Attempt at Sunset Shot

430 EX Camera right

worked reasonably well.
Use the gradient tool in Lightroom to kill the bright grass in front of them.
Feathering the flash up helps minimize this problem when shooting.

Looks great... besides the watermark everywhere :P

Also, like dmward said. You need to balance the flash with the exposure. I think I might have exposed a tad longer to give the hills behind them some fill. Overall, solid though. The next trick is to make the flash not look like flash

Thanks for the input! Isn't the trick with every shot to make flash not look like flash?

On that note, how do you deal with the sky? Slowing shutter and Exposing the background would have lost and possibly blown some detail in the sky? Would you adjust in post or composite? At this point it had gotten pretty dark.

Thanks for any advice!

dmward wrote in post #16071633
worked reasonably well.
Use the gradient tool in Lightroom to kill the bright grass in front of them.
Feathering the flash up helps minimize this problem when shooting.

learning something new everyday!

Noticed you had image editing approved, so;
Like this.
Took about 2 minutes in Lightroom.

Buchinger wrote in post #16072161
Thanks for the input! Isn't the trick with every shot to make flash not look like flash?

On that note, how do you deal with the sky? Slowing shutter and Exposing the background would have lost and possibly blown some detail in the sky? Would you adjust in post or composite? At this point it had gotten pretty dark.

Thanks for any advice!

Expose for the sky first and put you flash in manual to light your subjects. You could use a light meter or simply play with the power of your flash to get the desired results.

erdons wrote in post #16075031
Expose for the sky first and put you flash in manual to light your subjects. You could use a light meter or simply play with the power of your flash to get the desired results.

It somewhat depends on where its going to be easiest to add a gradient filter. If your subjects aren't in the sky, you can shoot it a bit hot, and bring it down in post. Never let your highlights get out of control, but RAW will give you some wiggle room in post.