I’m working through your articles and just got your book a few weeks ago. You are a great teacher and an inspiration to us amateurs.

I have a question regarding your response to the Joey Server post above;

NvN: “Since you lose at least half your flash’s power by going to HSS, but need the narrower DoF, I would suggest ganging up two or more speedlights and in that way getting enough power in bright daylight … and still get narrow DoF”.

Would you ever consider using a single on-camera flash aimed directly at the subject with a 3-stop ND filter on the lens. This gives you f/4, 1/250 assuming ambient is around EV 15 (“sunny 16″). Of course if you need f/2.8 or wider, this is a different story.

Angel … I can’t give you specific settings.

But I can give you some general advice on dealing with hard sunlight.

best of luck

Neil vN

I have a D90 and 600. will shoot a wedding outdoors in april, starts 2pm or so. the couple may be under a gazebo thing. the two scenarios i’m expecting is under daylight, and one under the gazebo with daylight around it. i have the kit 18-105. may get a tamron 17-50 f2.8 heard it’s decent. would like to get mostly shallow dof shots. doing it for free, may be good practice for me.

btw, ordrered the CTS gels and a stofen. if the reception is gonna be indoors, i’m reading up on it. but kinda lost for the outdoor ceremony part.

now, i’m gonna be on manual. what settings do you recommend? what would i anticipate in both under daylight, and while in the gazebo?

Pieter, that green tint from the reflection of light from the foliage is a real problem. If you can bring in a fair amount of flash, it does help solve the problem.

Alternately, the Photoshop solution is usually the way to deal with it. Select the area around which you want to remove the green, and then use the Hue / Saturation controls to reduce the amount of green selectively.

Neil vN

Best website I’ve ever followed. I don’t know if my question is flash related but it is outdoor related.

When taking photos outdoors under or in between trees and other plants, I very often get this (very) slight green tint on the more exposed areas of the face. I guessed it is from reflections from lawns and or trees. It is hardly noticable but I would like to avoid it. I tried to correct it with temperature and tint combinations in RAW, but just can’t get the right balance. Will the flash help or do one use a special filter?

Hope it is a valid question and someone experienced it as well. Receiving your book in 2? days. Can’t wait.

Again, Excellent site.
Pieter

Hi there Trina ..

When the light is fairly even on my subject, I most often just use straight-on direct flash from my speedlight. Since the FEC is dialled way down then, you can barely see that it was direct flash. An easy compromise.

But there are times I will use something to soften my flash and give me more directional light.

With the Nikon SB-900, I’ve found that I don’t quite get the subtle fill-flash that I am accostumed to with the Canon system. Then I do use the diffuser cup over the SB-900. It would appear that cutting the output from the flash in this way in this situation, allows the speedlight enough leeway to quench the flash output in time to give just that delicate touch of fill-flash.

As is usual, there isn’t one specific technique that works ALL the time. You have to adapt, guided by what you see, and what scenario you find yourself in.

Neil vN

I have a Nikon D90. But my question is, when you use direct flash outdoors with the FEC dialed down to -1.3 or -1.7, do you use a diffuser on your flash such as the nikon or stofen diffuser so the light from the flash is not harsh on the skin?

Thanks in advance,
Trina