

Well... Here's my theory. And it's just a theory. More of a guess really.

It looks to me like the camera and the flash were in an auto mode. The exposure was set to a fairly tight area. When the camera fired the flash properly exposed for that area. Because the point the exposure was based on and the white areas of the fridge and the walls were far apart tonally the the walls and the other areas got overexposed. This happens fairly often in auto settings and you see it alot with pop up flash exposures.

That wall and the fridge were not in the distance, they were close to the subject and got hit with the full force of the flash. The high ISO didn't cause the problem, but it made the effect even more pronounced, that it was all white didn't help either. As Sobolik stated, digital is very unforgiving when it comes to overexposures and it doesn't have the range film does.

In this case You probably would have gotten a better exposure without the flash. In very small areas you really have to decrease the output of the flash unit or it overpowers stuff. Shooting up close to people I often used a bounce card, just a piece of stiff paper or cardboard attached to the flash head and the head angled up so the flash hits the card and bounces onto the subject. If the ceiling was white, you can bounce it iff the ceiling instead, but once you get used to the card, the results are much more predictable.

 

[Chamelion 6]

Assuming the camera was set to rear curtain flash at all... That's why we need to know what he used and how he shot it. At least on canons you cannot do a rear curtain flash with the pop up. Likewise in many Auto modes it won't do it. So even if it was set to rear curtain and the mode changed or the flash unit removed there's a good chance this was just a normal flash exposure.

Unless Nikons are very different than Canons. This doesn't look like a rear curtain flash exposure...

nikons do allow rear curtain with the pop up flash. At least my D40 does.

And you clearly don't know what you are talking about. Not trying to rude, but if there is nothing moving in the frame, than normal and rear curtain flash will give the EXACT same results, given the same exposure settings

It looks to me, like what happened is that the camera metered to expose on the woman. Most likely because he had it set to spot or center weighted metering. Getting proper exposure on her gave him an overexposed background. And since it's white, it blew out. Was that really that hard to diagnose?

To the OP: Change your camera to matrix metering mode and you should be all set. Nikon's meters are pretty good, and if set properly for the situation, are usually very close to perfect exposure.

Uhhh... exactly where did I say that about rear and front curtain flash? And your theory is exactly what I've been saying all along here.

Are you sure your actually read anything I wrote????