lighting foreground without it looking obvious

This one is a tricky one to explain. I'm shooting a wedding in a couple of

weeks where the wedding party is setting off Chinese laterns. Previous

experience is that the laterns provide enough light to get 1/30th at f2.8 and

1600 iso for the foreground, but that's not fast enough to get a decent shot of

whoever is holding the lantern.

 

What I'd like is to use flash to freeze the person holding the lantern in the

foreground so they are sharp, but while keeping an exposure long enough for the

background to show too (blurred, whatever, doesn't matter, I just don't want it

under-exposed to complete blackness) - ideally it won't look like flash is used.

 

Any advice on how to achieve this look is gratefully received.

Hi bob.

not sure what color your lanters are,sorry.

but just a thought as I do sometimes for outdoor family shots by a campfire style setting is I do about like you do and you are thinking.

I will bump the exposure up a stop or two and I use three flashes alot as I don't have to move like you ,but I put orange colored gells in front of the flashes to to give everyone exposed good with a good bright glow look of the fire doing it so it don't look like white flash this might be any idea you can work into your shoot .hope this is of some help.Kurt

Bob, you have a problem here-- if you drag the shutter, you will over expose the subject, b/c the light source is lighting the subject instead of the background. If the laterns were in the background, and the subject standing in front of him, a simple shutter drag would work.

 

If you are using film, you could put the camera on a tripod and use a double exposure. Pop the subject, move him and the latern, then use another longer shutter speed shot. You can do the same and photoshop digital, but this doesn't seem like a good solution for event photography.

This isn't as hard as people are making it. Use a Tungsten WB and gel your flash. Try to photograph people when the aren't lit by the ambient light (that takes care of Nathan's warning that "if you drag the shutter, you will over expose the subject", plus, slightly underexposing the background will still preserve an effective mood. But you will be limited by subject movement and camera movement, so ask people to hold sort of still and if you can, use a tripod with the feet pulled in close to each other (no tripping!) or a monopod. You don't need the camera or the people to be super steady, as long as the people aren't lit by strong ambient light. Getting the flash off camera will help... alot.. t<div></div>

This also, hand held. I am lighting these with a Lumedyne in an umbrella, but you can do the same with a shoe mount flash held off camera...it just won;t look as good :^)... t<div></div>