Okay all the gurus of exposure and low light situation here is my question for you - I did shot a freinds wedding and followed advise of some to stick to higher ISO - I kept it at 1600ISO on my Canon 60D and shutter speed somewhere around 80 to 160 depending upon situation. Used Sigma 30mm F1.4 & Sigma 17-50F2.8, This was indoor wedding in a banquet hall with all fluroscent bulbs glowing their "super nice" yellow lights making people look bit yellow even to naked eye (forget about camera). I used my 580EX II mounted on flash bracket to raise it above camera. Now I'm editing pictures and most of them have digital grain that comes with higher ISO + yellow tint because of indoor lighting of yellow and red lights. I shot everything in RAW and in Manual mode so I could adjust WB in LR3 later but when I do adjust WB and go with auto WB feature of LR3 it makes pictures come out with blue tint so I've to raise the temperature to compensate for that.
My bigger question is how do you measure correct exposure because when I see thru view finder on 60D it clearly shows me that my image at shutter speed 125 + F4.0 + ISO 1600 is clearly underexposed and my external flash has to do heavy lifting of compensating for that underexposed light but after I shoot and see the histogram it shows more biased towards left (darker) side in LR3. How do you guys handle this kind of situation ? I bounced flash from 580EX II off of ceiling (ceiling height was somewhere around 25ft and not white ceiling but some pink colored ceiling) and sometimes from side wall if I was close to wall (same issue wall was pink color wall not white or off white wall).
Next event that I shoot was even worse - it was for my friends dance group performing in much lower light than wedding hall light and at that time I stuck with ISO800 max and images were much more acceptable compared to wedding images i.e. look very clean and very less digital noise.
It really is largely based on experience, and knowing your camera. I know exactly what you mean about images coming out a tad darker in Lightroom, and that's just something I had to kinda get used to and compensate for when shooting. Shoot the images to be as bright as possible in-camera; pay attention to both the in-camera histogram and the blinking highlight warning, AND also make sure that your camera LCD brightness is set correctly for whatever shooting conditions you're in. A lot of the time auto-brightness works well, but in general you want the camera LCD to be brighter in sunny conditions and darker in dim conditions, so that it doesn't throw off your eyes at first glance.
When the light is so dark that you have to use ISO 1600, usually it's a good idea to keep an f/2.8 zoom or f/1.4 prime on hand, because that's the best way to relieve the burden from your flash if the image is under-exposed at f/4. Just by going to f/2 on a 50mm or 85mm prime, for example, you get another two stops of brightness out of your flash AND ambient light, which is often plenty.
Just get that blinking highlight warning or the histogram right up there towards the brightest possible exposure, just before things start to blow out. Don't focus on this so much that you miss moments, but do pay attention.
One last thing is, to conserve your flash power and simply "embrace the darkness".
In the above image, (from this blog post HERE) what I did was I used a single flash, off-camera, pointed directly at the subjects from an angle kind of away from me. when the flash is pointed directly at the subject and you're shooting at f/2 and ISO 1600, you can just rock all night with the flash down at 1/8 or 1/16 power, (manually set) ....and always have plenty of light. Of course this really only works reliably if the subject is in the same place for a while, such as toasting or a first dance. (or this slideshow) For action, yeah I just do on-camera bouncing and "expose to the right"... (As you can see in many of the other images made by the other photographers at the Lin & Jirsa studio. ;-)
Great tips from Matt. I generally use off camera flash with manual exposure as well. I like to use 1/8 or 1/16 and adjust my camera accordingly. The batteries easily last all reception.
I have one more tip for situations where you use on camera flash with TTL and bounce it. Depending on conditions I add 1/3 to 1/2 a stop or so of flash compensation to account for lost light. Never use the bracket. Too big of a contraption for me.
