Canadian Thanksgiving

[Drive4show]

Hi All ;

I was doing some photos for a family Thanksgiving get together , and finally got everyone outside near dusk. For photos like these , do you prefer to use a tripod or not ? I would really like to take better " posed" shots. On the second photo , I didn't notice the girl on the right was a little too close to the guy standing in the back .... I feel i could have positioned her better if i had the tripod and had a better look at her. Thanks for all c & c.312043

312044

[ibdb]

When shooting people shots outdoors, I definitely prefer to go without the tripod whenever possible. I don't do a lot of posed shots, and need the flexibility to be able to move and recompose faster than I could if I was using a 'pod. Even with posed shots, I find that it's easier to take several shots in quick succession that differ in composition without the tripod. It helps the subjects stay relaxed and appear more natural if they're not waiting for me to adjust my tripod all the time.

I wish the subjects in #1 had moved a little to camera right (subject left) so the guy in the white shirt wasn't right in front of the tree. The background on the right side of the shot is great, but then I hit the tree on the left side and lose all that color and background light.

I don't have a problem with the proximity of the two people on the right in shot #2, though seeing her hand is a bit odd. The subjects are very well lit, but I wish the background was a little bit brighter to take advantage of all the color that's behind them.

[Drive4show]

Thanks for the insight. I really was trying to get some good photos ( handheld) before we lost all the light. In the first shot , the tree was a problem , but there was a deck just to the right , so I grabbed as much color as I could. The second photo ... well , I'm lost as to how to brighten the background ! Hand held , the sun was down , and I had a flash to brighten the subjects ...... that is definitely an area I would need some help on !

[ibdb]

Thanks for the insight. I really was trying to get some good photos ( handheld) before we lost all the light. In the first shot , the tree was a problem , but there was a deck just to the right , so I grabbed as much color as I could. The second photo ... well , I'm lost as to how to brighten the background ! Hand held , the sun was down , and I had a flash to brighten the subjects ...... that is definitely an area I would need some help on !
Watching backgrounds, changing your shooting position to avoid including things you don't want included -- it's a never ending process.

As for the background lighting -- I don't know exactly what your shooting settings were, so I'll tell you the way I would go about it.

When shooting with flash, there are two exposures to worry about. There's the ambient light exposure (the natural light that in this case is what I'd use to see the background), and the flash exposure (the light hitting your subject).

I'd choose the aperture that I needed to get my desired depth of field for my main subject (the people), then I'd set the camera to manual or AV and meter the background at that aperture. Ideally I'd get the background either exposed correctly, or maybe underexposed by 1 stop -- it all depends on how much light there is to work with. If the shutter speed required to do that was too slow, I'd bump up the ISO a bit to see if I could get the background closer to what I wanted that way. Once you I had that set, I'd just aim at the people and shoot. The flash will put out less light than it might in a full automatic mode, as more ambient light is getting into the shot, and should result in a correctly exposed foreground and background. You might even be able to get away with a slower shutter speed than you'd ordinarily need as the light from the flash will serve to freeze any slight movement of your main subject.

I hope this helps -- feel free to ask if I've not been clear (which is entirely likely ;)).

[Drive4show]

Thanks ... I actually understood that !!!

So I don't have to adjust the flash up or down too ??

Thanks

[ibdb]

Nope. The flash will put out less light than it would if it was the only light for the scene. The flash will reduce its output to account for the ambient light you're allowing with the settings you choose in either M or AV.

The only time it would be a problem is if the exposure you needed to select to get any detail in the background resulted in you overexposing the foreground without flash. In that case, you're not going to be able to get a completely balanced exposure, but you'll be able to do it more times than you might think.

I really like shooting with flash and AV if I know I've got a decent amount of light for the background of the scene, and in M if things get a little trickier.

Once you've got the basics, you can worry about setting EC (exposure compensation) on the flash. Play around with the basics first though.

Here's an example of something I shot last week.

http://abergseyeview.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p146793307-4.jpg

Shot in AV, 1/500th at f/2.8, ISO 400. I set the camera exposure at +1/3, and the flash at -1. I find my camera meter frequently underexposes scenes like that a bit, so that's why I used +1/3 on the camera. I also wanted the flash to act as fill light for the shadows (the sun was low in the sky, but coming from behind the subjects), without shouting out that flash was used. I knew that I'd get a good background exposure at those settings, so I used AV instead of manual.