Forced Flash During Daylight

On 9/12/2011 4:15 AM, pago wrote:
I was shooting on a beautiful sunny day (9am – 2 pm) with my nikon
d5000 kit lens (18-55). Due to the directional lighting of the sun, I
set my camera to aperture priority and forced the on-camera flash to
“fill’ in some shadows that I wanted to fill.

Even though I had my on-camera flash set to TTL, some of my shots
still turn out to be overly exposed, losing details and colour along
the way.

What can I do better next time?



Try some experiments, which may include some of the suggestions from others

Check your exposure compensation, is it set to plus?

Which metering method are you using. Try matrix or average metering.
Spot metering with the spot on a dark area is a common cause of your issue.
Go out on a sunny day and take the same shot with and without the flash.

I don't recall if your camera has D lighting. If so set it to use D
lighting.

Shoot in RAW, not JPEG. You can correct may exposure errors in a RAW
converte. Often in converting to JPEG in camera, will result in many
errors, inclusion exposure problems.

Try these basic steps first and let us know.

HTH


--
Peter

On 9/13/2011 1:30 AM, pago wrote:
On Sep 13, 7:44 am, wrote:
On 9/12/2011 4:15 AM, pago wrote:

I was shooting on a beautiful sunny day (9am 2 pm) with my nikon
d5000 kit lens (18-55). Due to the directional lighting of the sun, I
set my camera to aperture priority and forced the on-camera flash to
fill in some shadows that I wanted to fill.

Even though I had my on-camera flash set to TTL, some of my shots
still turn out to be overly exposed, losing details and colour along
the way.

What can I do better next time?

Try some experiments, which may include some of the suggestions from others

Check your exposure compensation, is it set to plus?

Which metering method are you using. Try matrix or average metering.
Spot metering with the spot on a dark area is a common cause of your issue.
Go out on a sunny day and take the same shot with and without the flash.

I don't recall if your camera has D lighting. If so set it to use D
lighting.

Shoot in RAW, not JPEG. You can correct may exposure errors in a RAW
converte. Often in converting to JPEG in camera, will result in many
errors, inclusion exposure problems.

Try these basic steps first and let us know.

HTH

--
Peter

hi peter,


i have the D-lighting option set to high with zero flash
compensation.


regards,

pb



Adjust your flash compensation and/or turn it off. D lighting increases
exposure in the mid tones.

HTH

--
Peter

"pago" wrote in message
...
What really spoilt the photos was my desire to achieve a shallow depth
of field with my 18-55 mm kit lens.
Given my maximum flash sync speed is about 1/200th of a second, what
settings can I adjust to achieve a low depth of field with forced
flash, on a sunny day.

For that you will probably need a Neutral Density Filter and a reasonably
powerful flash.
(But shallow depth of field is a relative term when talking about an 18-55
kit lens with a maximum aperture of around f4 or less, so you may need a new
lens as well :-)

Trevor.

On 9/14/2011 3:14 AM, pago wrote:
On Sep 13, 9:00 pm, wrote:
On 9/13/2011 1:30 AM, pago wrote:





On Sep 13, 7:44 am, wrote:
On 9/12/2011 4:15 AM, pago wrote:

I was shooting on a beautiful sunny day (9am 2 pm) with my nikon
d5000 kit lens (18-55). Due to the directional lighting of the sun, I
set my camera to aperture priority and forced the on-camera flash to
fill in some shadows that I wanted to fill.

Even though I had my on-camera flash set to TTL, some of my shots
still turn out to be overly exposed, losing details and colour along
the way.

What can I do better next time?

Try some experiments, which may include some of the suggestions from others

Check your exposure compensation, is it set to plus?

Which metering method are you using. Try matrix or average metering.
Spot metering with the spot on a dark area is a common cause of your issue.
Go out on a sunny day and take the same shot with and without the flash.

I don't recall if your camera has D lighting. If so set it to use D
lighting.

Shoot in RAW, not JPEG. You can correct may exposure errors in a RAW
converte. Often in converting to JPEG in camera, will result in many
errors, inclusion exposure problems.

Try these basic steps first and let us know.

HTH

--
Peter

hi peter,

i have the D-lighting option set to high with zero flash
compensation.

regards,

pb

Adjust your flash compensation and/or turn it off. D lighting increases
exposure in the mid tones.

HTH

--
Peter- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

To everyone,

here is the meta data for one of my over exposed shots on a sunny day
in september:

MIME type : image/jpeg
Camera model : NIKON D5000
Image timestamp : 2011:09:07 09:35:15
Exposure time : 1/200 s
Aperture : F5.6
Exposure bias : 0
Flash : Yes, compulsory, return light detected
Flash bias :
Focal length : 55.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 82.0 mm)
ISO speed : 200
Exposure mode : Aperture priority
Metering mode : Multi-segment
Image quality : FINE
White balance : AUTO

For this shot, I tried to blur the background by using a 55 mm focal
length and f5.6, but in the process, the forced flash casts too much
light on the subject. The proper exposure on that day was f16 at
1/200th of a second, iso 200.

What really spoilt the photos was my desire to achieve a shallow depth
of field with my 18-55 mm kit lens.

Given my maximum flash sync speed is about 1/200th of a second, what
settings can I adjust to achieve a low depth of field with forced
flash, on a sunny day.


The flash is causing you camera to over expose by slowing the shutter to
maximum sync speed. Trevor has correctly pointed out that you need an ND
filter and a powerful external flash. The world is not perfect. You have
to work within the limitations of your equipment. my only other answer
is to shoot at f16 and put a Gaussian blur on the background in post
processing.


--
Peter

"pago" wrote in message
...
(But shallow depth of field is a relative term when talking about an 18-55
kit lens with a maximum aperture of around f4 or less, so you may need a
new
lens as well :-)


}sometimes when i zoom in at 55 mm, i still get a very nice shallow
}depth of field.

As I said, it's relative. Most people would consider an aperture of f2.8 or
bigger necessary for shallow depth of field at 55mm. But only you know what
effect you are after.
(or maybe you don't if you have never tried a faster lens?)

Trevor.