Strobist technique Sunset portrait flash photography

sharagim1 · June 21, 2011

i"m trying to learn combination ambint light and flash at outdoor photography espacially on sunset time, with 2 off camera flash,
i couldn"t find some graet source like video tutorial about this, please if somebody have information about my question, response,
any help would be much apprectied.

my eqqupement: 5d markll . canon 7d , 2 flash 580 exll, softbox, amberella,
flex tt1 and flex tt5 (2)
canon lens 70-200,2.8ll
caon lens 85mm 1.8
canon lens28-135
canon lens 10-22

Ohiohiker · June 21, 2011

www.strobist.com is the ultimate resource. Joe McNally has some great video tutorials on Kelby Training at www.kelbytraining.com. Kelby training is a pay to play site. It is $25/month and you could probably watch all Joe's videos in a couple of hours. I have seen them and they are great. Another place is Creative Live. Zack Arias has 2 great workshops there you can buy and download. Also Andy and Mikey of Lighten Up and Shoot are doing a workshop on creative live soon. Andy and Mikey have also put up several videos on Youtube that may help. Here is their YouTube site.

Hope this helps!

mtopham · June 21, 2011

I would also suggest go out and experiment. See what works and what doesn't.

A few points to remember:

Aperture will control the flash exposure.
Shutter speed will control the ambient exposure.
Use your flash in manual mode.

sharagim1 · June 21, 2011

Ohiohiker wrote: »

www.strobist.com is the ultimate resource. Joe McNally has some great video tutorials on Kelby Training at www.kelbytraining.com. Kelby training is a pay to play site. It is $25/month and you could probably watch all Joe's videos in a couple of hours. I have seen them and they are great. Another place is Creative Live. Zack Arias has 2 great workshops there you can buy and download. Also Andy and Mikey of Lighten Up and Shoot are doing a workshop on creative live soon. Andy and Mikey have also put up several videos on Youtube that may help. Here is their YouTube site.

Hope this helps!

thanks alot ohiohiker, it was great information, i"m tryinh to buy monthly in kelbytraning.com,
i hope i will able to learn strobe lighting portriet outdoor,

sharagim1 · June 21, 2011

mtopham wrote: »

I would also suggest go out and experiment. See what works and what doesn't.

A few points to remember:
Aperture will control the flash exposure.

Shutter speed will control the ambient exposure.

Use your flash in manual mode.

mtopham, thanks for your response, but still i need all detail about outdoor flash photography and combo between.

pathfinder · June 21, 2011

Canon EOS DSLR set to Manual Mode. Set the exposure ( aperture, shutter speed, ISO ) to capture the background - you may want to expose the background 1/2 to 1 stop under exposed. Use the meter in your camera for this.

Set your 580ex to ETTL, and fire away. Or use you flash on manual, and calculate your flash exposure via the Guide number for the 580ex. Either way will work. ETTL may be simpler to start with, but after shooting with a guide number and a specific flash to subject distance, you will know what aperture to use very quickly. Shoot a frame and check your histogram.

If it is real bright out, you may need to activate HSS on your 580ex - this is especially true if you need shutter speeds higher than 1/250th to properly expose the background. This will change rapidly around sunset as the light is falling rapidly.

sharagim1 · June 22, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

Canon EOS DSLR set to Manual Mode. Set the exposure ( aperture, shutter speed, ISO ) to capture the background - you may want to expose the background 1/2 to 1 stop under exposed. Use the meter in your camera for this.

Set your 580ex to ETTL, and fire away. Or use you flash on manual, and calculate your flash exposure via the Guide number for the 580ex. Either way will work. ETTL may be simpler to start with, but after shooting with a guide number and a specific flash to subject distance, you will know what aperture to use very quickly. Shoot a frame and check your histogram.

If it is real bright out, you may need to activate HSS on your 580ex - this is especially true if you need shutter speeds higher than 1/250th to properly expose the background. This will change rapidly around sunset as the light is falling rapidly.

thanks for response and share some info about outdoor flash photography,

last weekend i was in half moon bay beach, and i had someportreit sunset shot, but i"m not happy with any of them,
i used canon 5d mark ll with canon lens 70-200,2,8ll with 2 canon speedlight 580exll, one of them it was on the camera ,and secound one i used with umberella, and also attched flex tt1 and 2 flex tt5,,
i want to share some photo and if you have some idea and advice let me know

sharagim1 · June 22, 2011

f stop: f11

expousre time: 1/60
ISO SPEED: 160
FOCAL: 70 MM
one camera flash( speedlight 580exll)
secound one , off camea flash with umberella (front, right hand side)

there i s no post procesing, right of the compact flash memory,

Ohiohiker · June 22, 2011

My 2 cents worth. This is a great start. Personnally I would raise the ISO to get a slightly faster shutter speed. Maybe around your sync speed. This will also allow you to turn down the power on your strobes getting faster recycle time and use less of your batteries. As for your fill on camera right, it appears that is was low. It looks like her head is casting a shadow on his head. I would raise that light up. You main light is making his left eye dark. You can move that light closer to the front of your subjects to help fix that. So as far as mixing ambient and strobe it looks pretty good for a first attempt.

