 Michelle E. Martin |
Overexposed Images with Flash I have been trying to use my flash in shaded areas to reduce shadows and brighten the eyes. I tried using the -1 and -2 exposure compensation but the image was way too light(overexposed) I decreased the flash as much as I could so I am not sure what else I could do to prevent this from happening. I was using the flash on my camera at the time but I also have a Canon speedlight flash but I am not sure if that would work better.
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Jon Close |
Samples and camera (and flash) model and settings? My guess is that the camera/flash combo are limited to a shutter speed of 1/250 or less (i.e., the traditional x-sync). Unless the lens aperture is stopped down to f/16 or f/22 at ISO 100 or 400, then it's the daylight rather than the flash that is overexposing the shot.
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Dan W. Dooley |
Michelle, you did not say how close you are to the subject for the shots. Many times someone will get close enough to a person for the purpose of having the subject's face either fill or be close to filling the frame and then use the internal flash. It will wash out. With the built-in flash, there is no way you can avoid that. You said that you have a speedlight. That will certainly give you much better results but not if it's shot directly at the subject. With the external flash, you can point it away from the subject's face or add a diffuser to soften the light. I understand that there are diffusers for the internal flash as well that may help for that one. For fill flash, the external flash would work great if diffused. Another option is to increase the distance to the subject. That will help tone down the light a bit and then to get your close-up, do some cropping of the shot. This is a good idea even for the external flash. Diffuse it and back up a little further.
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Michelle E. Martin |
Dan, thanks so much for your input. I think you are right. I took some shots yesterday to try out the external flash and I used the diffuser on it. I now notice the close-ups are the ones that are overexposed. I guess I will have to back up. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.
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R K Stephenson |
Hi, Michelle, In your initial post, it sounds like you were using camera exposure compensation for the shots that were overexposed. You can also use flash exposure compensation with the speedlite. You can dial it down up to three stops, which will reduce the amount of light on the subject. This is great for reducing shadows on bright days, for example. Cheers, RK
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Bunny Snow |
I took an excellent course from Paul Gero to learn to better use my Canon flash. He taught us tricks which would have taken me far longer to learn on our own. I highly recommend this. http://tinyurl.com/ybmk7u5
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