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I looked back a little in these forums, and found a post on reducing grain in silhouettes. I’ve got a different question. I was with a friend, and she wanted to make some silhouette shots, but my problem was that it was very dark and raining. So I set her camera on a tripod with a slow shutter, set her in front of it, and got a few feet behind her with my camera and speedlight. If you look @ the attached photos you will see what I mean. How could I have improved the edging without seeing the background, or her face? What other things could I have done to create different effects/better results? There was a streetlight I could have used maybe. I used 4 sec. @f/8 with 200 ISO. I really liked the way that the rain froze around the flash!
Thanks for the advise!
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I am not sure what effect you want to achieve. I think the first one is cool though. The long shutter speed doesn’t do anything for you on that shot. The entire exposure was all flash. You would have gotten the same shot at 1/200 sec. If you want to try something different try the long exposure and do some light painting with an LED flashlight. You can get a softer look around the edges and try just a touch of light to show some facial mood. You could do a long 30 sec exposure if it’s dark out and paint away. You could also freeze the rain with a speedlight to finish it by aiming it off to the left and right of your subject standing behind her.
You might also try using a bright background the meter off the face and under expose the face by three stops. That should make it dark.
I am not sure what effect you want to achieve. I think the first one is cool though. The long shutter speed doesn’t do anything for you on that shot. The entire exposure was all flash. You would have gotten the same shot at 1/200 sec. If you want to try something different try the long exposure and do some light painting with an LED flashlight. You can get a softer look around the edges and try just a touch of light to show some facial mood. You could do a long 30 sec exposure if it’s dark out and paint away. You could also freeze the rain with a speedlight to finish it by aiming it off to the left and right of your subject standing behind her.
You might also try using a bright background the meter off the face and under expose the face by three stops. That should make it dark.
Convert these to b&w.
Those are some neat ideas! I am going to experiment a lot more with shots at night. The possibilities are endless. The long shutter speed was to give me time to fire her camera, run behind her with my camera, and fire my speedlight before the shutter closed. A friend gave me some radio slaves yesterday, so I will not have to do that again. I did a little light painting the same night, as you can see in the attached photo, but we were just messing around. Are you saying to follow the subject’s form with the light to create a “outline” edge with it? What exactly do you mean by “painting” in the long exposure? Thanks for advising! I also attempted to shoot some “see-through” shots by firing the flash, and then having the subject run out of the way. Kinda’ strange looking…
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Experimentation is one thing . . . “recreating an effect” is quite another.
Experimenting is expanding horizons. It’s pushing the limits as far as they can go. It’s discovering new things and figuring out what the possibilities are. It sounds like having the flash firing from behind was almost something you “stumbled upon.” It was an experiment to run behind with your flash because you didn’t have some other trigger. Experimenting is fun in it’s own way. It’s finding out what effects are available out there.
Recreating an effect comes after experimenting. If you know what effects exist, than you can fine-tune your processes to figure out the best way recreate the effect you’re looking for. When I see awesome back-lit effects (like this, this, this, and this) it’s a process in and of itself to figure out ways to recreate them.
So, in response to your question, “how could I have improved the edging without seeing the background, or her face?” then I would suggest you find an image that inspires you and work to replicate the effect. Having an end goal in mind as you’re shooting will help you figure out how to improve the shot.
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