Let me run this by you folks..

rpcrowe

I will be traveling to China for two weeks in April and want to bring home loads of images of local color. One thing that I want to shoot is the myriad of night markets where vendors in stalls sell everything from clothing to fried scorpions on a stick.

These stalls are usually make of plastic tarps stretched over a frame of some type and the customers stand in the open air. See image as example of night market stall.

I have not seen any decent images of these vendors since most photos I have viewed have been shot either with available light or with straight-on flash. Available light is usually terrible since the vendors and merchandise is often back-lit and straight-on flash is - well straight-on flash is almost always a terrible way to light.

My plan is to use flash but, to use it in a way that looks natural and doesn't overwhelm the ambient light. How does this system sound?

I will use a Canon 40D camera and a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens which will give me a fairly low light capability to start off with. I shoot in manual and will use a Canon 550EX in ETTL mode. I will bounce the flash into a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro ( www.dembflashproducts.com ) since there will be no overhead surface off which to bounce the flash. I can adjust the Flip-It section of the Flash Diffuser Pro so that it bounces the light forward through the diffuser. I know that this can give me nice results since I have been using this combination for years.

I will not use a bracket but, the Demb Flash Diffuser can give really nice lighting with on camera hotshoe flash.

I plan to meter for the ambient light and shoot the flash about 1 stop below that intensity. I can adjust the background light by varying the shutter speed as long as I stay within a hand holdable limit.

I have an amber gel which I will place over the flash head so that the color temperature of the flash is somewhere close to that of the incandescent ambient light. I will shoot RAW and since the flash and ambient lighting will be close, I should be able to correct the color temperature of the entire image.

DO I HAVE A PLAN?

pathfinder

Sounds like a good plan.

Manual mode on the camera with an EOS flash in ETTL, exposing for ambient 1 stop down, with flash to expose the subject correctly. With a bright like like in your picture, don't forget that you MIGHT need High Speed Synch. Set you camera to 2nd curtain flash for most images also.

That is how the EOS flash system was designed to work. I look forward to seeing your images.