Jacek
_____________________________________________ My Site
It really is largely based on experience, and knowing your camera. I know exactly what you mean about images coming out a tad darker in Lightroom, and that's just something I had to kinda get used to and compensate for when shooting. Shoot the images to be as bright as possible in-camera; pay attention to both the in-camera histogram and the blinking highlight warning, AND also make sure that your camera LCD brightness is set correctly for whatever shooting conditions you're in. A lot of the time auto-brightness works well, but in general you want the camera LCD to be brighter in sunny conditions and darker in dim conditions, so that it doesn't throw off your eyes at first glance.
When the light is so dark that you have to use ISO 1600, usually it's a good idea to keep an f/2.8 zoom or f/1.4 prime on hand, because that's the best way to relieve the burden from your flash if the image is under-exposed at f/4. Just by going to f/2 on a 50mm or 85mm prime, for example, you get another two stops of brightness out of your flash AND ambient light, which is often plenty.
Just get that blinking highlight warning or the histogram right up there towards the brightest possible exposure, just before things start to blow out. Don't focus on this so much that you miss moments, but do pay attention.
One last thing is, to conserve your flash power and simply "embrace the darkness".
In the above image, (from this blog post HERE) what I did was I used a single flash, off-camera, pointed directly at the subjects from an angle kind of away from me. when the flash is pointed directly at the subject and you're shooting at f/2 and ISO 1600, you can just rock all night with the flash down at 1/8 or 1/16 power, (manually set) ....and always have plenty of light. Of course this really only works reliably if the subject is in the same place for a while, such as toasting or a first dance. (or this slideshow) For action, yeah I just do on-camera bouncing and "expose to the right"... (As you can see in many of the other images made by the other photographers at the Lin & Jirsa studio. ;-)
=Matt=
Thanks Matt as always you are great resource for new comers - keep it up my friend and keep accumulating your good karma .
Great tips from Matt. I generally use off camera flash with manual exposure as well. I like to use 1/8 or 1/16 and adjust my camera accordingly. The batteries easily last all reception.
I have one more tip for situations where you use on camera flash with TTL and bounce it. Depending on conditions I add 1/3 to 1/2 a stop or so of flash compensation to account for lost light. Never use the bracket. Too big of a contraption for me.
That is interesting - dont you think taking flash out of hotshoe and above camera gives you little bit better lighting control in terms of removing shadows that normally comes with on camera hotshoe mount ? I've never used flash in M mode but looks like it is time to do that now - thanks for a tip.
Great tips from Matt. I generally use off camera flash with manual exposure as well. I like to use 1/8 or 1/16 and adjust my camera accordingly. The batteries easily last all reception.
I have one more tip for situations where you use on camera flash with TTL and bounce it. Depending on conditions I add 1/3 to 1/2 a stop or so of flash compensation to account for lost light. Never use the bracket. Too big of a contraption for me.
Yes... adjusting flash compensation when using TTL flash is key whether you are bouncing or not. Most people try to maintain balance between ambient light and flash lighting and that is the way to do it without a manual flash and a metering break between settings. Shoot and chimp until you get a feel for what works best in a given situation at a given camera setting. If you are bouncing a bracket is pointless.
My auto WB never seems to get it right, although sometimes I don't have to tweek. In a room that has consistant coloring around the room, regardless of color, it is a good idea to shoot a white tablecloth or whatever, bouncing off those walls and do a custom white balance. Sure you can change all that in RAW and you will likely do that regardless, but having the in camera WB close helps with identifying exposure issues on site. If your walls are all different and colored curtains or banners all over the place it is fairly pointless!
That is interesting - dont you think taking flash out of hotshoe and above camera gives you little bit better lighting control in terms of removing shadows that normally comes with on camera hotshoe mount ? I've never used flash in M mode but looks like it is time to do that now - thanks for a tip.
Personally, I'm just not ever shooting with my flash in a manner that creates such shadows as to require a bracket for minimizing them. I hope that made sense . In other words- I like my light to be smooth and flattering, indoors it is bounced 100% of the time. I just pay attention to the direction of the bounce. If I need to shoot vertical I just tilt my camera in the direction that corresponds to how the subject is facing. I try and get light to "hit people in the faces", even if they're not facing directly at the camera. This gives me a soft, almost window-like effect to the light.
