Contrast advise appreciated

[blue_max]

I seem to have a mental block at the moment - I thought I understood what I was doing, but am having problems.

I am going to be taking pictures of people in the same setting - one in and one out, so to speak. I want them standing by the lovely window with the blind and want to achieve a light and modern feeling. I thought if I reduced the exposure by a couple of stops, I would be able to gain a little detail in the window shade and keep the exposure correct for the people. It seems that I can have one or the other as it is probably too much contrast.

My thought was to add flash to fill in the people's faces, but am I just making the thing worse? Should I just darken the window somehow?

If I need to add flash, with a 10d would it be best to get a 580ex or 420ex - or maybe a studio flash and softbox.

I have enclosed a pic so you can see what I am up to. I don't want to spend more money than I have to, but would rather buy the best thing for the job.

All advice and thoughts appreciated.

Graham

[tim]

I wouldn't take the photo there to start with, even if you do it perfectly it'll still come out looking horrible with that background.

If you do have to do it there, you'll HAVE to use flash fill, and it probably still won't look great. Choose your flash based on your budget, and use a diffuser like the LightSphere II. You'll also have to play with metering modes to get a good result.

Good luck!

[scottbergerphoto]

That is a fairly typical back lit situation. If you try to use ambient light to expose the subject in the chair, you blow out the window light. I suggest that you set the exposure for the ambient light for the window (take your meter reading of the ambient light from the window) and use your flash to expose the person in the chair. Dial down FEC until you get a balance between ambiet light and flash that pleases you.

[blue_max]

Thanks for the advice fellas, I will skip this venue. I was just taken with the lovely light from the blind. It's one of those times when you hope someone can give a one sentence answer that will work straight away.

If the exposure is on a knife edge, it will highly increase the chances of failure. There's arty and there's plain bad.

I would prefer not to use flash, but may get a 420ex to try and lift any shadows, when shooting indoors.

Thanks again.

Graham

[pierrot]

...or use a fairly large reflector?

[blue_max]

Yes pierrot, that would also help - thanks.

I think if I was doing a one-off, I might persevere, but I may have to shoot over fifty people and the thought of telling them that none are really any good, would be a little embarrasing to say the least!

I'll leave this to the pros and take a safer option I think.

I have learnt not to be too ambitious until my experience catches up with me.

Thanks all.

Graham