So i took a photo recently at a party....

During this event i was experimenting with my lighting and placing them differently to see what looks better, and I really liked this look. Basically there was hardly any light available during the time i took this pic (dance floor shot).

I totally forgot about what settings I used for this (in terms of ratios).. I use 600ex-rt on camera and 600ex-rt off camera for indoor receptions.

If I had to re-take this photo (in terms of lighting, how they have a hair/seperation light as well as the background ambient raised due to the flash) while they are correctly exposed.. what kind of ratio do you guys think would be required to take this photo all over again?

For example, 2:1? 4:1? 8:1? ratio (on camera to off camera). This light was placed here behind the group as you can see at the bottom right hand side of the pic (leg of the stand) and the flash was pointed upwards at the ceiling..

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …8246399913/in/p​hotostream

i'd say your lighting experiment worked very well, beautiful shot, easy to look it it's so good

The guy on the right almost looks like a cutin the way the light is rimming him

Purely looking at the light, I'd say that the brightness of the background is only thing I wish were different. You're probably bouncing off high ceilings and getting lots of scatter. Do you use 'zoom' on your flashes ? That may help control the light a little more.

But overall ? Aside from the background, it looks great.

are you talking about changing the amount of light in the background? or changing the background itself (As in no chairs etc. in the back)?

I think the flashes were zoomed in at somewhere around 135mm

Ah--sorry for the ambiguity--I mean the brightness of the wall (and other junk) in the background. It's largely a preference, but I think it's nice to be able to isolate the subjects a little more by having the ambient be lower by about a stop--it helps convey the feeling that they're at a party with atmosphere rather than in a cold studio. But yes, a lower ambient would have improved the shot, I think, also by having that background (chairs etc.) not be as bright and noticeable in the photo.

I should also clarify something. Usually the background of a shot is lit mostly by ambient (a function of the natural lighting + your ISO, Aperture, shutterspeed); but in this case it looks like your flash is lighting up that background through diffusion from the bounce, though I could be wrong about that.

yep you are correct.. the whole scene is lit by flashes there since it was fully dark on the dance floor.

I'm slowly getting better at balancing the ambient with flash.. but the only issue I have sometimes is if I lower my shutter speed too much or higher my ISO too much.. the lights in the venue (mostly down lights) start causing shadows on my subjects faces (even though I'm using flash to fill their faces).. and the images start losing colour balance (become more orengy or bluey based on the ambient in the venue).. for this reason alone i like to light up 80% with flash and only have 20% ambient or so in there.. hmm but i think by doing that the image sometimes ends up losing its warm / cold feel...

i like the light background is lacking but looks good other wise