enezdez said:
How can I darken the background without using any backdrops and be better exposed? (I have three speed-lights (2) SB910 & (1) SB700.
Thanks In Advance,
Enezdez
One way is to create a fairly substantial difference in brightness levels between the foreground subject's distance, and the background's distance. So...the Inverse Square Law comes to the rescue here pretty easily; with
electronic flash light on the foreground (the portrait subject) placed _close to_ the subject, let's say we arrive at an exposure of f/8 for the flash in an umbrella or octabox, at an ISO of 100. This is with the flash placed a mere three feet from the subject's face; because of the way the Inverse Square Law works, that flash light will fall off to a VERY DIM level in 10 feet...so dim that the background will be very dark, especially if the ISO level is low, and the lens f/stop is smallish (like f/8), and the shutter speed used is high (like say 1/125 to 1/250).
If the lens aperture is large, like let's say f/2.8, and the ISO is high,like 400 to 1600, and the shutter speed is slow-ish, like let's say 1/40 second, it is VERY possible that a TTL-controlled flash pop, even a very tiny flash pop, will exposure the subject properly with ambient light--because of the large lens opening,the high ISO level, and the slow shutter speed; these things in combination might create enough exposure to make the background relatively bright and visible.
In answer to the question, "How can I darken the background without using any backdrops and be better exposed?"--the CLASSIC technique is to position a person in front of a large, dark area, like outdoors in sun light or sky-light, or open shade, and then to light them with flash, and shoot in a place where they have a DARK, interior doorway in a straight line behind them, often using a narrow-angle telephoto lens length to keep the background angle of view very narrow. Using a 200mm to 300mm lens length, this is relatively easily done.
The basic easiest way, lacking a dark room, or dark doorway, or tunnel or cave opening (LOL!) behind a portrait subject is to 1)place the main light close to the subject 2)make sure the background is far behind the subject 3)try to keep the ambient light from affecting the exposure by A)using a small lens opening (f/8,f/11,etc), B)use a low ISO level and 3)keep the shutter speed fast (1/180,1/200,1/250) to minimize the effect of continuous lighting on the non-flash-lighted areas behind the subject who is lighted by electronic flash.
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