christmas photo help please

neastguyneastguy Registered Users Posts: 199 Major grins
edited December 3, 2007 in Technique
I need help figuring out how to set this up.

1. lighted christmas tree in the back ground
2. 8 month old baby in little santa dress in front of tree sittin on an ottaman
3. two dogs, one on each side of her on the ottaman...

what I'm trying to do is get enough light on the 3 so that its not blurred and also get it so that the lights on the tree glow nicely in the background...

I've come close to doing it, but I'm getting a little too much blur on the baby and dog's.... I'm using slow rear flash on my Nikon D40..and I also tried to aim some more light towards just the subjects and not the tree.. granted I'm not using any pro lighting.. is there any suggestions? tips? thank you...

Comments

  • jeffreaux2jeffreaux2 Registered Users Posts: 4,762 Major grins
    edited December 3, 2007
    Have you tried using natural light? You could light the foreground subjects with a household lamp sans shade and expose for skin. @nd curtain synch and slow shutter speeds will blur. Better off using flash exposure compensation(if Nikon has such features) to reduce flash output.
    Thanks,
    Jeff
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  • neastguyneastguy Registered Users Posts: 199 Major grins
    edited December 3, 2007
    jeffreaux2 wrote:
    Have you tried using natural light? You could light the foreground subjects with a household lamp sans shade and expose for skin. @nd curtain synch and slow shutter speeds will blur. Better off using flash exposure compensation(if Nikon has such features) to reduce flash output.

    natural light is not working for me.. the tree looks to bright during the daylight ours.. I will look into the flash compensation and play with that a bit... thanks
  • LiquidAirLiquidAir Registered Users Posts: 1,751 Major grins
    edited December 3, 2007
    Put the camera on a tripod in manual mode. I'd set the shutter speed around 1/60s (if you can, but no lower than 1/30s) and adjust the ISO and aperture to get the exposure on the lights right. Once you have the tree where you want it bring up your flash power until your subjects are properly exposed. Personally I use a flash meter for this, but if you know your camera's display well you can just chimp it. Depending on what camera/flash system you are using, there are ways to automate parts of the process. However, for posed photos like this, I prefer to go at it the manual way to be sure I get it right.
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