>> people in the
>> foreground were totally overexposed (I guess +2) and the background
>> (some 5-8m away) was exposed correctly.
> That's because the camera and flash correctly metered the background but
> because those in the foreground were so much closer, they got blown out.
> There are at least a couple ways to remedy this situation. One way is to
get
> the flash off camera and try as best as possible to get the flash as close
> to the same distance from the foreground and background. Here's another
way.
> If the foreground is the main subject, select the focusing point manually
> with the camera in spot metering mode. With the camera focused on the
> forground subject the flash will expose for it instead of the background.
I
> believe there's a Custom Function that has to be set in order to
accomplish
> this, though. Another way would be to just simply use available light,
> provided there's enough of it.
>
> John
Good advice, here's what I do. If you have the off camera shoe cord II,
hold the flash out at arm's length and aim it to get some feathering of
light on the closer subject, while aiming it behind those subjects, at the
background. Not only will your shadows fall to the side, likely off frame,
but you might even get some nicer shadows on faces. Set your camera to
expose your background - I like Manual mode, you should get some fill
depending on the ambient of course. If you don't have much room light,
there's no way you can really use that for exposure, except maybe to get
'some' background showing rather than pure black. (DIH look) If I use this
off camera method, I like to have the omnibounce attached and have good
ambient light. With this setup, you won't really think the photo was taken
with flash at all, except maybe some better ratios of faces, and catchlight.
And, you can fill in the background nicely.
Which brings me to my solution to all the problems of ambient light, and
balancing flash with tungsten and maybe florescent as well. How much ambient
background light you can get, depends a lot on the speed of the film you are
using. I shoot Superia 800 and get very natural looking lighting, even in
darker or larger rooms. With tungsten, backgrounds will have a definite
reddish yellow tint, florescents will be a cold neutral. I like to keep all
lamps in the room looking like they're on. The more you expose for the flash
in a room, the more it will look un-natural. Let it go a bit reddish, Even
under good roomlight, I can shoot 800 speed film with no flash at all, at
about 1/125th at F 5.6. Using a flash does help light up the eyesockets
which is where you want it to be. Be careful with subjects close enough to
get a bad nose shadow. I like to stay well back of a 45 degree flash angle
on those closest to the camera. If you don't, you'll get the bridge of the
nose shadow.
Keep the main subject well in the cone of light from the flash and the
camera will expose them fine. It seems the center of a flash output is
always brighter than off center a bit. You want to put that center part
behind the main subject. If they don't have a long nose, and aren't standing
in a very dark area, I give the flash more angle and let the subjects go
farther out in the flash cone of light. Look at the scene, the ratio of
light that exists and angle your flash more to the darker area, whether
background of subject, and you'll be fine. That, and some experimenting.
Don't forget to keep notes! Seriously, I just got back a film I wish I'd
taken notes for. You can't really learn what works unless you know what you
did :-)
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