One of the topics that is initially difficult to understand
is "Expose for the Ambient Light" for outdoor portraits. I have had many questions about why I use
off-camera flashes outdoors. Flashes are
for indoor use....correct? Just the
opposite. I use flashes more outdoors
that I do indoors, and here is why.
Expose for the ambient light. What does this mean? Simply, set the exposure to capture the
ambient light correctly. This means that
your sky or background is properly exposed.
Now, if you insert a person into the frame, they are often a silhouette
because the shutter is set very fast to limit the light from the bright
background. The background is correct,
but the person is too dark. This is
where the flash fills in the subject so that both the sky and subject are
properly exposed.
So, expose for the ambient light and let the flash(s) expose
your subject. You will end up with the
entire picture being properly exposed. Your subjects won't be underexposed and
your backgrounds won't be blown out. Make sure you set your flash to High Speed
Sync to keep up with the faster shutter speeds.
In this example, you can see the blurred out grass behind the
model. I set the exposure for the
background. The settings were 1/500th,
f7.1, ISO 200. At these settings the
model was well over 2 stops underexposed. If I would have exposed for the model, the grass in the background would have been well over exposed. With a EX600-RT in ETTL mode, shooting through a white umbrella just 18
inches from the model camera left, we bring the exposure back with out the
over-flash look. I added a second flash
behind the model camera right at 1/64 power with a 1/4 stop CTO gel attached. It gave that sunset look, when actually it
was taken in mid afternoon. It was very
windy that day and I just needed a quick shot.......the hair was going all over
the place!
Enjoy.
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