Low key photography

im struggling in my home to have the ambient light low enough, i have cream blinds and the way they are fitted there is no way to cover them to reduce the light. Im currently using my speedlite off camera and triggering it with the built in flash. the max sync is 1/250, i am struggling to underexpose the ambient enough, even by stopping down a long way. Ideally i would like a pair of yn-622c's so i could use faster shutter speeds. I am very inexperienced is there anither way I should be looking at it other than trying to take the photos late evening?

1/250 should be plenty fast enough indoors, even with cream shades (I'm going to assume you are using manual -- if not that's obviously the first thing you need to change).

You can test this by taking a picture without flash. Is it black? That means that when you add a flash your photo should only be lit by the flash. Add one flash, check if it's lighting how you want (you probably want little to no change), then add the speedlite.

I suspect "triggering it with built-in flash" could be the issue. I bet that on-board flash is throwing way too much light, and anyway it's not a good set-up because it will limit your creative possibilities. Get yourself a $20 pair of speedlite triggers from Cowboy Studio. Npt-04, if I recall correctly. Another choice would be to put cellophane or paper over the on-board flash to dim it, but then you risk not firing your speedlite.
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Thank you, got the built in flash compensation as low as it can go -3FEC, i have a 60D, ive looked at yhe manual but can see if thete is a way for it to trigger my off camera speedlite without it becoming park off the exposure.

I am considering a pair of used yn-622c's, I have a second speedlite which I use as a backlite. I was not using this when attempting low key. Yes I am shooting in manual both camera and external, I find this helps me when I am learning.

I also suspect your in-camera flash is keeping you from getting what you want. I have done some low-key photos (using Canon 10D and 450 primarily) and I set things up in a fairly well-lighted area. I use very inexpensive off-camera speedlights in manual mode and my shutter speed is always 1/180 sec.

The sample below used one flash into an umbrella for background fill (obviously very weak) and then a second flash was fired through a home-made grid to put the key light on the book. Ambient light was just not a factor.



I don't know if this is similar to what you want to achieve, but I don't think you need new equipment except for maybe a hot-shoe to pc-sync adapter and cord to fire your off-camera flash without using the in-camera flash.

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Darrell

Thank you, this was my first attempt at low key, the built in flash does not cause such a problem with high key. I am looking at some second hand triggers.

Shoot in manual. Stop down to f11, 1/250th, ISO 100 and adjust the flash speed until youre happy, then you can adjust camera settings from there. I have no problems shooting "black" photos in the middle of the day, even with light streaming into the studio. You really need to learn the camera and flash settings and how they work together and youll get your desired results.

As others have said, shoot in Manual camera mode and Manual flash mode.

The problem you will have is that you need to shoot with settings like ISO 100, f/8 to f/11 and 1/160sec. to 1/250sec. to minimize or eliminate the ambient light. You can only do this if you use your hot-shoe flash undiffused or if you use a diffused hot-shoe flash very close to the subject. You are being limited by the power of a hot-shoe flash (equivalent to about 45Ws-60Ws when used with a diffuser). Having a 300Ws studio strobe would make your life much easier.

With a hot-shoe flash and high ambient lighting you are limited in what you can do for low key portraits. Basically you will have to use a small diffuser and use it close to a small subject. A head shot is possible, perhaps a waist up shot, but a standing portrait is pretty much out of the question.

Try this with the above settings.

Set the camera flash menu to Manual and to 1/64 of full power. This is generally enough power from the built-in flash to trigger an off-camera flash optically. At this power you will see only a faint catchlight from the built-in flash. Place the diffuser as close to the subject as possible and adjust the power of the off-camera flash until you get a good exposure.

With the diffuser very close to the subject you will get a large fall off of light across the subject resulting in a high ratio of highlights to shadows. Using a reflector or a fill light to fill in the shadows will almost certainly be necessary.

Be sure the front of the off-camera flash body is aimed at the camera - it must be in line of sight of the built-in flash. If the off-camera flash doesn't flash reliably then increase the power of the built-in flash to 1/32.

There is one other possibility if you are willing to buy a Duvetyne background. Duvetyne fabric eats light like a black hole so it will photograph pure black even with a fairly high ambient light level. Look on Amazon.com and eBay as well as at Adorama and B&H for Duvetyne backgrounds.

Duvetyne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With a Duvetyne background you can let the ambient lighting be your flat fill light and simply add flash to create the desired highlights and shadow sides to your subject. If you do this you will need much less flash power and should be able to use larger diffusers like a 60" umbrella for standing portraits. Your problem will be that you will have to gel your flash to match the color of light passing through your drapes. It is likely that a fractional CTO gel (they come in densities from 1/8 to multiple CTO) will work with cream colored drapes.

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Living and loving it in Bangkok, Thailand. Canon 7D - See the gear list for the rest.

vickylou said:

Thank you, got the built in flash compensation as low as it can go -3FEC,

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If you turn down the flash, you let more room light in.

You don't let more room light in if you're shooting in manual, as vikylou said, but it's possible that his camera is freaking out because it's seeing the appropriately-set ISO/aperture/shutter speed settings and saying "that's not enough light for this low-lit room, send more on-board flash at it!" Even with flash exposure comp dialed down, it's still going to freak out a little and overlight the image.

You can get around this, as I said, with some cellophane or paper to dim the on-board flash even further, but ultimately you want to be able to trigger an off-camera flash on its lonesome, and for that you need a radio trigger. As I said, they cost as little as $20. You can get a hotshoe cord instead but they cost just as much and then you've got another cord to trip on, and it's probably too short anyway; the only advantage is that they don't need batteries and the better ones send TTL info so your speedlite can set its power automatically. They're useful for parties, but not for still lifes.

