Friend's night portrait

So..this is pretty much the first time I've done any night portrait shoot and to say the least, I couldn't quite nail it.

I tried getting some background but resorted to using flash to freeze the subject but even then there was blur, any other proper way of doing this?

Critique me please!

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Well...I am no expert but the one thing that distracts my eye is the railling behind your subject. If there was a way to set your subject on a pot where we could have the background ONLY without the railling. And the image is slightly tilted to the right...might want to straighten the verticals.

That being said...night photography is hard !

According to the exif data, your flash didn't fire? The exif also reads as f/4.5 for 5 seconds... is that right? Or am I reading something wrong here?

You might be able to take that railing out in photoshop since the image is mainly black at the bottom. I think it's not a bad image since the flash is off-camera. Makes a huge difference. I like the orange-lit background and sky.

In terms of the blur you experienced, I saw you used a 5 second exposure with an ISO of 160 and an aperture of 4.5. This combination is definitely a good recipe for motion blur.

If you want to keep it at the aperture you're at, then you'll have no choice but to raise the ISO and choose a faster shutter speed. It's hard for a person to stand completely still for 5 seconds.

...ocf ... doesn't show on exif then... duh!

I'd think the easiest way to get the background would be to take the first one of him with flash, then move him out the way and stop down to f/9 or something to get the background with flash off. Then merge the two.

Hmmm, I'm no expert on image merging so I opted for doing both in one. It was 4.5 and a 5 second exposure, I used a flash to freeze him to get majority of the data there and he stood still for 5 seconds.

Also, it says flash didnt go off because I had another flash that was supposed to fire, which didn't.

And railing, you mean the shadows are distracting?

I like the shot, but IMO, the bottom portion detracts from the shot. I took the liberty of editing it since you allow editing. Since I was cropping it anyway, I also straightened the horizon. I'm not real happy with the crop since it places him dead center, but didn't want to lose too much of the background. I also increased saturation a little and played with the contrast. I don't know if that's how he wears his hair or if perhaps the wind blew it, but made a few changes to it.
BTW, I don't think another flash would have improved this image. One other thing, my exif data nearly always shows no flash was used when I do use a flash. Never have figured that out.

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Your shutter is very slow and there is too much light on the subject. Set your shutter speed to 1/250 and change your ISO to properly expose the background and your aperture value to properly expose the subject.

Also, with these kinds of shoots, if you really do want to use a longer shutter speed than 1/250, using second curtain sync can be your friend. It won't fire the flash until the very end, preventing blur/ghosting from the flash on the subject.

Fligi7 wrote in post #13580636
Your shutter is very slow and there is too much light on the subject. Set your shutter speed to 1/250 and change your ISO to properly expose the background and your aperture value to properly expose the subject.

Also, with these kinds of shoots, if you really do want to use a longer shutter speed than 1/250, using second curtain sync can be your friend. It won't fire the flash until the very end, preventing blur/ghosting from the flash on the subject.

For portraits, he doesn't need maximum flash sync. To help expose the background, he should be plenty safe around 1/80 or 1/100 at first or second curtain. ISO is the last thing I change after I determine the limits or desireability of shutterspeed and aperture.

The other thing I just thought of, do the same shot and set up, but right after the flash, have him duck out really quickly... If it is dark enough where he is standing, it is likely there wont be any motion detectable...

apixelintime wrote in post #13585132
The other thing I just thought of, do the same shot and set up, but right after the flash, have him duck out really quickly... If it is dark enough where he is standing, it is likely there wont be any motion detectable...

What the? Huh? HAH! That's the punchline!

Nathan wrote in post #13585500
What the? Huh? HAH! That's the punchline!

Not a joke. If you have never done this, take your camera out at night to a place with very little light pollution. Wear dark clothes. Find an object. Set up your tripod, switch to manual focus and focus on that object (flashlight works well here). Mirror lock up and cable release. Set it for 30 seconds, trip the shutter and go and paint the object with light from either your flashlight or a speedlight. Yes, you can walk in front of the camera... Just dont stay in any one place for too long and dont get between the light and the camera.

Yes it works. Look at some of the nightshoots I have done of cars... I am typically walking all around in front of the camera lighting the cars up...

apixelintime wrote in post #13586212
Not a joke.

I'm familiar with the concept, but I can't imagine the need or utility of it for this type of portrait shot.

Nathan wrote in post #13586353
I'm familiar with the concept, but I can't imagine the need or utility of it for this type of portrait shot.

Just giving an alternate method to possibly achieve the same goal...