Speedlight help ??

rvrkids · Sep 15, 2014

Thanks to all who can help. I've been posting a lot of questions lately.

I am planning on taking some photos at our summer camp and have a tricky situation. I have attached a preliminary photo of the scene I want with boats on both sides. Note, the water in front of the subject...I really can't get any closer without wading in the water with my camera etc. which makes me nervous.

First, I prefer to shoot at wide open aperture to get bokeh. This location is wide open, no shade, and in evening the sun will be coming from subject's left. I can use a diffuser to block the sun but still need some fill light on the subject. I can't get close enough with a reflector to make it look right or shine at the proper angle(although you can tell I did use a reflector in this picture and my gracious model mom wasn't looking at me but at the person holding the reflector :1247:

). So, I was going to try my speedlight SB700 but I have to slow my shutter down so much that I have to close down my aperture and then there goes my bokeh. I don't have one of the new dslr's that you can still use faster shutter speeds than sync speed.

Do I have any other options here?

astroNikon · Sep 15, 2014

Have you tried raising your ISO setting instead of introducing the sb700 ?

Mashburn · Sep 15, 2014

What speed are you shooting at? And what is your distance? Because speedlights are basically only 50 watts, so the distance is horrible.

What is your ISO on? I see noise.

So here is a idea thus far. Try shooting towards the Golden hour. You will then be able to send out your light at 1/250th. Then move the reflector on the other side of her, because you want to feel in the shadows on the subkect. Because in this picture, you have two bad things going on. 1. you have your subject looking at the reflector, showing glare in the glasses. 2. adjust the reflector to where it is hitting the shadows more.

But shooting towards the golden hour should help you with speed. I'm just questioning if your Speedlight will travel that far, and give you what you want.

Designer · Sep 15, 2014

I can't read the EXIF, so I am just stabbing at this.

Options:

1. Harsh, direct sunlight is difficult lighting. Select an alternative time of day.
2. The reflector probably should be on the same side as the the sun to avoid the two-directional lighting.
3. You could still use the flash for a little fill light.
4. To get background blur you can use a larger aperture OR a longer lens (or both).
5. Finally, you could select a different place for the photos.

Derrel · Sep 15, 2014

I agree totally with the golden hour suggestion, especially at this time of year (mid September). Drop the ISO as low as you can go in order to keep the aperture as wide as possible; say f/4.5 or so, so that ISO XXX at f/4.5 and shutter at 1/250 or 1/200, is the right exposure. Fill flash can be as much as 2.7 EV below the "right" flash exposure, so you ought to be doing okay, especially if the flash is set to a zoom setting like 105mm beam spread, and you are also using a telephoto lens setting. That is the easiest way to shoot fill flash with a camera that cannot do FP Synch flash.

There is another way with a Neutral Density filter on the lens, and ISO 100 at 1/100 second, and then a fairly powerful flash pop, but that's more involved.

You could also use the reflector to kick some light into the shadows.

rvrkids · Sep 15, 2014

Mashburn said:
What speed are you shooting at? And what is your distance? Because speedlights are basically only 50 watts, so the distance is horrible.

What is your ISO on? I see noise.

So here is a idea thus far. Try shooting towards the Golden hour. You will then be able to send out your light at 1/250th. Then move the reflector on the other side of her, because you want to feel in the shadows on the subkect. Because in this picture, you have two bad things going on. 1. you have your subject looking at the reflector, showing glare in the glasses. 2. adjust the reflector to where it is hitting the shadows more.

But shooting towards the golden hour should help you with speed. I'm just questioning if your Speedlight will travel that far, and give you what you want.

Thanks Mashburn. I am using a Nikon D50 camera body with Tamron 28-75 2.8 lens. My settings were ISO 200, 75mm, 1/250, f/10 ( I attached a similar unedited one below and one at f/2.8, 1/4000, NEF exported as JPG) . I see the noise too and don't know why.... The one at f/2.8 had very similar results obviously but with more bokeh which is what I want.

