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Hi Irene!
A lot of what you need to know was discussed here:
Link
My advice was to set the camera to expose for the background light perfectly, then use flash to light your subject. Plenty of other opinions though!
Assuming an on-camera gun, set your camera flash setting to 'Rear Curtain' - Average or Matrix metering and dial-in anything between a half and one-and-a-half stops under-expose on the flash exposure compensation.
Quote: Plenty of other opinions though!
For starters. Then play a bit...
I dont use my flash gun for outdoor location portraits. I believe that using natural light retains a bit more detail in the image. I would advise on finding a neutral coloured background so you dont have any problems with heavy backlighting and then position your subjects in a way where by the natural light lights them well. Understanding natural light and how to use it properly is one of the most importrant aspects of photography. I have been practicing using natural light for the last few months and i feel that my photography is now improving. james
Flash is a very important tool in a photographers box of tricks whether you are a portraits man, photojournalist, events photogapheror whatever and to ignore it completely is silly. Of course many portraits are perfect without flash but achieving consistency is more difficult and with careful and a bit of experience you can use flash to mimic natural light so the viewer of a picture doesn't even realise flash has been used.
Strobist is very good for lighting techniques, also a photographer I know runs a website www.dg28.com on which he shares his vast, vast knowledge and experience of lighting location portraits both indoors and outdoors.
In answer to the original question, there is no one way to light this type of shoot. You have to judge each situation on its merits and decide what type of lighting is appropriate given the conditions, unlike in a studo where you can find a set of settings that work and stick with them all the time..
If you don't use flash or a reflector then, because the light is generally overhead, you're likely to get shadows in their eyes. This is pretty easy to overcome with some turned down flash - or a nice reflector, held below the model, bouncing some light up into their face.
wow some great feedback I dont have a flash gun yet and I guess I will need to get one to progress. But without one I will have a look at all your feedback and give it a go.
out of interest I have a sony alfa any idea what the best flashgun would be for that?
thank you so much for all your responses
I see you are a relativley new member. Hi
So it could be that you are starting out on a voyage of photography.
I would suggest buying the best fash you can afford, the reason for this is because as you get better you might well want to upgrade your camera and accessories, having the top of the range flash (or near top) now will eliviate the extra expense of upgrading that bit of kit at a later date.
HTH.
Allan
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