best fill light flash settings
Yup, another post intended as one of the entries in the question & answer series, but somehow expanded into a post which should stand on its own. The question that popped up in my webstats was: ‘best fill light flash settings’
First, we need to understand that there is a whole range of ratios in which we can balance available light with flash.
A whole range in how we mix flash and available light. Anywhere from:
- correct ambient exposure with just a touch of fill-flash,
all the way to where we:
- under-expose the ambient light, and use flash to give us the correct exposure.
There are of course numerous possibilities inbetween those two scenarios. None of which are particularly more ‘correct’ than the other ways we match flash and available light. For simplicity of explanation though, it is easier to describe the two ‘extremes’, and hopefully this will make it easy for us to figure out the inbetweenie scenarios … where we mix some flash with the available light, and still get good lighting and great exposure.
Now, when we talk about ‘fill-flash’, we’re usually describing the scenario where our ambient exposure is correct, and we’re just lifting the shadows with a mere hint of fill-flash.
So for anyone who wants to know the best fill-flash settings, you have to think in terms of your ambient exposure first and foremost. That is your starting point – correct exposure for the available light. Then you can add flash to it. But just a touch of fill-flash. In other words, “best fill flash settings”, would revolve around your camera settings for correct (or close to correct), ambient exposure. And then adding a touch of flash to even out the shadow areas or lift the contrast.
In this photo, my exposure for the couple was correct. I didn’t allow the brighter street scene or background to influence my camera settings. I based my exposure on the couple. The next step was adding fill-flash with my on-camera speedlight …
Since I shoot in TTL mode most of the times when shooting on the move, I simply dialed down my flash exposure compensation (FEC) to around -2EV or -3EV. Somewhere there. Adjusted to taste.
If I had used manual flash, I would approach it the same way. I’d set my manual flash to give me 2 or 3 stops less exposure than the aperture I am using. If I am shooting at f5.6 then I would set my manual flash to only give me f2.8 or f2 worth of flash exposure.
The fill-flash in this case is coming from the camera’s point of view – but since it is dialed down, it isn’t that noticeable. While off-camera lighting would look better, using on-camera fill-flash like this is definitely a good work-around, especially when we don’t have the means for off-camera lighting.
With this sequence of images in the alley, my camera settings were: 1/400 @ f3.5 @ 800 ISO … and FEC was set to -3 EV. Since I find my Nikon D3 and Nikon SB-900 tends to give more flash than I like as fill-flash, I am constantly dialing it down more. The high shutter speed had two uses here – to make sure I don’t get subject blur as the couple moved and danced there. The other side-effect of the high shutter speed was that I had bumped my flash into high-speed flash sync territory, and that cuts down tremendously on my flash’s output capability. This then helps me pull down the often-times too-strong fill-flash from the D3 and SB-900 combo.
follow-up articles:
- on-camera TTL fill-flash
- fill-flash .. or not
- direct fill-flash from your on-camera speedlight
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Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.
If you need more direct help or instruction on flash photography,
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If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by
using these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies. Thank you!
Morning Neil, I don’t suppose you have a non flashed shot from the above to illustrate how flash affected the image? I’m surprised that you reduced fec by so much given the shutter speed.
As always, thank you for sharing.
Comment by Paul Hodgson — February 6, 2011 @ 5:45 am
Comment by Neil vN — February 6, 2011 @ 5:51 am
Neil
Were you on highspeed synch since you were using a higher shutter speed?
Thanks
Suresh
Comment by Suresh — February 6, 2011 @ 2:27 pm
Comment by Neil vN — February 6, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
Aloha, Neil,
Are you spot or matrix metering? Also, where are you placing the focus/metering point?
Thanks for all your great lessons.
Comment by Kepano — February 7, 2011 @ 3:15 am
Comment by Neil vN — February 7, 2011 @ 3:44 am
Neil,
quote: “This then helps me pull down the often-times too-strong fill-flash from the D3 and SB-900 combo”.
I want to highlight this as a very vital element in this post!
I’ve been experiencing this too – with an SB-800 in my case. Those little flashguns are so powerful… that you’re more likely to “over-expose” with flash and still get those nasty “heavy flashed” pictures.
I constantly have this little ET-voice in my head… “Must dial it down… Must dial it down… Must dial it down…”
BR,
Roel
Comment by Roel — February 7, 2011 @ 5:23 am
Comment by Neil vN — February 7, 2011 @ 5:46 am
Hi Neil,
I was curious, for on camera fill light, do you use light modifiers? How about gels say … under the sun or on a cloudy day?
Thanks,
Franklin
Comment by Franklin — February 7, 2011 @ 8:03 am
Comment by Neil vN — February 7, 2011 @ 9:40 am
Neil,
indeed. The point I was trying to make is that I’m constantly reminding myself to check my flash exposure and adjust where necessary…
My personal opinion was that I find myself more often dialling down than up. But then again, one adds salt to taste…
Regs,
Roel
Comment by Roel — February 7, 2011 @ 12:43 pm
What i’ve experienced with my fujifilm s5, nikon d50, sb 600, met 48 and metz 58 is that sometimes the flash in TTL is way to bright. I’ve found that, even when using TTL, there is some minimal flashpower the units (both the nikon and the metz units) can output. That is often too much for closer distances with high apertures and high iso’s. Too overcome this treshold problem, I often fit a diffuser (aka known as omnibounce) on top of the flash, which acts as some sort of a ND-flashfilter. When using TTL, the camera automatically corrects for this. The main advantage is that the minimal output the flash can produce is around 2 stops lower (as is the maximum). So in the last picture, I would have chosen a slower shutter speed, lower iso and used a omnibounce to power down the flash.
Comment by Teun — February 10, 2011 @ 10:40 am
Teun,
If you use a SB-600, you should be able to reduce the flash power via FEC.
Comment by Stephen — February 10, 2011 @ 6:14 pm
Comment by Neil vN — February 11, 2011 @ 7:40 am
Hi Neil,
Oh…I did not know that! Well then, that might explain some of my past photos where I may have been really close to the subject (3 feet)
Do you need a diffuser if you were in manual and too close? I would presume one could turn down the power more than TTL would allow.
Comment by Stephen — February 11, 2011 @ 1:13 pm
Comment by Neil vN — February 12, 2011 @ 11:26 pm
Neil,
I accept the scolding. >.<
In all seriousness, I have not been paying attention to my distance scale on my flash in TTL or manual, so it's something I should look at often.
Comment by Stephen — February 13, 2011 @ 12:10 pm
Hi Neil,
I may have missed this excellent post when it was originally published, but I came across it again when I was reading your recent posting about off-camera undiffused fill in flash.
I have a D700 and SB900 and even if I dial the FEC down to -3 on TTL, I still get the cardboard cutout shadow at times. This is with undiffused flash though.
Do you have any tips on how to get rid of this? I have started to use the standard omni bounce diffuser when doing fill flash to reduce the power of the flashgun.
As always, many thanks for your excellent posts and passing on your knowledge.
Gary
Comment by Gary Smith — August 28, 2012 @ 11:07 am
Comment by Neil vN — August 28, 2012 @ 11:36 pm