Fill flash (On and off camera)

dan_yorkshire

dan_yorkshire

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Hi all,

Trying to master different lighting situations and last night went with the wife to an open field in the bright sunshine for a practice.

It was that bright that without the flash and an aperture of f7ish the camera was choosing SS's up to 1/4000.

Was I fighting a losing battle trying to use OCF for fill flash? Because of the max synch speed of 1/250 of my Yongnuo's everything was over exposing, don't suppose there was anything I could do?! (Other than a really long TTL cord)

So in that scenario the best option is to get backlit from the sun, exposing for the sky and then on cam fill flash, or having my wife side on and using the reflector for the shadowed side?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,

Dan
 
I was having a play Saturday but waited till later in the day so I could underexpose the sky/background and use a pop up soft box. This is what I was trying to achieve but I had been drinking since dinner time at the campsite :D You can just about see the moon too.


Reighton Sands 22 by foggy4ever, on Flickr
 
foggy4ever said:
I was having a play Saturday but waited till later in the day so I could underexpose the sky/background and use a pop up soft box. This is what I was trying to achieve but I had been drinking since dinner time at the campsite :D You can just about see the moon too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34602686@N05/7279923444/
Reighton Sands 22 by foggy4ever, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Nice shot but how did you achieve that? To underexposed the sky you require a small aperture and a pretty quick shutter speed which will have been too quick for your softbox synch speed??
 
I just guessed at first by what light was left, took a few test shots of just the sky and ended up with f/10 and 1/160 shutter speed. Took a test shot with flash at full power and it wasn't too far off. Just a few tweaks in post and I was quite happy. I was with a group of friends and family and had some gear just in case, my brother in law was a willing model but I was ****ed at the time :lol:. I would have preferred not to shoot with the sun in the back ground, maybe a little more to the side but the background made it too distracting.
 
foggy4ever said:
I just guessed at first by what light was left, took a few test shots of just the sky and ended up with f/10 and 1/160 shutter speed. Took a test shot with flash at full power and it wasn't too far off. Just a few tweaks in post and I was quite happy. I was with a group of friends and family and had some gear just in case, my brother in law was a willing model but I was ****ed at the time :lol:. I would have preferred not to shoot with the sun in the back ground, maybe a little more to the side but the background made it too distracting.
Click to expand...

So the available light had dwindled enough to allow you to get within the shutter speed allowance of the triggers?

I wanted to wait until later to be honest but didn't have the chance.

It was very bright still at 7pm.
 
dan_yorkshire said:
So the available light had dwindled enough to allow you to get within the shutter speed allowance of the triggers?
Click to expand...

Yep that's spot on, in fact I could have shot a little earlier but we were all stuffing our faces with chilli dogs.

The only way I know you can shoot in bright light is to have something like Lencarta's Safari kit
 
foggy4ever said:
Yep that's spot on, in fact I could have shot a little earlier but we were all stuffing our faces with chilli dogs.

The only way I know you can shoot in bright light is to have something like Lencarta's Safari kit
Click to expand...

Reflector it is then. But you still have the problem with them squinting even when side on.

I was getting frustrated last night and if I'd had just used my noggin I'd have saved myself time and effort.

Should have maybe just got drunk until the light had faded.....

Cheers mate
 
Last edited:
Forbiddenbiker said:
Just tried looking up setting higher sync speeds for the d90, seems possible... Ive just read...

...if you turn off the on board flash in the menu turn it to "-" then it will work at higher speeds external. ...like 4000.

Go fiddle, it might be true! :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Cheers but that is for on camera mounted flash and I already have that enabled. I was using triggers and receivers which maximum sync is 1/250 before banding becomes an issue.
 
dan_yorkshire said:
Hi all,

Trying to master different lighting situations and last night went with the wife to an open field in the bright sunshine for a practice.

It was that bright that without the flash and an aperture of f7ish the camera was choosing SS's up to 1/4000.

Was I fighting a losing battle trying to use OCF for fill flash? Because of the max synch speed of 1/250 of my Yongnuo's everything was over exposing, don't suppose there was anything I could do?! (Other than a really long TTL cord)

So in that scenario the best option is to get backlit from the sun, exposing for the sky and then on cam fill flash, or having my wife side on and using the reflector for the shadowed side?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,

Dan
Click to expand...

There are a couple of ways to do it, and the best/easiest by far is to use a gun with high speed sync mode (Nikon calls it FP-sync). It changes the way the gun fires so you can use even the fastest shutter speeds, but it's very wasteful of power so flash range is reduced. The higher the shutter speed, the more light is lost but it's fine for close range portraits and small groups in bright sun.

The other way is to use an ND filter, say ND4 (2 stops) or ND8 (3 stops), that darkens everything and pulls the shutter speed down below the x-sync ceiling.
 
I was having a play with fill flash in the mid day sun yesterday as it is something i've been attempting to understand.

I ended up balancing the exposure at f22 1/200 and then filled in with flash via ttl.

Came out quite nice too with catch lights in the eyes. Probably more luck than judgement mind !!
 
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