BTW, just a few other things, the image looks soft, speeding up the shutter speed by raising the ISO will probably help. The horizon is crooked - easily fixed in post. Also I personally try to avoid the horizon going through someone's head. I see why you did it though to get the sun in the back ground.

Just some food for thought.

sharagim1 · June 22, 2011

Ohiohiker wrote: »

My 2 cents worth. This is a great start. Personnally I would raise the ISO to get a slightly faster shutter speed. Maybe around your sync speed. This will also allow you to turn down the power on your strobes getting faster recycle time and use less of your batteries. As for your fill on camera right, it appears that is was low. It looks like her head is casting a shadow on his head. I would raise that light up. You main light is making his left eye dark. You can move that light closer to the front of your subjects to help fix that. So as far as mixing ambient and strobe it looks pretty good for a first attempt.

BTW, just a few other things, the image looks soft, speeding up the shutter speed by raising the ISO will probably help. The horizon is crooked - easily fixed in post. Also I personally try to avoid the horizon going through someone's head. I see why you did it though to get the sun in the back ground.

Just some food for thought.

thanks for some tips, but still i don"t know why most of my images which is been shot in last weekend in soft and flat,
my opinion 2 reason or more
1)didn"t use good shutter speed,(most of them less then 160 secound)
2)use seound speedlight flash 580exll instead off camera flash, i put in my camera and fill light directly to the sunbject face,
(the first camera flah attached to umerella and point to the sunbject right hand side
i just want to know which apprecture i the best for sunset portriet?
or none of them or more?
and advice would be great

pathfinder · June 22, 2011

Why f11 at 1/60th??

Why not f8 at 1/120th, or even f5.6 at 1/250th - they are all the same ambient exposure?? And would require lowered output from your flash with faster recycling of your capacitor.

Even f5.6 should give adequate depth of field if you aren't too close to your subject

I like the pose, but do not like his right arm amputation. His left eye is too dark as mentioned.

I doubt your softness is due to camera movement, even at 1/60th of a second, since the exposure of the couple was done in the brief flash of your speedlite. Unless you really stab your shutter button.

My 7D has great focusing accuracy, but you might check your AF and your lens by shooting some brick walls from a tripod with a shutter cable release, and even mirror lock up if you want to determine the cause of your soft image.

It may be that a little more in camera sharpening will make a world of difference also/ The 70-200 f2.8 IS L II is a great lens, as is the 10-22.

sharagim1 · June 23, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

Why f11 at 1/60th??

Why not f8 at 1/120th, or even f5.6 at 1/250th - they are all the same ambient exposure?? And would require lowered output from your flash with faster recycling of your capacitor.

Even f5.6 should give adequate depth of field if you aren't too close to your subject

I like the pose, but do not like his right arm amputation. His left eye is too dark as mentioned.

I doubt your softness is due to camera movement, even at 1/60th of a second, since the exposure of the couple was done in the brief flash of your speedlite. Unless you really stab your shutter button.

My 7D has great focusing accuracy, but you might check your AF and your lens by shooting some brick walls from a tripod with a shutter cable release, and even mirror lock up if you want to determine the cause of your soft image.

It may be that a little more in camera sharpening will make a world of difference also/ The 70-200 f2.8 IS L II is a great lens, as is the 10-22.

i"m not happy with my shots which is been got t with canon 70-200, 2.8ll with canon 5d markll, 2600 $ lens should be the quallity of image like this?
kit lens isable to get much sharper image than this
i just bought this lens last year and now meybe need to redjust and alighment of len tuning. or so.....
apreture, shuter speed , need to change for resolve soft focus,
i will share another image with differt setup:
please give some advice

F stop: 8
expousre time: 1/200
ISO: 100
focal lentch: 70mm
one camera flash 580 exll

Ohiohiker · June 23, 2011

Looks like your lens may need to go in and get checked. Give it try with your other lens and see if it is soft also.

sharagim1 · June 23, 2011

Ohiohiker wrote: »

Looks like your lens may need to go in and get checked. Give it try with your other lens and see if it is soft also.

how do i know my canon lens 70-200,2.8ll need to microadjustment and alighment, if need it can i do it myself? or should i send to canon factroy?

pathfinder · June 23, 2011

I think the point of focus is on the seams in her leather jacket on her right arm, which is in front of her face. This MIGHT indicate the lens is focusing too close to the focal plane. But....

Are you using a single AF point? Do you know how to choose and use a single solitary AF point in single shot AF mode?

Or are you letting the 7D choose from the whole panel of AF points in your viewfinder??

To be assured of very crisply focused images ( with the focus precisely where YOU want it ) YOU - not the camera - MUST select and USE a SINGLE AF point for each frame shot.

If you are using a single AF point, and placing it on your subject precisely where you want focus to occur, I do apologize. I do know that lots of folks complain about their camera's and lenses focus, but are not using them properly for the sharpest images.

The 7D with the 70-200f2.8 IS L II should have extremely sharp images if everything is up to snuff. Raw images will not look sharpest, until properly sharpened in the RAW converter, and jpgs sharpness will be impacted by the sharpening levels selected for the camera to use in creating the jpg.

Strobist technique Sunset portrait flash photography

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