Portraits in shade...flash?

[Hazey]

I am starting at the bottom and hope to work my way up into paid outdoor portrait photography. I have a friend with two little girls who is thrilled to have me practice on her littlies, in the hope of a nice portrait or two.
It is winter here and the overcast days are dull...and too cold for tots outdoors. Today is sunny and warmish for winter so have decided to have a go today.I will have to take the photos in the shade to avoid the kids squinting right? And use flash at full power?
I am using a 40D and a 430ex. I know I can take them in the sunlight with the sun behind them and use the flash for fill but am not confident in getting the lighting right doing it this way. Would I need the flash to be full power if my subject is backlit?
Sorry for the newb questions...we all have to start somewhere.
BTW...I have looked at the strobist site and all that's giving me is a headache.:rolleyes: HELP????

[andrew748]

i'm sure i will be corrected and we will both find a proper way of doing this, but at the moment i am exposing for the sky and manually bumping up the power on my flash until i get the right setting.

[Hazey]

Andrew...I use manual and expose for the sky too, since reading Understanding Exposure and it's working so well. Everyone keeps asking if I use a polariser because the sky colour is so blue. It does seem to expose the rest of the picture really well too.
However..it's not going to remove harsh shadows from faces caused by full sun...and it's not going to help my exposure under trees. I tried the exposing for green making it -2EV as Bryan says but my SS was too slow then for moving kids at 1/60.

I am using a 17-55 2.8 IS or may use the 85mm.

[andrew748]

try exposing for the grass in shade and going +1

[sapearl]

Hi Hazey, once you get the hang of it this is really not too difficult. Just takes a bit of practice. Here's a similar thread that discussed some related issues:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=541891

Make the shots in the shade, with preferrably a shady or midtone background. If the background is brighter than the subjects, there's the potential for throwing off your metering, or just making the background appear overly bright relative to the subjects.

[sapearl]

I would not go full power on the flash Hazey - likely you would blow their faces out and destroy most of the highlight detail. In the old days this was easier in some ways with film and a hand held meter, but you can make it work now with relatively little heart ache.

First you want to determine your ISO. If this is medium bright shade, you can easily go with ISO 200 or 400. There is only 1-stop difference. At ISO 400 in medium shade, your settings will be in the neighborhood of 1/125 sec @ f/8. At ISO 200 that would become about 1/125 sec @ f/5.6.

Since these are kids that might be moving around, I'd suggest shutter priority to freeze "potential" action. Set the flash for AUTO-ETTL. Ideally it will splash in about 1-stop less of light, which should give a pleasant fill with a bit of modelling. This is what you want for texture and some depth.... not the deer in the headlights nuclear blast of full power :D.

Actually, if your shadow light is constant, go to full MANUAL on the camera. Manually set your shutter and aperture as I've suggested, but again leaving your flash on AUTO-ETTL. You may have to experiment a little with the strobe though and go a little FEC+ or FEC- depending upon your results. Here is an example of one of my candid "shade portraits."

==>

[Hazey]

Stu..I so appreciate you trying to help.Thankyou.
I went and read the thread you suggested...and also the ones leading off from there. I have an enormous headache now.:lol:
There is so much to learn, sometimes I wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew. I want to understand all this stuff YESTERDAY!
One step at a time, and patience is all I can do..

I did a massive photo cull yesterday...too many CR2's for my computers hard drive and many of them were crappy anyways. BUT..it was such a valuable exercise for me as I was able to see my learning curve..all the way from January when I got my camera, until now. I have learned a LOT in 7 months and my photography and understanding thereof has improved out of sight. So that alone encouraged me to tackle this 'flash thing' head on, in the knowledge that it's all part of the same curve and that I WILL 'get it' eventually...with help from you and others here that so patiently help us newbies. Back in Feb/March, I never thought I'd understand SS and Aperture...and now I use my camera in full manual mode.:D And I 'get' it.

I have decided after reading your last post, to put the littlies aside for a few more weeks and practice on a subject that's more likely to stay put....maybe a garden gnome.;) I imagine the light would change too much with the subject moving around and I need to start at BASIC.

Now...I did read in the other threads, Curtis's recommendations for changing some of the setting in the cameras custom functions for flash....he mentioned in particular Cf.3 and Cf.14. I have looked through my manual and can't find these functions.....the ones in the manual are listed as roman numerals and nothing goes past 7 let alone up to 14. What am I missing?
Also...does my 430ex have a High Sync Speed or is that only the 580ex?

Thinking WAY ahead...once I have my head around this flash stuff and actually understand it, then I hope to get some off camera stuff going. But first things first.:) Is it yesterday yet?

[sapearl]

Hazey - glad we can all help. It sounds like you've made a tremendous amout of progress in really, a relatively short period of time.

With digital that sort of thing is possible, and at minimal cost. It took me years to get the hang of really satisfying fill flash, the way I like it, and at substantial cost. But you have really accomplished a lot with hard work and consistent diligence. I like the idea of using the garden gnome - he should make an excellent subject and allow you to practice at your convenience, and at different times of the day.

I'm afraid I can't help you much on the Custom Functions. I'm a pretty simple direct person when it comes to exposure, and I like to minimize my options. I just use the basic old school concepts of ambient light, shutter speed, aperture and a bit of fill. If you want to see a few more shots from that wedding series, you can go here:

http://pearlphoto.blogspot.com/2007/10/horsing-around-at-landerhaven.html

And when I'm not doing "people pictures," this is my other passion:

http://www.pbase.com/sapearl/cleveland_flats

[Hazey]

Actually, I was only joking about the gnome...but come to think of it.....:)
Next I will move up to me three teenage kids...THEN onto the little moving ones.
Stu, I was in awe of your talent whilst browsing your Cleveland shots.....you have an amazing ability.
You are right...we digital people have such an advantage over the original slr shooters. Your mistakes took rolls and rolls of film and would have been very costly. These days we can look at our results instantly and make the changes so we can reshoot. The cost would also have weeded our those most serious about photography....these days we can all have a dslr and knowledge and help is available at the click of a link.

I feel that I have learned a mountain load of info over the last 7 months...but it's a drop in the ocean of what there is left to learn. It will be a challenge there is no doubt...and the flash side of things is the biggest hurdle for me yet.
I like your 'minimize my options' philiosophy. I think sometimes we make things harder than they need to be.
Anyway, the best thing for me is to have a go, post my results and then ask how to fix it. Thanks for the great starting points...just need to go find a gnome.
THANK YOU! And stay tuned...I will be back.:D