Keep the "MOOD"

[SIMPLEPHOTOLT]

Hi,
I hear people keep on saying that when you take a picture, you want to keep the mood, especially when you use flash, you want to have your shutter speed as low as possible with f/stop as wide open as possible to take in as much ambient light as you can and use flash to fill. I have followed these guideline (assuming they are right), but people don't seem to like the pictures I took very much (I'm not sure I do). I have shot a reunion for a group of people in a restaurant where ambient light is very low. I tried to take in as much ambient as I could, but flash is still the main light. But then aside from the *** E-TTL II giving dark result, the color seem too red (tungsten light). How you I fix these kinds of problem and can any one tell me when I should take in ambient light and try to keep the "mood" and when not to?
THanks

[craiglee]

fix the red color by white balance. are you shooting in AV mode? that's usually an easy way to get the mood right, but also using flash to fill. although if it's too dark your shutter speed will probably be too slow. i'm not sure you can do much if it's pretty dark. you're limited by your flash, unless you get some big strobes.

[sando]

Flash can still be the main light, but mixed properly it can keep the mood.

Example:

Without flash, I wanted to keep the light from the window:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i228/sando3/IMG_4825.jpg

With off-camera flash, I bounced, mixing the ambient/flash and played with the exposure until it didnt overpower the ambient light:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i228/sando3/IMG_4824.jpg

[SIMPLEPHOTOLT]

Thank you for replying guys.

Flash can still be the main light, but mixed properly it can keep the mood.

Example:

Without flash, I wanted to keep the light from the window:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i228/sando3/IMG_4825.jpg

With off-camera flash, I bounced, mixing the ambient/flash and played with the exposure until it didnt overpower the ambient light:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i228/sando3/IMG_4824.jpg



But then when you are in situation where one or at most two shots are all you've got. No time to test and retest, then what do you do. People don't seem to want to wait for me to do test shots. Besides, the ambient light is not matching your flash. Oh, how does the gel stuff for flash works, do you know?

[Rudeofus]

Hi,
Ithe color seem too red (tungsten light). How you I fix these kinds of problem and can any one tell me when I should take in ambient light and try to keep the "mood" and when not to?
THanks


Is your problem that the parts affected mostly by flash look normal but the surroundings (mostly ambient lit) look yellow/red ?

If so, then the reason for this is that your flash outputs daylight, while the ambient light is much more red (5500K vs. 3200K or so). What you need to do is match the color temperature of your flash with that of the ambient light.

One way to achieve this is to put color gel on your flash which mimicks the color of the ambient light. Depending on which flash you have you may want to check out www.stofen.com (http://www.stofen.com), they sell colored flash bouncers, which do the job nicely for me, and are available for most brands.

Cheers

PS: Whether you want to preserve the mood or not depends on what kind of story wou want to tell with your photo.

[sando]

Thank you for replying guys.





But then when you are in situation where one or at most two shots are all you've got. No time to test and retest, then what do you do. People don't seem to want to wait for me to do test shots. Besides, the ambient light is not matching your flash. Oh, how does the gel stuff for flash works, do you know?

If I was at a Wedding, say, and you know in that situation you never get 2 chances and your 1 and only shot needs to be perfect then I always think "If in doubt, leave it out" - i.e. use ambient only. If you have to use flash, for whatever reason then always bounce at 45 degrees or at 60 degrees and use +1EC (if you use Av or Tv). This works, because the camera, in a dark situation, will underexpose by a stop because of a phenomenon called NEVEC. Adding +1EC will help bring up the ambient light, and by bouncing the flash, you will get a good 'mix' of ambient and flash light, therefore your backgrounds will be less red.

Also, one good way of bouncing is to have the flash bounce directly behind you. You can therefore use the space behind you as the light-source. Always bump up the flash exposure by 1 stop in this instance.