Exposure Inside and Out - Please Help

[cyanaura]

Hi:

I'm trying to take a shot of a human subject through a window using a Canon Rebel and obtain a good exposure of the subject inside and a good exposure of the outdoor setting. Can somebody please tell me how I might accomplish this through camera settings adjustments or the use of lights or a combination of both? I have a 550Ex Speedlight but that's it. However, if the only way to get the shot is to purchase additional lighting equipment, so be it. Oh yeah, here's a mock-up image that will give you a good sense of what I'm trying to accomplish and how miserably I'm failing so far in my attempts:

http://www.stfx.ca/people/jbastin/test%20shot/test%20shot.jpg

[Bluelens]

Where are you placing your flash?

What settings are you using on your camera?

I think you could get this shot without additional lights, you just have to get the right setting and flash placement.

[DocFrankenstein]

Piece of cake. Control exposure of the interior with the flash. Control the exposure of the exterior with your shutter speed and aperture.

1) Set ISO 100
2) White balance to sunny (or shoot raw if u can)
3) Meter for the sky. Punch those settings in the manual mode and take a shot without firing the flash. When you like how your background is exposed, next step.
4) Set your 500 to manual mode. Start at 1/8 power. Shoot. Look at histogram... adjust flash output.

Good luck

[chtgrubbs]

Meter your outdoor scene and figure out what exposure you need at the highest possible synch speed (1/125 sec?). If it is f11 at 1/125 sec. then you will need to enough flash to give you proper exposure for the person at F11. That should be possible with the 550EX. Set your camera to manual, set the predetermined exposure and set the flash to E-TTL. Make a trial exposure and use flash compensation settings to adjust the output of the flash to give you the desired exposure for the person. Or better still, get hold of a flash meter, set the flash on manual and adjust the flash manually until the meter tells you you have the same f-stop as the setting for outdoors.

[pdrow]

I am sure all these ideas are great, but if you still can't make it work, try this. do you have photoshop? if so, take two photos from same position, same focal length. On one, expose the exterior. on the other expose the interior correctly. put one on top of the other and using a layer mask and eraser, you can combine them into one to get the look you want.
pam

[MT]

The photoshop option will work - but it's better reserved for when you can't control the light.

You can't go wrong with Doc's suggestion - alternatively you might try setting the camera in manual mode - metered for the sky initially and try the flash in ETTL mode and adjusting FEC up or down.

[jfrancho]

You can use the exposure lock, but I think DocFrank's method will yield better, more predictable results. This could be a real cool shot. Good luck and let us know how you make out.
~JF

[cyanaura]

It's coming along, I guess. But the closer I am, the more the flash reflects off the windows. I can't bounce because the ceiling's too high, and I'm stuck with a subject that's not lit nearly as well as it needs to be. The shot taken further back is getting the most attention, but the subject in that one is definitely not well enough lit. Is there anything further I can do with the status quo or do I need to buy some external lights?


These were shot, btw, according to Doc's suggestion: 1) I metered the outside in automatic mode with the 550 turned off, then 2) switched over to manual, turned on the flash, and focused on the subject using the results derived from step 1).

http://www.stfx.ca/people/jbastin/test%20three/test%20three.jpg


http://www.stfx.ca/people/jbastin/test%202/test%20shot2.jpg

[DavidEB]

DocF's method is sytematic and is sure to work, and you got great results, but it's a lot of effort.

Here's a simple way -- put your camera in Av mode, set the Av to some intermediate value, pop up the internal flash, focus on the subject, and shoot. One step.

The camera will adjust the shutter speed to the background and adjust the flash luminance independently to the subject. Works every time for me. If you need to tweak you can use Exposure Compensation to shift background exposure and FEC to shift subject exposure. (note: in P mode this won't work, the camera won't force a slow enough shutter speed to properly expose the background; in Tv it won't work unless you're careful with your shutter speed pick, in M you're back to DocF's method. Of the scene modes it supposedly works only in the "nighttime subject" setting (though I've never used it).

also, for either the fully manual (DocF's) or automatic (above) method, you have to pick a combination of ISO and f-stop that allows the correct shutter speed to be in the right range -- fast enough to avoid blurred images yet slower than the high-speed sync speed (eg, 1/200) or use an external flash with FP option (I get inconsistent results with FP).