portrait outside- do you point the flash directly at your subject?

[WildWolf]

Inside I have no problem bouncing my flash to produce (imo) excellent pictures BUT when I am outside and there is nothing to bounce the flash off, I point it directly at the subject and the pictures do not come out great (again imo). I have a stoffen but it says not to use it when pointing the flash directly at your subject. What is the rule here for outside portraits when you want to use the flash to fill? Thanks in advance

[motion_projekt]

Flash Diffuser maybe? im not sure.

[Curtis N]

Forget the Sto-Fen outdoors.

Use direct flash. The challenge is in balancing the flash and ambient portions of the exposure.

Post a few shots and tell us what you don't like about them.

[WildWolf]

i actually deleted the ones I didn't like.....I will try to take more this weekend and post them

[Wilt]

Stoffen's own advice, "don't use it outdoors", at least conforms to what Curtis and many many of us preach...that the Stoffen outdoors is nothing but a waste of flash energy!

If you want 'softer' direct light source, you do what studio photographers do indoors...make the apparent size of the flash LARGE in area.
You can shoot it into a small softbox(Lumiquest, Wescott, Photoflex) to make the source appear larger, or
you can bounce it off a flash-mounted reflector like the Lumiquest ('the Flying Nun') light modifier, or
you could bounce it off a large panel reflector (which requires someone to hold, or a stand)

[philbyuk]

point it direct.outdoors (youll find it difficult bouncing off the sky?) put camera in av mode...flash in ettlII mode...and add or decrease fec to get the correct 'fill flash'to what u like remember the camera will meter for the ambient light and the flash will meter for the subject...hope this helps

[sapearl]

Forget the Stofen... that's not the problem. It sounds like you're overpowering the subject with too intense a flash setting. Here's how you did it in the old days of film - once you understand the basic principals you can apply it to your situation. The pictures will be perfect.

I ran my cameras on manual. I would take an incident meter reading with a hand held meter, placed at the subjects position, with the dome of the meter facing me. At ISO 400 for example, the reading in bright shade would be about 1/125 sec @ f.8.

I used an automatic Metz strobe, but I could control it's output. I knew I wanted FILL FLASH, just like the Canon ETTL system is designed to do, so I would set the flash to throw out a splash of light that was ONE STOP LESS than the ambient light - here it was f/8.

Now, in our digital situation..... let's say you have bright shade, and let's go with an ISO of 200. I'm guessing that if you are using "T" shutter priority @ 1/60 second, your camera will be reading about 1/60 sec @ f/8. Leaving the flash in AUTO - ETTL, it should automatically throw out an amount of light that again is ONE STOP LESS than ambient, giving you a pleasing photo.

That being said, since everything is so automatic in our digital age, things can easily "trick" the flash into thinking it needs to put out more or less light than what YOU want. Strong back lighting with mess it up. A brides super white gown can throw it off.
A solid black suit will fool it's readings. Bottom line: Shoot, chimp, experiment, reshoot, chimp some more, take lots of pictures...... eventually you will understand the foibles of fill flash. Have fun.;) - Stu