How do I darken the background when using flash for portraits with Canon R6II

[brianbhood]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Pedro Moreira]

Use lower ISO / increase aperture number

--
Pedro Moreira
https://www.instagram.com/pedroxmoreira

 

[PicPocket]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

The simplest way to think about using flash is 2 separate exposure.

One, without the flash, which is what your Ambient light is, and anything not sufficiently lit by flash would be exposed like that

Second, just the flash, and your flash lit objects will be lit by this. If the flash cannot sufficiently light up everything, you have a contrast between flash lit areas and the Ambient ones

Now, in terms of exposure, aperture and ISO affect both. But because the flash fires for a very very small period of time, the shutter speed only impacts the Ambient. For just the flash exposure, anything outside the flash duration is basically dark

The best way to understand this relationship is to set both the camera and flash to manual mode. Then set the camera exposure to whatever ambient exposure you want (this is dark for what you want), and then fire the flash at various intensities to see the separation between lit and unlit subjects. Once you understand this, you can take the flash back into ettl and you should be good

A few other things to keep in mind for light characteristic. Light intensity falls off rapidly with distance (inverse square law), so the closer the subject is to light and the farther the background is from subject, larger the contrast. Similarly, larger the light, it can impact more subjects - this is how bouncing flash off walls it ceiling gives uniform lighting. Localizing the light does the opposite

In short, keep lowest Ambient exposure - low ISO, small aperture (bigger f number) and fastest shutter speed you can - get subject farther from background, closer to flash, then use flash power that will expose the subject correctly.

To lighten up, use slower shutter speed to get more ambient light in, and if that's not enough, increase ISO / reduce f-number along with reducing flash power (TTL will do this automatically) or bounce flash over larger surface to balance out the 2 exposures

--
PicPocket

 

[R2D2]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Basically the Aperture determines the flash exposure, the Shutter speed determines the ambient lighting, and the ISO increases range when needed).

R2

--
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
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[charlyw64]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Or simply use flash exposure compensation...

 

[Myles Baker]

I use the flash & camera exposure compensation in tandem.

eg if I am shooting against a bright background then I will underexpose on the camera by adjusting shutterspeed, apeture or ISO & overexpose the flash by adjusting the flash exposure compensation.

i do the opposite if I want to brighten the background.

I did that with film cameras, DSLR's & with my current mirrorless camera (R8).

 

[StefanD]

For Canon, it's important to know that both Av and Tv modes expose for background, and use the flash power to expose the subject.

If you want a dark background, it's best to use M mode as was already suggested.

 

[J A C S]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Or simply use flash exposure compensation...

Exactly. The OP mentioned exposure compensation but the trick is done with flash exposure compensation. Then change the brightness of the image overall if needed.

 

[Sittatunga]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

It depends a lot on what flash you're using and what exposure mode your camera is in. Are you inside or out? Studio flash or Speedlites? You will need to think about switching exposure simulation off when using any non-E-TTL flash as it can only simulate the background exposure and that could leave the viewfinder too dark to frame or focus with.

Exposure compensation for E-TTL flash is adjusted differently to that for the normal (background) exposure, so you should be able to change the background exposure by ±three stops while keeping the flash exposure (FEC) normal or even slightly bright.

In Av mode there are three choices of shutter speed with E-TTL flash. For my EOS R there is 1/200 sec, (fixed), 1/200-1/60sec. auto or 1/200-30sec. auto.( The R6 II has the same X-synch speed.) These are found in the external Speedlite control sub-menu in the SHOOT2 menu. AUTO ISO automatically sets ISO 1600 as soon as the camera detects an E-TTL flash is charged, manual ISO gives you more control over the ISO and hence over the background exposure.

I've not played with flash in Tv mode (no real control over the aperture), but that (and M mode) sets the shutter speed to 1/200 when it detects an E-TTL flash has charged up if I've set a faster shutter speed, unless the flash is in HSS mode.

HSS mode allows you to set high speeds to underexpose the background, but drastically reduces the power of the flash in doing so - it's more of a tool for fill-in flash when the ambient lighting would give overexposure at the X-synch speed. However it could also effectively darken the background in conjunction with a low ISO and moderately low light levels.

 

[Sittatunga]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Or simply use flash exposure compensation...

