Using flash - ambient light in darkish areas?

Hi all,


So, I've been taking a lot of photos out and about in pubs and such over the last few weeks. I've gotten a bit more comfortable with it, so now I'm starting to expirement with it.

How and ever, the lack of ambient light in my photographs is starting to bug me.

Now, I believe I'm fairly sound with regards to the theory of it all. I've read/viewed the LightenupandShoot V-Book and I'm familiar with their genius square theory (great way to learn for those unfamiliar with it).

So, I go into a pub, find some unsuspecting people, approach them, and whip it out (my camera, of course!).

*CLICK*

f/4.5, 1/50, ISO 400

Now, I can't remember exactly what my flash settings were or what angle it was facing (generally speaking, I usually have it vertical/90 degrees at 1/1 or 1/2 power to avoid ugly shadows behind the people).

The men in my photograph are grand. Nicely exposed, in focus, etc. but the background is a whole different matter. Now, I realise that in order to have my ambient light at it's correct level, I'd need to expose for the light in the room, and that's, at ISO 400, likely to bring me into a two or three second exposure.

Clearly this isn't suitable. I need a fast shutter speed to avoid blur.

So I got to thinking, and I resigned myself to the thought that, I can't lower my shutter speed because blur is the enemy. Also, my photographs need to be usable and printable, so that rules out belting away at ISO 3200 all night.


So then I start thinking, I'm sure I've seen some photos of Brides and Grooms walking up/down the aisle, where flash was clearly used, and the church looks to be nicely exposed also.

Now, I use a 20D, and it's of course possible that every time I've seen this kinda photo, it's been taken with a 1D/5D with an L lens, and of course, you can't be expected to replicate that kinda stuff with much poorer gear.

I do wonder though, if anyone knows of any tips or hints that I could employ for next time I'm out taking photographs like these?

My photographs are fine as they are for their intended use, but I want to learn more about photography, and I plan to expirement with this next time out and about. I want ambient light.


Anyone got any ideas?

DaireQuinlan

The problem is that if the ambient isn't there then it just isn't there, nothing you can really do about that short of doing what you normally do to get a well exposed shot in a similar environment without flash.
You can live with your long shutter speeds and use rear curtain sync on the flash to ensure that even if the backgrounds are a mess that the main subjects are frozen. You could always up the iso a bit and underexpose the ambient by a couple of stops to try and get the shutter speeds into the realms of handholdability.
Be aware of course that once you start doing this that you have to start balancing the temperature of the flash and ambient light. Typically this means gelling your flash with a filter to match whatever environment you're shooting in (an orange filter if you're shooting under tungsten for example).
And remember, your gear is never the problem here. You could shell out on a 5d and start bemoaning the fact that you now need a 1.2 lens to get the shot. Pay through the nose for one of them and before you know it you'll be maintaining that you really REALLY need the next shiny body from canon because it gives you that crucial extra stop and ... and ...and ....

pete4130

ISO 3200, 1/20th second, f/4ish and manually set the flash to whatever it needs to be to highlight the subject. You'll get the ambient light in the background and the flash will fill the subject up close.

oshead

Good advise by the lads above, let me just add...

To include ambient light in your shot you first need to measure the exposure ttl of the scene using the ambient. Then underexpose, aka shutterdrag by a stop and a half or two. Then turn on the ttl flash and fire away. For canon bodiies you need to do this in manual mode, i think it works in aperture priority mode on nikons.

Btw, In pub scenes the light is usually orange in colour, so set the camera to tungsten and put a full CTO on the flash.

charybdis

All the replies so far have been remarkably good, just understand that you can control ambient light uniquely by changing shutter speed and not affect the output of the flash.

Deleted User wrote: »

The men in my photograph are grand. Nicely exposed, in focus, etc. but the background is a whole different matter. Now, I realise that in order to have my ambient light at it's correct level, I'd need to expose for the light in the room, and that's, at ISO 400, likely to bring me into a two or three second exposure.

Clearly this isn't suitable. I need a fast shutter speed to avoid blur.

That depends; you could increase ISO, use a larger aperture, and a slower shutter speed. Setting exposure parameters is about balance. You can also lower the power output of your flash and change either/both your ISO and aperture to compensate.

Deleted User wrote: »

My photographs are fine as they are for their intended use, but I want to learn more about photography, and I plan to expirement with this next time out and about. I want ambient light.

Perhaps you should become proficient at using only ambient light, and then augment with flash as needed.

Cheers for the responses.


Unfortunately, the 20D isn't the most amazing in the world at noise handling at high ISOs (not that I'm complaining, it most certainly isn't the worst in the world either).

Anyway, if I belt away at 3200 ISO, my results mean I've to get a bit hefty with the noise luminance in Camera RAW, which can make the photos look fairly soft.


Here's a group shot at ISO 3200 (the room is huge, and the roof is black, so it's a nightmare shooting in here)


http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5026/img1851dw.jpg

(I didn't post it as it's full size and there's no point posting a smaller version of a shot when talking about noise)


Now, if i were to expose for the ambient light, and use rear curtain sync flash mode, will I not still get a load of blur anyway? I know that the flash will freeze the people i'm shooting, but will there not still be a bit of ghosting surrounding the people?


I was thinking, theoretically, if i tilt the flash head slightly forward a tad, would that cause some of the flash to go into the background and light it up a bit? I'm thinking the downsides there are that the background would have to be rasonably close to be lit up (a wall a fair distance away still won't be reached by the flash) and I may get very unevenly ditributed flash on my main people?