I definitely will take actual shots later in the day but did a lot of practicing on this day and was shooting all day. This was taken about 4pm. I don't know why she was looking at the reflector and my real subject won't have glasses on

.

The sun was actually shining on her back / left side so the shadows were on her right side which is why I put the reflector on that side. I feel like if I had the reflector on the other side (1) the sun would be behind the reflector so it wouldn't really do anything and (2) even if it could catch some light to reflect it would be shining on the same side as the sun. Please help me if I am misunderstanding.

She was probably about 25 feet away from me. I have a Nikon SB-700 speedlight which I thought would be able to reach that far. I can't move the reflector in front of her or it would be in the picture.

Designer · Sep 15, 2014

Well, you're trying to make the light "even", but in trying, you didn't actually make it even, but you did make a confusing light/shadow relationship. Instead of thinking that the reflector would be exactly lined up between the subject and the sun, think of it merely on the same side as the sun, but off axis. Ask your reflector holder to illuminate your subject under the chin and everything should be fine.

rvrkids · Sep 15, 2014

Does the sun change so much from 4pm to 6 or 7 pm that I will be able to drop my shutter speed from 1/4000 at f/2.8 to @ 1/250 at 2.8? My lowest ISO is 200

If that is the case, I might be okay but I will still have shadows to fill in.

And, I still don't know why I have so much noise.

I am going to be practicing by taking photos of my daughter and she has spent a lot of time on this dock so I wanted to get this view.

rvrkids · Sep 15, 2014

Designer said:
Well, you're trying to make the light "even", but in trying, you didn't actually make it even, but you did make a confusing light/shadow relationship. Instead of thinking that the reflector would be exactly lined up between the subject and the sun, think of it merely on the same side as the sun, but off axis. Ask your reflector holder to illuminate your subject under the chin and everything should be fine.

Thanks Designer. I see what you're saying about putting the reflector on the same side but off axis and that makes sense.

I can't put the reflector under the chin because it would be in the picture, that's one reason why I'm struggling. If I put them in the water in front of me but out of the pic that might work....if I can find someone willing to stand in the water at this time of year...might be a little chilly

Designer · Sep 15, 2014

Oh, my word! Can't you interpolate?

You just might have to figure it out on your own.

rvrkids · Sep 15, 2014

Wow, ok. I'm sorry if I asked something ridiculous.

I am a beginner who loves learning and every question I get answered raises another question. I don't just want to know that something should work a certain way, I want to know why.

This is the beginner's forum which should be an appropriate place for asking beginner questions.

Mach0 · Sep 15, 2014

With that d50 and manual flash ( non dedicated) you can sync at unlimited sync,

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

KmH · Sep 15, 2014

+1
The D50 (D40, D40x, D70, D70x) will sync at up to the max 1/4000 shutter speed using flash unit manual mode.
You do not need Auto-FP flash synce mode.

The D50 (D40, D40x, D70, D70x) will sync at up to 1/500 using Nikon iTTL flash unit modes.

Mashburn · Sep 15, 2014

rvrkids said:
Does the sun change so much from 4pm to 6 or 7 pm that I will be able to drop my shutter speed from 1/4000 at f/2.8 to @ 1/250 at 2.8? My lowest ISO is 200

If that is the case, I might be okay but I will still have shadows to fill in.

And, I still don't know why I have so much noise.

I am going to be practicing by taking photos of my daughter and she has spent a lot of time on this dock so I wanted to get this view.

shooting 3 hours later, is a huge difference.

Also bokeh is nice and all. But you don't have to be at 2.8 to get it. I'm just saying. 5.6 would be fine for this picture. But 2.8 allows you to take a slower speed.

Also if you want to use slower shutter, just make your iso as low as possible.

the golden hour will help you a lot. Try that and show me your pictures.