Help with off camera flash shot

Hello,

So I have a wedding this weekend during the day near the Boston skyline. It ends at 5PM but the bride and groom are hanging around town to party it up. I have convinced them to come out a bit later for a night time skyline shot.

My idea is to use this exact spot in the link below and put the B&G in front of it with an off camera flash (non-ETTL) behind them to light up the vail. Pretty much combine this pic

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

If you already know where you're going, why not go at the same time of evening a day early and do some test exposures?

It's hard to say what flash power you are going to use without knowing anythhing else. To me, 1/2 power sounds insanely high, unless you bring a tripod, shoot at ISO 100 f/11. Set up your background exposure, and the rest you will have to do with flash. You may have to bring two flashes because it's unlikely that you will get a balanced exposure on the bride and groom in relation to the sky. It might end up that you only get a rimlight on the couple without enough detail on the rest of the bodies. In that case you might need just a tiny touch of fill flash.

Bpesca wrote in post #12946555
I'm fairly new to the off camera flash so I'm looking for some input. I assume just meter for the skyline and start the flash behind them at 1/2 power and go from there? If anyone has any ideas or input on how to speed up my "finding the perfect setting" it would be greatly appreciated. FYI the B&G are good friends of mine and I have warned them that this might take several takes to get it right and they were fine with that.

Many thanks!

Yeah. Set your camera and flash to full manual. Expose the camera for the background, then position your lights and use flash exposure to get the subjects properly exposed. Check the link in my signature "Using Manual Flash".

i was thinking what Lloyd said. I often do shots similar to this and my setup is pretty easy. Ill use my 35L or 50L, start at about ISO 1600, f2.2ish, 1/125th and see where that takes me. Then I will set my flash behind them at about 1/32-1/8th, and then use another flash off camera through an umbrella to fill them in. Feel free to check out my blog, there are quite a few shots I do towards the end of the weddings that use this technique.

Just reaffirming what others have said:

1) Take a couple test shots (without firing any external lights) and set your exposure for the background. Yes your subjects will be dark, but that doesn't matter since you will worry about lighting them in step 2. Start with your shutter speed around 1/160.

2) Set your remote flash(es) in manual mode and start at about 1/16. Fire a test shot and see if you like it. Dial the flash power up or down based on the look you want to achieve. One light from behind them will give them a nice rim light and silhouette. Use multiple lights if you want to get more creative (ie, have different angles of rim light or if you want to light the front side of them as well.)

3) Drag your shutter if you want more ambient light in the background.

Good luck! I'd recommend practicing this before trying on a client for the first time. On the day of, just work with your settings and the couple until you find what looks good to you.