Speedlites for portraits in the sun.... HELP? :)

[Jordan]

Okay everyone... need your help. I do a lot of natural-light
photography, but new to the Speedlites. I have a 580EXII and a 430EXII
and I do have the standard diffusers for them. I'd like to get a nice
large softbox or something, but I want to know what's the best for
portraits. I took this photo today of my girlfriend in front of this
beautiful fountain near where we work. The sun was almost directly
behind here (but high in the sky) which was on purpose to give the water
some dimension. As a result, I brought along my 580EXII to use as the
light in front. I took a couple of exposures and they were too bright.
I was, after all, using an EF 50mm f/1.4 USM (on my 7D). I ended up
putting it in Tv mode (1/250sec) and it set the aperture narrower than
I'd hoped. Maybe I should have used a neutral density filter?


I guess my question here is this: How is the best way to take WELL
LIT portraits (full body or head/shoulders) outside with harsh sun?
This could be for modeling, weddings, snapshots - whatever. I just
tend to use natural light but when it's really sunny, the shadows are
too harsh. I'm afraid of my Speedlites sometimes because they never
seem to work the way I think they should. Can anyone "shine some light"
on this subject for me? (sorry... I couldn't resist! haha!) C&C on
this image would be appreciated too - though the main point of this
post is for the future with outdoor photos and Speedlites.


- Jordan


www.freshphotoblog.com

[William]

Nice photo. Jordan I

[Sean Setters]

In order to use a wide aperture at 1/250 sec in bright sunlight (without using HSS), the best option is a neutral density filter. Keep in mind, though, that the ND filter will not only block ambient light--it will also block the same amount of flash output as well. I wanted to do this very technique with one caveat-- I wanted to underexpose the background by a stop. These requirements led me to purchasing monolights and battery packs. Now I'm able to create the lighting I want no matter what the ambient level is--it's quite liberating. The following was done with 3 monolights and an ND filter:





That said, you're wondering how you can do this with speedlights. My first suggestion: use off-axis lighting as your mainlight. Second suggestion: until you have an ND filter, stop the aperture way down, get closer to your subject, and forget the modifiers. Will it be the most flattering light? Nope. But you may get something like this:





To be fair, this was done with two speedlights, but both were bare In fact, the mainlight was probably only about2-3 feet from his face. The lighting isn't as nuanced as the first image, but it's still interesting (I think). It was a bright day, but the narrow aperture helps bring down the ambient to a level where you can still see some detail in the clouds. The reason the backround gets blurred (even at this narrow aperture) is because the distance from the lens to the subject was very short (it was a 50mm lens, and the shot is uncropped).

[Sheiky]

Jordan have you tried a reflector before? It's the cheapest and probably the easiest way to get rid of harsh shadows and still keep "close to natural" lighting. I have been trying a bit(not so succesful) with a Westcott Apollo 28" softbox and the worst thing in direct light is still to balance out both lightsources. By the amount of light, but also by the white-balance. I don't have any experience really, but I can say that I really like the softbox. How it works etc.


Again, I'm a big time newby at this, so don't rely on my words []


Jan

[Jordan]

Thanks for all of the nice responses! To answer several peoples questions... first of all I didn

[Sean Setters]

Stop buying multiple sizes of specialty filters. When it comes to UV filters (for protection), buy one that fits the lens. Otherwise, save some dough and buy a step up ring. Then buy your specialty filters once and use them on all your lenses. The only downside is that you won

[freelanceshots]

Awesome photo Mr. Setters! Sometimes I wish I did fashion stuff as I can appreciate the work that goes into getting the good shots. I just don't have the experience with posing, clothes, makeup, choosing the right background and the experience with lighting skin properly.


