evening model shoot

jonasfj

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2013
Messages
198
Format
35mm
I am going to shoot a model in a night cityscape. I will light the model with an off-camera flash.

How should I expose the background to make it look like it is night, but still have enough detail to make it appear as a city.

Cheers,

Jonas
 

Leigh B

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
2,059
Location
Maryland, USA
Format
Multi Format
Go to the venue and run a bunch of test exposures without the model.

- Leigh
 
OP
OP

jonasfj

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2013
Messages
198
Format
35mm
I'm thinking to compensate my light meter reading with -2 stops for the ambient light and then set the flash power to normal for the model. Rear curtain sync is no option in this case.
 

frank

Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2002
Messages
4,359
Location
Canada
Format
Multi Format
It would be easy to set the exposure balance if you use a handheld light meter that reads ambient light for the background and flash for the exposure on the model. First, determine the aperture to get the model exposure by flash, then using that aperture setting, meter the ambient light for the time needed for the background exposure.
 

tedr1

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2016
Messages
940
Location
50 miles from NYC USA
Format
Multi Format
Shoot at dusk when there is still enough daylight to see the streetscape and set the exposure of the streetscape a stop or two down. Then adjust the flash to fill-in the model.

PS the fill in flash exposure is probably the more tricky to get right, it might be a good idea to bracket expose the flash in multiple frames.
 
Last edited:

rpavich

Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2015
Messages
1,520
Location
West virginia, USA
Format
35mm
I am going to shoot a model in a night cityscape. I will light the model with an off-camera flash.

How should I expose the background to make it look like it is night, but still have enough detail to make it appear as a city.

Cheers,

Jonas
go check out Neil Van Neikerk's site. He's got LOTS of instruction for just this very situation.

Basically you set an exposure for the background then drop two stops...then dial in the speedlight to make it look natural and not lit.

An incident meter is very useful; not only will it help here, you will get real numbers to remember and not "just a bit more" which is pretty subjective.
 

paul ron

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
2,706
Location
NYC
Format
Medium Format
set f stop for flash exposure of model. adjust shutter speed for background exposure.

flash doent care about the shutter speeds.
 
Last edited:

Adrian Bacon

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 18, 2016
Messages
2,086
Location
Petaluma, CA.
Format
Multi Format
I am going to shoot a model in a night cityscape. I will light the model with an off-camera flash.

How should I expose the background to make it look like it is night, but still have enough detail to make it appear as a city.

Cheers,

Jonas

If you're shooting with off camera flash, you control your DOF with your aperture, your lit portion with your flash power/flash distance from subject, and your ambient light with your shutter.

For example, set up your composition with your model and and set your aperture to the general DOF you're going for with that lens/FOV, then you change your flash power/flash distance from model to until model is correctly exposed, then, dial down your shutter speed from the sync speed until your ambient exposure (everything the flash didn't light) starts to come up. From there it's just a matter of how much ambient exposure you want.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…