{"id":62,"date":"2007-08-23T00:53:17","date_gmt":"2007-08-23T00:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetneil.com\/tangents\/flash-photography-techniques\/6-flash-outdoors\/"},"modified":"2024-09-01T00:09:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T04:09:06","slug":"on-camera-flash-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/flash-photography-techniques\/on-camera-flash-outdoors\/","title":{"rendered":"On-camera flash outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flash Photography Techniques<\/strong><\/a>
\nBouncing your flash<\/a> ~ On-camera flash\u00a0outdoors ~ Exposure metering<\/a>
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Using on-camera flash outdoors<\/h1>\n

Speaking very broadly, there are two ways of using on-camera flash outside – either as:
\n– a slight fill-flash, or as
\n– a brute light source to lift the shadow areas of a subject to the same level as the sunlit areas.<\/p>\n

Of course, in between that, there is a wide spectrum of possibilities, but for simplicity of explanation,\u00a0we will concentrate here on those two\u00a0scenarios.<\/p>\n

Metering correctly for ambient light is key here<\/strong>. It is important that you understand how shutter speed, aperture and ISO inter-relate. Then it becomes as simple as\u00a0juggling the three inter-dependent controls – shutter speed, aperture and iso- and adding flash. TTL is most likely the easiest initially.<\/p>\n

Here are our options with outdoor portrait lighting:<\/p>\n

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There, in a nutshell, we have three of our options when photographing portraits outside in bright light.<\/p>\n

If I am limited and can’t use additional lighting, then the simplest is to have my subjects turn their back to the sun (or bright light). This way there is no squinting, and there is usually nice open light on my subject. It’s a very good work-around.<\/p>\n

If I need to balance the exposure for my subject and the background, then I need to use additional lighting. Direct, on-camera flash does the job … but doesn’t look as good as the off-camera light which gives us directional light.<\/p>\n

So, where possible, I will go for Off-Camera Flash<\/a> (preferably diffused). But, in a pinch, direct on-camera flash might have to do. And this is what we are going to look at with the example images in this tutorial:<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Direction<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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Direction & Quality of Light<\/h2>\n

I wanted to distill the essence of what we, as photographers, work with – light! Before we can truly grasp on-camera flash and off-camera flash, and really, any kind of photography, we have to be aware of the direction and quality of light. We need to observe the light that we have, and then decide how best to use it, or enhance it.<\/p>\n

With this book, I try my best to share those \u201caha!\u201d moments with you, and I do believe this book can make a difference to your photography.<\/p>\n

The book is available on\u00a0Amazon USA<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Amazon UK<\/a><\/strong>, or can be ordered through Barnes & Nobles and other bookstores. The book\u00a0is also available on the Apple iBook Store, as well as Amazon Kindle.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>

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A.) \u00a0On-camera fill-flash<\/h2>\n

The following photos are really simple in their execution. I metered correctly for the available light on my subject, Adrienne, and then shot with flash straight on – but my flash exposure compensation was dialed down.<\/p>\n

The idea here is to just use the flash to lift the shadows, and avoid shadows under the subject’s eyebrows. The flash should ideally be imperceptible, and is really only used as fill-light.<\/p>\n

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