 Susan N. Gast |
backlit subjects
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Maynard McKillen |
Dear Susan: This is a challenge. Time is short. Some additional information might help us to help you. Which flash are you using, and in which mode did you set it? (E-TTL is one mode, for example.)The built-in flash will not suffice for such strong backlighting, if by chance that is the flash you used. For that matter, which exposure mode did you set the camera to, and which ISO did you set? I'm curious to know how far away you were from the subjects in this photo. I get the impression it was more than 10, maybe 15 feet, maybe more. Get as close as ten feet for head-to-toe shots, and even closer for head-to-waist shots and close ups. This chapel probably does not have a glass ceiling, or skylights of any consequence, right? If not, there are probably incandescent lights in the ceiling. Will those lights be used/on during the ceremony? I'd want to know how strong that overhead lighting is, if it exists, and I'd find out by standing where the subjects are and taking an incident reading with a handheld light meter. It would also help to know how strong that light coming through the windows is, so I'd turn around and take an incident reading of that light source, too. If you lack a hand held meter with incident reading capability, you could use the camera's built-in meter and take a reading off of an 18% grey card, held by an assistant or taped to a tripod or light stand at the place where the subjects will stand. Record the data. If you will not have the sun setting behind your subjects during the ceremony, there is reason to hope that you might find camera and flash settings to preserve the blue of the sky in the background, and not have it record as merely bright white. Say you get a reading of f/5.6 at 1/8th of a second for ISO 100 when the hand held incident meter is pointed back at the camera (or off of the grey card: see above), and when the meter is pointed towards the windows (or when the camera meter measures light reflected from the grey card which is then pointed toward the window) the reading is f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second. That's a whopping difference of 5 shutter speeds. You want to narrow that gap. If you are allowed to use flash, and it is powerful enough, it may save the day. If your flash has a manual setting, set it at full power manual, position it 10 feet from the subjects, and take an incident flash meter reading (You'll have to have a hand held flash meter for this part, since your camera does not have a built-in flash meter.) Now you get a reading of f/5.6, and your shutter speed is 1/60th, or 1/90th of a second. (Check your manual for the top flash-sync speed of the camera. It might even be 1/125th of a second, or even higher.) Suddenly that gap is only two shutter speeds, maybe less. Moving the flash and camera slightly closer may further close that gap. The f/stop and shutter speed values I use above are only rough guesses. The readings you get when you make these measurements may be different. The goal: illuminate the subjects with enough flash on the "shadow side" so that your f/stop and shutter speed settings would be the same as they would be if you were photographing them from the "window side". Make sense? I don't know the extent of your background in photography, so forgive me if I explain too much at times. This response is a bit skeletal, but much of what I might add, which might even include the use of a polarizer (Now THAT would require some explaining!), would depend on what you have to say about the flash you use and the meter readings you get.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Make your flash exposure on the people 1 1/2 over what the exposure is for the outside.
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