Exactly. The OP mentioned exposure compensation but the trick is done with flash exposure compensation. Then change the brightness of the image overall if needed.

No, flash exposure compensation (FEC) will only change the brightness of the subject and other parts of the image that the flash will reach. You can use it to overexpose the flash illuminated parts of the image and then reduce the brightness of the whole image in post processing, but then you risk clipping highlights in the important part of the image. It's better to leave the FEC fairly neutral and use normal exposure compensation to change the brightness of the background. But that won't work very well if the shutter speed and ISO are fixed.

Using AUTO ISO with E-TTL flashguns limits the maximum AUTO ISO to 1600 and the speed to 1/200 or lower, which is ok for keeping backgrounds darkish because exposure compensation will work on ISO settings below that for up to ±3 stops for the background. Or you could set a low ISO anyway. Or you could use manual flash and more or less of it, adjusting the aperture and/or ISO to match the flash power, not the background. Either of the latter two methods simplifies the post processing.

 

[gscotten]

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Basically the Aperture determines the flash exposure, the Shutter speed determines the ambient lighting, and the ISO increases range when needed).

+1

This makes everything simple and easy to do, although I usually use E-TTL to make it even simpler.

 

[Dr Hal]

Easy in the new LightRoom by using the mask tool.

 

[J A C S]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Or simply use flash exposure compensation...

Exactly. The OP mentioned exposure compensation but the trick is done with flash exposure compensation. Then change the brightness of the image overall if needed.

No, flash exposure compensation (FEC) will only change the brightness of the subject and other parts of the image that the flash will reach. You can use it to overexpose the flash illuminated parts of the image and then reduce the brightness of the whole image in post processing, but then you risk clipping highlights in the important part of the image. It's better to leave the FEC fairly neutral and use normal exposure compensation to change the brightness of the background. But that won't work very well if the shutter speed and ISO are fixed.

The trick is to change the balance between the brightness of the main subject and the background. This is what FEC does. Next, I said - change the brightness of the image. That can be done with normal EC in addition to FEC if there is a danger of clipping the highlights. BTW, the OP asked for a brighter background as well, so then no change is usually needed. In my experience, faces get too bright (not clipped though) with standard settings, and I normally shoot with FEC=-1 or even FEC=-2 anyway in mixed light.

The desired effect might be achieved with some other settings but then you are at the mercy of the ETTL algorithms, even more than usual.

 

[R2D2]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't use any of the Auto Exposure modes. Shoot in Full Manual (I also use Manual flash power).

Or simply use flash exposure compensation...

Nope, too inconsistent for me. As are any of the auto exposure modes and eTTL as well. I like to control all aspects of exposure to get the look I'm after, and not get any nasty surprises. Being aware of the Guide Number and distance (inverse square law) lets you manually set the flash power right on the flash. :-D

Anyway, that's how I work events.

R2

 

[EJ Fudd]

By increasing apeture the mean go from f8 to f16..increase acutal number not opening of apeture

 

[Dan W]

How do I darken (or lighten) my background using a Canon R6II when using a flash for portrait photography? Using my old Nikon system, it was simply a matter is increasing the shutter speed. However, with Canon, that does not seem to work, nor does exposure compensation work consistently.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Simple. To darken the background you need to know the correct exposure for the background. Learn to shoot portraits in manual, get away from auto modes if you want a professional looking portrait. So after you use the built in light meter in the camera to know a correct exposure for the background, either double the shutter speed for one "Stop" of lowering the light exposure. Double agin to darken even more. Now put your flash on TTL and let the camera and flash give you a correct exposure for the model you're photographing.

This is a simple way to start understanding how light affects you images. If you get serious later on you may want to invest in a handheld light meter and a way to get your flash off camera and also shoot that in manual. Another way to improve portraits is to use a really fast lens or long tele or both to blur out the background. That puts the attention on the eyes of the model (if the eyes are in focus, the picture is sharp) The 70-200 is a pretty amazing lens and looks great at 200mm @ f/2.8, blurs the background great. The dream lens for portrait photogs is the 85mm f/1.2 its big, heavy but amazing sharpness and contrast. But thats some serious coin. If you enjoy portraits, work yourself up slowly with shooting a lot and experimenting. You Tube is your friend too.