dialed down a few stops????

[derrickg]

OK I have heard this used and im confused by what it means. Could someone clear this up for me? Here is what I mean:



strobist: Off Camera Strobe dialed down a few stops for a suttle fill from above, the rest of the ambient light was thanks to mother natures setting sun

When he says he dialed it down a fews tops, did he adjust the aperture?

[erisian pope]

I am very distracted by the cloned portion on the left.

I don't own a "real" flash yet, but I think it has to do with adjusting how strong the light from the flash will be.

[mivy00]

It would mean he adjusted his flash output 1 or 2 stops below a normal ambient exposure.
So he used the sun as his main light and used his flash as a fill light

[derrickg]

What do adjust? The aperture? Or something on the flash?

[mivy00]

Depends on what kind of flash you have. Your profile says you shoot with a canon so on your camera you can look up how to set your flash exposure compensation. You could set it to -2 then set your camera on AV mode and your flash would become a fill flash.....

[mivy00]

I suggest you setup your camera and take the same picture. on all the diffrent flash exposure compensation settings and see how it effects the light.

Once you have done that you start playing with the expousre compensation and learn to under expose the back ground of an image by setting the exposure compensation to -1 or -2 then expose the subject correctly by setting the flash exposure compensation to 0

Thats how you get a properly exposed sky and subject in the middle of the day like this

[zach-e2]

tight photo, but i wouldn't mess with the proportions the way you did

[derrickg]

Originally Posted by mivy00

Depends on what kind of flash you have. Your profile says you shoot with a canon so on your camera you can look up how to set your flash exposure compensation. You could set it to -2 then set your camera on AV mode and your flash would become a fill flash.....

But if im using an off shoe flash I would shoot in Manual mode right? I have 3 flashes I use. Sb-24, SB-25 and 430 ex. So just by setting the flash exposure down on my xt, it makes my flashes fill?

on your image of the bride, what were settings and did you meter the sky, then meter the bride to come up with the correct exposure? I really want to understand using flash photography, sorry for all the questions.

[mivy00]

Yeah if you are using off camera non ettl flash like that then you would have to dial in the flash exposure manually on the flashes themselves. By adjusting the power up and down on the flash.

On my photo I didnt meter the sky i just guessed. I under exposed the entire frame by two stops then I used the flash to properly expose the bride.

What are you usingto trigger the off camera strobes

[derrickg]

I have the gadget infinity trigger and receivers.

[mivy00]

Yeah I dont think those triggers support using the canon ettl system. which means you have to adjust the power on your flashes manually