So, I was outside in FULL sun on the beach with my daughter trying to take pictures. I mussed around a bit trying to get a well exposed picture, but the shadows on her face were pretty dark. I couldn't flip her around b/c then the water wouldn't be in the background like her mom wanted and I didn't want to blow out the pretty blue sky.

I had read about fill flash outside...but when I played around with it I pretty much blew out every shot. At the end of the day I realized, I don't know jack about fill flash and how it works. Of course I don't really remember settings (I tried about 10 different thoughts, Av, manual camera, maual flash, auto flash, yada, yada, yada).

I am hoping that somebody here can give me some tips on settings for using the flash outside. I also plan on reading on Strobist and a couple other sites, but I am hoping somebody here and help me out as well.

THANKS!

I have Canon 430EX.

Maybe this can help...

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/i....html#fillflash

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/flashfaq.htm

You need to set your flash at high speed sync to enable fill flash at high shutter speeds. Depending on the camera, your camer/flash sync speed goes up to 1/250th a second.

You will drain your batteries very fast and the recycle times will be very poor.

You can off course rent some killer strobes and blast the subject with light and expose the sky. But, probably not something you want to do shooting your daughter.

Err - what Steven said pretty much, expose for the sky then set your flash manually to fill in the rest.

I don't think you need a heap of killer strobes to do this.

These were all done with just a bare 580EX on a tripod at midday (ish):







and shooting straight into the sun:

I love Brent's work.

Me too!!!

Thanks everybody. My head is still swimming a little bit, but I will just have to play around with it.

Brent I was reading your blog...what amazing pictures you make.

ditto! it's fabulous!

Oh my, Brent! I just discovered your work and I am in love. I am a tad obsessed with New Zealand - went there on my honeymoon - and I can't wait to go back!!

super helpful links - thanks! just last Friday i was shooting at the beach (with OSPers!)and blowing out the subjects. i just wanted to add some catch lights and pop to my subject, but it wasn't working out correctly. thanks!

I thought I'd post this for NIKON users since it helped me a lot when I started experimenting with fill flash.

This is part of a 'Flash Q&A' on Thom Hogan's website: http://www.bythom.com/flashqa.htm

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Question: I seem to be making fill flash harder than it is! What's a good simple rule of thumb to use, during a wedding situation. I'm a little confused about the two seperate settings (camera, flash) working together to ensure good exposure.

Answer: Here's what I teach students as a base in my workshops (you can get more elaborate, but this addresses the main issues you face with fill flash on Nikon bodies):

Camera set to Aperture-preferred exposure mode. Gets rid of aperture limitations in Program mode.
Camera set to Slow Sync or Rear Sync. Gets rid of the bottom end shutter speed limitation at 1/60.
Flash set to Standard TTL (press Mode button on flash until only TTL shows on flash LCD). Gets rid of camera-induced flash compensation level, which is unknown.
Flash set to the fill level you want via flash exposure compensation, typically -1.0 stop for people, or Galen Rowell's "magic" -1.7 value for outdoor scenic fill. Allows you to control the fill level rather than the camera.
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Thank you. I a canon user, but this still seems to apply.

Or you could stop down your aperture (if acceptable for the situation) to f/16 or so and use a slower shutter speed.

Scott

Try this site. It has a wealth of information.
http://www.planetneil.com/faq/flash-techniques.html

Thanks to everybody who replied. I found the sources very helpful, read a lot, played some, and actually got it to work pretty darn good. I am SOOOOOO appreciative.

I will post a couple to show later...

Thanks.

I'm not sophistocated enough for manual flash settings - but applied some advice for a solution I could use to good result.

Here's a wedding shot at 12 noon on the beach (with a partner). Full gallery here.

Took meter readings and under exposed in Manual by 1 stop, put my 580EX on FEC + 1 or +2 (adjusted via chimping), pointed it straight (no need for StoFen outdoors), and just fired away.

My settings were f4, ISO 125, 1/1250 (using fast sync). Of the 100 or so shots; all seemed just perfect.

IMHO, the key to not blowing the subject is setting to under expose for ambient. That way the flash doesn't cause over-exposure. I think experimenting with 2 stop under exposure but doing +2 or +3 FEC would work as well if the sky is extra bright.

Of course; a manual flash setting would be superior, but somehow all my