blacking out the background

i watched a youtube vid (adorama tv i THINK) that was a speedlite workshop...

the instructor showed some images where there was a girl sort of in a 40's style outfit in what appeared to be an alley way at 1am (or whenever its darkest). there was one 'streetlight' type of illumination and it was really really Film Noir in concept...

then they showed an image of basically the same scene where his speedlight didnt fire and (in his narrative he mentioned) you could see it was more like 1PM in the middle of the day!

ive 'wasted lots of film' here lately trying to get the background on some shots around the house to completely go dark. ive cranked the SS (with corresponding HSS) all the way 1/8000' and while i can get id underexposed compared to the subject it sure seems to show a lot of detail...

ive tried changing the ISO, the aperture, shooting on manual and E-TTL, Av and E-TTL, Tv and E-TTL, manual and manual and of course all the rest of the settings and manual and they are just not working out...

ill have to see if ive saved any of them and host/post them for you...

kind of frustrating...

5d3 and 580exII if it matters...

gee if someone can nuke the background at 1pm using speedlite, then why would they make 2400ws or higher packs?

Hope you know how this works, looks no based on your questions. Start with sunny 16 rule and see what your flash can do.

Link to video?

bobbyz wrote in post #15924932
gee if someone can nuke the background at 1pm using speedlite, then why would they make 2400ws or higher packs?

Hope you know how this works, looks no based on your questions. Start with sunny 16 rule and see what your flash can do.

If he knew how it worked, he wouldn't be asking the question would he? Looks like he's asking for help, not condensation.

That said Ltdave, shutter controls ambient. 1/8000 should be enough to drop out the sun even with a wide open aperture assuming you have a reasonable ISO.

Basically you crank the aperture to f8 or something and you keep the SS at 1/250...

Setup

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Ltdave wrote in post #15924890
ive 'wasted lots of film' here lately trying to get the background on some shots around the house to completely go dark. ive cranked the SS (with corresponding HSS) all the way 1/8000' and while i can get id underexposed compared to the subject it sure seems to show a lot of detail...

Sounds like you have a spill problem. If you can flag the flash or use negative fill so its light doesn't bounce into the surroundings, you should be able to get the dark background you want.

oldvultureface wrote in post #15925078
Sounds like you have a spill problem. If you can flag the flash or use negative fill so its light doesn't bounce into the surroundings, you should be able to get the dark background you want.

sounds like what im looking for. ill give another go...

thanks

okay...

i was a little forgetful on some of the details in the video. i watched it nearly a year ago...

A) it was a GUY not a girl...

B) it was BHPhoto not Adorama...

C) High Pressure Sodium (he said Sodium Vapor) lamp and not the early afternoon sun...

here is the video. go to 1:11:20. its in the very tail end of the "using gels" portion and just prior to the using shutter speed to control ambient...

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=5byuHJ9uBns

maybe im missing something here or maybe ive no clue. who knows...

okay...

i think the spill was the right answer...

looks like re-watching this vid will get me closer to where i wanted to go....

im pretty dumb sometimes... lol

Spill could be the issue, if the spill is bouncing off ceiling and/or adjacent walls.

It might also be relative distance between subject and light, and distance from background to same light.

If subject is at 2.8' from light, and the background is 8' behind (and with no spill), the background receives -3EV of light compared to the subject. If he background is only 5.6' from the light, it gets -2EV of light and would never be 'black' (unless the color of the background was already black!)

But if the light starts out 8' from the subject, the background has to be 22' from the light for it to be -3EV in relative intensity!

Ltdave wrote in post #15925724
okay...

i was a little forgetful on some of the details in the video. i watched it nearly a year ago...

A) it was a GUY not a girl...

B) it was BHPhoto not Adorama...

C) High Pressure Sodium (he said Sodium Vapor) lamp and not the early afternoon sun...

here is the video. go to 1:11:20. its in the very tail end of the "using gels" portion and just prior to the using shutter speed to control ambient...

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=5byuHJ9uBns

maybe im missing something here or maybe ive no clue. who knows...

From watching the video, looks like a grid. At 1:12:25, he mentions a grid on the Amber gel. Around 1:07 he talks about grids and it looks like the same one he has on the red flash.