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03/29/2010 06:15:56 PM · #1 |
| Hey everyone, I'm just starting to get into lighting and i'm using a Nikon SB-800 flash unit on Manual. I'm also using my on camera flash to fire the SB-800. I know about dialing down the on camera flash so it does not interfear with the SB-800 flash. I see that the shutter speed doesn't control anything on manual it's just the aperture that controls the light intensity. So my question is... How do i drag the shutter? i'm trying to light up my subject but get the background light from buildings and city lights to show in the background but I can't seem to figure out how to drag the shutter without the control of the shutter speed? |
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03/29/2010 06:31:29 PM · #2 |
AP controls the subjects lit from the flash.... Shutter controls the exposure of the stuff not lit by the flash.
If you want to "drag the shutter" just slow it down until some of the background burns up.... to taste but somewhere 1/60 depending where you are.
Catch is the slower you go the more likely you will to get blur or moment in the non flash lit stuff.... The flash is so fast the flash lit stuff will be less blurred (although if there is ambient light on the subject as well as flash then you may get some).
Any of that help???? |
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03/29/2010 06:35:38 PM · #3 |
By putting the camera into manual mode you can control the aperture to adjust your flash and the shutter to adjust how much background like you get.
I've found a good method for taking shots like you mentions is, meter the scene and set your camera to expose properly, the reduce either your shutter or aperture by 1 or 2 stops and set your manual flash to enough power to properly light your subject, that usually gives me good results when using a combination of ambient / flash. |
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03/31/2010 08:15:31 PM · #4 |
| Thanks Robs and Covert_Oddity i'll try both of these out and see what i can come up with. Thanks for the help |
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03/31/2010 09:19:31 PM · #5 |
Another thing to consider if you're dragging the shutter is color balancing the two different light sources. The flash is like daylight, about 5500K. OTOH, incandescent lights are much warmer 2500-3700K. If you just do nothing and the two sources are close in terms of exposure level, you'll likely have a mix of lighting on your subject and since the two sources are coming from different directions, your subject will have some areas illuminated primarily by one source and other areas illuminated by the other. If you're converting to B&W, it's not a problem, but if you look at something like a white dress in color, it will have distinct blue areas and/or distinct orange areas. It's nearly impossible to fix this in Photoshop.
The easiest way to correct this is to make the two sources the same color by placing a piece of amber "Full Sun" gel over the flash head and shooting with either a custom WB or the preset incandescent WB. It probably won't be exact, but it will be pretty damn close. |
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