Could be a difficult shoot

[markyboy.1967]

Later today im doing a dog photoshoot.I think i will have exposure problems as the dog is a doberman which is very much more black than brown, the location is on a snow covered golfcourse and i will be doing this when the sun is setting to try and get a nice red sky in the background.

My intial feeling would be to underexpose the background to make the most of the red sky and use flash on the dog to give a bit of light to the dogs coat and eyes--however this leaves the snow which i presume will not be properly exposed.So anyone have an idea of settings..I will mostly use the D700, 85f1.8, 70-200VR and 24-70 with an SB900 flash..

 

[specialman]

Is it running shots or posed shots? If it's running then I think you have a very hard job if the light is failing - put the ISO up and you have faster shutter speeds but then you're verging on (or in) auto FP on the flash so power is reduced, or your apertures go too high and then the flash struggles to put out enough light. I really don't envy you if it's action shooting...

If it's posed shots then that's easier - can you take your flash off-camera? That'll help add some drama to the shot and will also allow you to pump in a fair bit of light onto the subject so you can get the dog and snow exposed correctly. In this situation I generally just work in manual, starting off with the ambient exposure trying to get 1/60-1/125thsec so have I have a bit of room for manoeuvre to kill the ambient further before the max sync kicks in. Then just up the power of the flash until you get the exposure you want using the aperture; f/5.6 shouldn't require too much power (so recycling times are low) and you should be able to do this on ISO 100.

 

[markyboy.1967]

I believe i will be fine with the majority of posed images and defo fine with head shots with the sky as a background. My worry is for the snow exposure away from the dog( where the flash wont show )-around the dog should be fine.The dog is 6 month old and just never sits down, very very energetic so im expecting several runing/action shots in the shoot. I could take the flash off camera but the triggers arent great outside in the light--may give them a go though as the sun sets further.

 

[specialman]

What triggers are they? You could uses CLS - should work.

If you're worried about the flash pooling light and the drop-off making the snow go grey (or darker) then fill is probably the best route. It's hard to say until you get there and actually see what the light levels will allow you to do....

 

[markyboy.1967]

Decided to do most of the shoot in natural light a little while ago, we are going back out for a few shots if the sky stays clear though as it should produce a nice sunset.I will upload a few images in the appropriate section of the forum when i have uploaded them. Sun was strong and producd heavy shadows but decided to stick with it rater than use a little fill flash, not sure if it was a good idea or not...but hey we live and learn.