Exposing for the Ambient Light, Part 2

©JP Parmley

In a previous post, I described exposing for the background.  I wanted to share with you a few pictures from a recent wedding where this was put to use.  In each of these shots, I exposed the shot for the background that included a bright blue sky lit by a bright sun.  I then added two Canon 600EX RT flashes in ETTL each behind 36" softboxes.  Without the flashes, the bride and groom would be underexposed do to the faster shutter speed for the bright sky.  Once the flashes were added, one camera left and one camera right, the colors and depth of the shots exploded.  Take a look at the colors and the even exposure.....no blown out sky, no under exposed subject. 

 

1/200, f9, ISO 200, Canon 5DMIII

1/200, f9, ISO 200, Canon 5DMIII

1/200, f13, ISO 200, Canon 5DMIII

Once you have this method down you can start experimenting with under and over exposing the ambient light.  Take a look at these two pictures....which one was taken first in the day?  The answer might surprise you.  The  first one was taken 15 minutes prior to the second.  So how did we get the "Dusk" look.  I simply underexposed the background by moving the shutter from 1/200 to 1/300.   This small change gave me an appearance that the shot was much later in the day.

1/300, f9, ISO 200, Canon 5DMIII

1/200, f9, ISO 200, Canon 5DMIII

Enjoy