I frequently use studio flash indoors and ambient light has no effect whatsoever. I usually have room lights on and often window shades open, in fact.

With more powerful flashes, you can shoot at ISO 100, around f/10, and set your shutter speed around 1/125th so there is no risk of sync problems.

You can also just use window light.

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7Hy15-W2MA (NSFW for nudity) ISO 100, f/10, 1/125th, studio flash, room lights were on

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7Hy11-J4ny window light ISO 640, f/3.2, 1/60th

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7HySv0w91 (NSFW for nudity) ISO 200, f/10, 1/100th, studio flash, room lights and window light were present

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7HyoY81o_ ISO 800, f/3.2, 1/25th window light

the use of full manual controls.

The problem described suggest Shutter preferred Auto exposure.

Or possibly auto ISO.

drh681 said:

the use of full manual controls.

The problem described suggest Shutter preferred Auto exposure.

Or possibly auto ISO.

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You got a camera, now go out and get a life; or at least a picture of one!

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I used full manual exposure, manual exposure on external speedlite and manual iso. The only auto exposure I used was built in flash for triggering. I will post a couple of images with exit.

lumigraphics said:

I frequently use studio flash indoors and ambient light has no effect whatsoever. I usually have room lights on and often window shades open, in fact.

With more powerful flashes, you can shoot at ISO 100, around f/10, and set your shutter speed around 1/125th so there is no risk of sync problems.

You can also just use window light.

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7Hy15-W2MA (NSFW for nudity) ISO 100, f/10, 1/125th, studio flash, room lights were on

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7Hy11-J4ny window light ISO 640, f/3.2, 1/60th

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7HySv0w91 (NSFW for nudity) ISO 200, f/10, 1/100th, studio flash, room lights and window light were present

http://tmblr.co/ZJw7HyoY81o_ ISO 800, f/3.2, 1/25th window light

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Lumigraphics
http://www.lumigraphics.com
http://lumigraphics.tumblr.com 18+
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I did some with ambient light, unfortunately you can see the backdrop in these.

First of all set up to take the picture without using flash.

Adjust the shutter and aperture to underexpose the image, then add manual flash to light the subject.

Most cameras will use flash as fill flash in all camera modes except Manual mode. If you are in manual camera and manual flash then adjusting the aperture and flash power should be the key to this problem.

The first two the speedlite was to the left in a speedlite soft box and triggered by built in flash.

The last was natural light only from close cream blinds to the right.

You may have to describe your problem and what you would like to achieve again. I can't quite relate your problem as originally described with the samples you've posted.

The first sample you posted has nice straight-forward lighting (very attractive portrait). The in-camera flash is working as a fill light as I would expect it to. In the second photo, I think the lighting is a bit too contrasty (the flash appears to be very close) and does not flatter the model. The third is what you would expect with window light -- however, the model is very close to the background, so all the wrinkles show up. That could probably be fixed with post-processing but, ideally you should move farther from the backdrop.

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Darrell

Your first flash photo was taken at f/3.2 and 1/250sec. The third ambient light image was taken at f/3.2 and 1/100sec. If the ambient light was the same for the two images then the flash was only 60% of the light in the first image while the ambient light was a large 40% of the light for the exposure. If you want to get better low key images you need to increase flash power so you can reduce the aperture and decrease the importance of the ambient light.

The only way I can see ambient being 40% of the light is if your flash was set to a very low power level or the diffuser was very large or very far from the subject.

Assuming that you are using a reasonable hot-shoe flash in a 20" or 24" softbox you should position that softbox about 1 to 2 times the diagonal from the subject. That would be about 33" to 66" for a 24" softbox.

Set EC and FEC to 0 and leave them there. Be sure your built-in flash is in Manual power mode and set to something like 1/64 or 1/32 of full power. That is enough to trigger the off-camera flash but won't contribute a significant amount of light. Use the off-camera flash in manual mode and if you are controlling it using your built-in flash as a master flash be sure to set the off-camera flash to a different group so you can control the power of that off-camera flash separately from the built-in flash.

Start with the oof-camera flash at 1/2 power, the ISO at 100, the shutter speed at 1/200sec. or 1/250sec. and with a 20" to 24" softbox at 33" to 36" from the subject and you should be getting a good exposure at f/8 or so. Adjust the flash power and diffuser to subject distance as necessary.

You should position your main light on the side of the part in the subject's hair. This will help keep the hair from throwing a shadow on the face and eye like in your flash images.

Low key images also means dark clothing and generally a subject with dark hair. Since the subject is wearing light colored clothing your images aren't strictly low key, just black background shots, which is fine.

With low key images it is important to use a hair and/or accent lights from behind the subject to separate the subject from the dark background. Your subject's hair is simply too dark and blending into and disappearing into the background. A second flash positioned above and behind the subject would work nicely since to separate her from the background she has on light colored clothing.

A bare flash works well for a hair light and you can adjust the flash zoom to control how much of the subject the flash hits. Sometimes a short focal length to light only the hair, sometimes wider to light the hair and shoulders.

Put the hair/accent lights in a third group and adjust their power until the image looks right. There is no standard power setting, just what looks right.

If you use a hair light or accent lights always take a photo with only the hair/accent lights to make sure those lights aren't hitting the tip of the nose.

On the 7D you can disable the master flash and still use it to trigger the slaves. Are you absolutely shure this feature is not available on the 60D?

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