Outdoors I do use straight-forward flash sometimes, but honestly I've just NEVER needed to also shoot vertically in one of those situations. I can't recall a vertical outdoor on-camera flash shot in the past 5 years of shooting, to be honest. And if there ever was one, well, when you're outdoors the background is usually really far away, so there's no shadow to worry about.
So there you have it, problem solved! I remember renting a flash bracket once or twice when I shot my first couple weddings, ~7-8 years ago, because the clients wanted me to shoot film and do formals in bright sunlight, and I didn't know how to pose them in relation to the light. But after that, my on-camera flash has been 99.9% bounced.
One thing I did was, I took apart my flash and dremel'ed off the metal tab that stops the flash head from spinning "past backwards", if you know what I mean. Now, I can switch from a slightly leftward bounce to a slightly rightward bounce effortlessly. (I don't have to go allllll the way around the front)
But that's really the only significant change I've made in the past few years to my on-camera flash technique.
One thing I did was, I took apart my flash and dremel'ed off the metal tab that stops the flash head from spinning "past backwards", if you know what I mean. Now, I can switch from a slightly leftward bounce to a slightly rightward bounce effortlessly. (I don't have to go allllll the way around the front)
Good luck,
=Matt=
Really? Oh that would be heaven.
I assumed there was some sort of cord in there they didn't want twisted too far or something...
I assumed there was some sort of cord in there they didn't want twisted too far or something...
Yes, they were too cheap to put in one of those infinite swivel connection points, (I forget what they're called but they're expensive) ...so I do have to watch yout how I rotate the flash. But, like I said, my flash is just NEVER pointed forward, so it's not really an issue. :-)
I'd offer it as a customization service to other photographers, but no doubt it voids your warranty to high heaven and I'd rather not do that to other people's cameras ...
I switch it up depending on the shot/time. Before and after dinner I'm bouncing flash, typically high ISO's and nail exposures. Receptions, my second and I have either lights on a stick or he will and mine's on board in Manual (1/8th..something like that) We cross light and get some really cool effects. Also I like to 2nd curtain in ETTL and slow the shutter speed way down. A few examples:
Flash on board with PW attached firing 2nd's strobe:
Light on a stick
Bounced light/flash on board ETTL
Dragging the shutter (2nd curtain 1/8th)
Saw some other cool set ups with strobes across the room I'd like to try this year.
Comments
It really is largely based on experience, and knowing your camera. I know exactly what you mean about images coming out a tad darker in Lightroom, and that's just something I had to kinda get used to and compensate for when shooting. Shoot the images to be as bright as possible in-camera; pay attention to both the in-camera histogram and the blinking highlight warning, AND also make sure that your camera LCD brightness is set correctly for whatever shooting conditions you're in. A lot of the time auto-brightness works well, but in general you want the camera LCD to be brighter in sunny conditions and darker in dim conditions, so that it doesn't throw off your eyes at first glance.
When the light is so dark that you have to use ISO 1600, usually it's a good idea to keep an f/2.8 zoom or f/1.4 prime on hand, because that's the best way to relieve the burden from your flash if the image is under-exposed at f/4. Just by going to f/2 on a 50mm or 85mm prime, for example, you get another two stops of brightness out of your flash AND ambient light, which is often plenty.
Just get that blinking highlight warning or the histogram right up there towards the brightest possible exposure, just before things start to blow out. Don't focus on this so much that you miss moments, but do pay attention.
One last thing is, to conserve your flash power and simply "embrace the darkness".