From my experience the 580EX just does not have the power to overtake the bright sunlight for larger scenes. Throw in a shoot through umbrella or softbox and those things really zap your power output. Maybe for smaller shots where the subject is a lot closer to the flash but that puts limits on you. The main use for the 580 and 430 flashes during the day would be for fill flash use. With the price being super high on the 580EX II these days you can get a nice mono light but you will need a portable battery source if you don't have access to AC power. I have AlienBee 800's and I am looking to get the AlienBee vegabond mini lipo battery which cost 230.00 and allows you to take your high power lighting anywhere. Also with the monolights you should have access to many more light modifying accessories. You will still have to carry a light stand though where it might need to be heavier duty depending on the size of softbox or accessory being used but like Sean mentioned you have a lot more options. That's my experience and view where others may disagree. I've been seriously contemplating another 580ex or springing for the battery pack to run my monolights and it really seems like a nobrainer except for ease of use and quicker setup with the 2 580EXs and two light stands or mini stands. I bought Radiopopper JrX studio units as my flash triggers where you can control the power of alienbee monolights from the transmitter mounted to your camera. That makes it where you don't have to run back and forth between your lights and your camera/tripod to make the needed adjustments. I like the Radiopoppers ok where there kind of cheapy and use a CR123A battery instead of 2 rechargeable AA's. Blows my mind why they didn't incorporate the AA batteries into these units as every photographer has plenty of these batteries. 10 bucks for 2 CR123A batteries and they go pretty quickly.


If you really want to get serious about your lighting then swing by the photo/video store and buy some colored gels. They work well at adjusting color temp and for creative lighting but they can start to add up in price as I bought seven different colors x 2 sheets and it was like 85 bucks. I cut pieces for my strobes and my 580EX flash and use them a lot.


Another expense that you really need to have with monolights and stands is sandbags 10 to 20lbs with hand straps. Blew my mind how much people where charging for sandbags when I last went shopping for them. Like 30 to 40 dollars per bag but they will save your gear from falling over if you like to shoot out in the field. Just found a nice 15-20ilbs sandbag at Amazon for 8.99 and I just order 3 with free shipping HERE.

[greggf]

Jordan...


You need to use HSS on your flashes. High speed sync will get you the exposure the way you want. Shoot in manual mode on camera. Adjust the menu setting on either the flash(s) or camera(if you can control the flashes through the camera menu) to HSS. Leave the flashes off, and meter the scene through the lens(TTL). Turn flashes on and adjust your exposure from there, and your flashes. You could use AV mode, but then the flashes will be mainly for fill, which will work for daylight settings, but I find manual easier to use. You could also do manual flash, which will give you more control of output for the scene. By doing this, you can shoot in bright daylight with large apertures, while controlling the scene. In this situation, your subject is controlled by aperture, and the scene by exposure. So, if you want to light the subject and keep the background darker(as Sean does quite well!!), you would manually dial down the exposure by 1,2 or even 3 stops of light....and the flash would light your subject...making her "pop" from the picture..so to say!!


Here is a small example....this one shot at f2.8 with On camera flash and exposure dialed down 2 2/3 stops...sorry the color space is off, so the picture


looks funny.


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[freelanceshots]

Now that I think about it I guess you can use a 580ex to make a pic similar to Mr. Setters image where you just expose the overall picture darker and then use the 1 or 2 580's as fill flashes. I've done that before but I guess what I'm trying to say is for the price of the 580 II you can buy a 1600 series monolights and still come out ahead with major power benefits. I know you most likely want to just work with what you have but for people just starting out to build a good lighting kit the monolights are the best deal going.

[Sean Setters]

Just for fun I thought I'd set up a shot this afternoon to simulate the use of a 1600 series PCB monolight to underexpose the ambient. That said, I actually used a White Lightning X2400, but as I didn't push it past 1/2 power, you could get similar results with any of the 1600 series monos. My modifier for this was a discontinued 43" silver PCB PLM. Keep in mind, though, that the silver PLMs are very efficient.


For this shot I had the strobe camera right just out of the frame. The strobe was closer to me than you'd think because of the distortion the wide angle lens creates (it might have been 6 feet away at the most). The sun was overhead, slightly behind me.


Here's the Flickr photo caption for your enjoyment:


"So I was out photographing some wildflowers outside my home when I was jumped by a couple of 13 year-old muggers. They were threatening to club me with their bicycle pumps if I didn't give them my wallet. Then, all of a sudden, this unmasked crusader in flip-flops ran out of the woods and started throwing the gauntlet down on the young hoodlums. After the muggers fled, I shook the Good Samaritan's hand, thanked him, and asked him his name. He replied, "I'm the Super Fedora. You can call me Super-Fed. I gotta go--peace out, bro."

Man, what a guy..."