 Susan R. Toste |
How do I use fill in flash outdoors for potraits? Hello everyone, I am trying to do portraits and headshots outdoors and am having trouble with the lighting and lens selection. I have an 81B filter and hand held reflectors. A professional once told me these commercial type model shots are "all in the lens" but never elaborated. I am willing to buy new equiptment. I have an old Pentax K1000 with no special lenses. I am wondering how to use fill in flash and what kind of film to use also. Thanks so much,
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
I don't know what you mean by no special lenses. But for portraits a 105 to 135mm lens is great for headshots. A slightly shorter is convenient for full length shots but not necessary. Fill flash is generally a stop less than your exposure. I would recommend sticking with reflectors though. They are easier to use since you can instantly see the effect and they look more natural. As to film Kodak Portra 160NC is by far the industry standard. There are those Fuji fans out there but I would bet the majority of portrait photographers use the 160NC. It is low in contrast and gives beautiful skin tones.
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Esther Mishkowitz |
can you explain fill flash is generally one stop less than your exposure thanks
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Ok, say you meter the person's face and get a reading of 1/60th @ f8. Now you want to apply fill flash. You want the flash to require an f-stop of f5.6 (one stop less than ambient). If you can't control the output of your flash then you reverse the procedure. Let's say you get setup and everything is composed and you find that the flash at that distance is putting out light requiring f8. You take a reading of the ambient light that indicates 1/60th @ f8. Knowing that you want the flash to be a fill and not your main light you know you need to set the camera at f11 so the final exposure will be 1/30th @ f11. Does that help or make it more confusing?
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