In the above image, (from this blog post HERE) what I did was I used a single flash, off-camera, pointed directly at the subjects from an angle kind of away from me. when the flash is pointed directly at the subject and you're shooting at f/2 and ISO 1600, you can just rock all night with the flash down at 1/8 or 1/16 power, (manually set) ....and always have plenty of light. Of course this really only works reliably if the subject is in the same place for a while, such as toasting or a first dance. (or this slideshow) For action, yeah I just do on-camera bouncing and "expose to the right"... (As you can see in many of the other images made by the other photographers at the Lin & Jirsa studio. ;-)
=Matt=
My SmugMug Portfolio • My Astro-Landscape Photo Blog • Dgrin Weddings Forum
I have one more tip for situations where you use on camera flash with TTL and bounce it. Depending on conditions I add 1/3 to 1/2 a stop or so of flash compensation to account for lost light. Never use the bracket. Too big of a contraption for me.
_____________________________________________
My Site
Thanks Matt as always you are great resource for new comers - keep it up my friend and keep accumulating your good karma
That is interesting - dont you think taking flash out of hotshoe and above camera gives you little bit better lighting control in terms of removing shadows that normally comes with on camera hotshoe mount ? I've never used flash in M mode but looks like it is time to do that now - thanks for a tip.
Yes... adjusting flash compensation when using TTL flash is key whether you are bouncing or not. Most people try to maintain balance between ambient light and flash lighting and that is the way to do it without a manual flash and a metering break between settings. Shoot and chimp until you get a feel for what works best in a given situation at a given camera setting. If you are bouncing a bracket is pointless.
My auto WB never seems to get it right, although sometimes I don't have to tweek. In a room that has consistant coloring around the room, regardless of color, it is a good idea to shoot a white tablecloth or whatever, bouncing off those walls and do a custom white balance. Sure you can change all that in RAW and you will likely do that regardless, but having the in camera WB close helps with identifying exposure issues on site. If your walls are all different and colored curtains or banners all over the place it is fairly pointless!
Bodies: Canon 5d mkII, 5d, 40d
Lenses: 24-70 f2.8L, 70-200 f4.0L, 135 f2L, 85 f1.8, 50 1.8, 100 f2.8 macro, Tamron 28-105 f2.8
Flash: 2x 580 exII, Canon ST-E2, 2x Pocket Wizard flexTT5, and some lower end studio strobes
Personally, I'm just not ever shooting with my flash in a manner that creates such shadows as to require a bracket for minimizing them. I hope that made sense
Outdoors I do use straight-forward flash sometimes, but honestly I've just NEVER needed to also shoot vertically in one of those situations. I can't recall a vertical outdoor on-camera flash shot in the past 5 years of shooting, to be honest. And if there ever was one, well, when you're outdoors the background is usually really far away, so there's no shadow to worry about.
So there you have it, problem solved! I remember renting a flash bracket once or twice when I shot my first couple weddings, ~7-8 years ago, because the clients wanted me to shoot film and do formals in bright sunlight, and I didn't know how to pose them in relation to the light. But after that, my on-camera flash has been 99.9% bounced.
One thing I did was, I took apart my flash and dremel'ed off the metal tab that stops the flash head from spinning "past backwards", if you know what I mean. Now, I can switch from a slightly leftward bounce to a slightly rightward bounce effortlessly. (I don't have to go allllll the way around the front)
But that's really the only significant change I've made in the past few years to my on-camera flash technique.
Good luck,
=Matt=
My SmugMug Portfolio • My Astro-Landscape Photo Blog • Dgrin Weddings Forum
Really? Oh that would be heaven.
I assumed there was some sort of cord in there they didn't want twisted too far or something...
Yes, they were too cheap to put in one of those infinite swivel connection points, (I forget what they're called but they're expensive) ...so I do have to watch yout how I rotate the flash. But, like I said, my flash is just NEVER pointed forward, so it's not really an issue. :-)
I'd offer it as a customization service to other photographers, but no doubt it voids your warranty to high heaven and I'd rather not do that to other people's cameras
=Matt=
My SmugMug Portfolio • My Astro-Landscape Photo Blog • Dgrin Weddings Forum
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