outdoor portraits w/ 540 EZ?

Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get some advice/suggestion on shooting outdoor

portraits: I have a Rebel 2000, 28-105 USM f3.5-4.5, 50 f1.8, and a

540EZ flash. I am planning on shooting with either Kodak Portra 400UC

or Fuji Reala 100. I will be shooting at 1pm in a shade under some

trees, maybe some in direct sunlight (which I know is not usually

good for portraits, but there is a time issue)

 

My question is in regards to flash settings AND film. I had planned

on shooting in Av mode (from 4.5-8.0)w/ the 28-105 set at about 80mm.

I am not sure whether to manually change the flash, should I manually

change the flash to -1/3 or let it decide for itself. The flash will

be mounted on the hotshoe, I don't have a bracket.

 

Also, I just bought the Reala 100 and Porta 400UC, so I am unsure

which to use for outdoor, from what I have read here they both work

equally well, is this true?

 

My portraits will be of Caucasians and Indians mixed (both light skin

and brown skin), which film do you think would work best for this.

And what flash setting will be useful, for darker skins should the

flash be set to +1/3, instead of -1/3, for more contrast?

 

Film speed should not be an issue, correct? Both are reported to have

good grain. And the prints won't be bigger than 8x10, if that.

 

Please feel free to suggest techniques, flash & camera settings, and

which film you think would be good, also anything else I may have

missed.

 

Thank you, Amol

I have a couple of thoughts.

 

Fuji Reala is a very good sunny day film. It will have less grain & probably better sharpness than the Portra 400UC. I would use it. Most people prefer it exposed at EI 80 instead of 100

 

Outdoors, even in the shade, your shutter speed will likely be too high for flash (1/90 seconds is the max flash sync speed on the Rebel) unless you use about f/11-16 with the Reala. f/22-32 with 400 ISO film. Just another reason to use the Reala I suppose. At these apertures, maximum flash distance will be fairly short.

 

In the daylight, the Rebel will use Auto Fill Flash Reduction to reduce fill flash to 1.5 stops below ambient lighting. I usually like it about there or perhaps another -0.5 added in. And you're right about adding in extra flash for darker skin. At least I prefer to add exposure. But if the dark skin is filling a lot of space around the active AF point, the camera will automatically increase exposure for you. If the faces are small, or they are not close to the active AF point you probably should add some positive AEC and FEC.

 

With the EZ series Speedlites the flash will be in TTL, as opposed to E-TTL, but it still biases the flash exposure towards the side (or middle) that the active AF point is on.

Assuming that there is enough light for the portraits without the flash, I would use the flash to help with the glint in the subject's eyes and general fill for shadows. For that I would probably use between 1 and 2/3 minus to 2/3 minus. For the darker skinned subjects I would adjust the exposure compensation on the camera, but you probably don't have it on the Rebel 2000, so I would adjust the ISO accordingly (lower number by half stop). I prefer the fill flash to do less. You might want to also try P mode and use the program shift to get to the f stop you want. I think the 540EZ has bracketing as well and it might be worth using some extra film to get the right shot.

Amol,

 

What Jim said. I haven't used either film so I won't comment - I use Portra NC indoors w/flash & VC outdoors w/o flash.

 

Your biggest problem will be your slow sync. speed. Even @ 1/200 & 1/250 sync. on my bodies, many time I have to add one or two ND filters so I can keep lens open to give background I like. The auto. flash reduction should be enough, but you could comp. another

-1/3 in the shade and 0 comp. in sun.

 

Good Luck.

 

Cliff

Amol,

I'm sorry that my answer is so obviously wrong. You should, of course, pick a higher ISO number (underexposure)to get the darker complexions to come out properly dark. How much will depend upon how much of the frame the skin takes up. The camera wants the average of the frame to be grey, and the camera will overexpose the dark compexion to get it to come out grey. Using minus exposure (underexposure) will correct this. With the light complexions you will have to add exposure as they may otherwise come out too dark. With both light and dark complexions I would leave the camera exposure controls alone as the mix will even out the situation. Using print film will also give the technician at the lab a chance to correct it as well. Indeed, if the pictures come out with skin too dark or too light, you can go back to the lab and ask them to correct the exposure.

Maybe I can blame my incorrectness on the recent change to Daylight Savings in the USA which makes us get up an hour earlier.

If you're shooting in some shade you'll probably use a moderate warm-up filter to compensate for the blue of the shade. The 400UC is going to give you some pretty strong effects. I've used it on skin indoors and outdoors and I won't do that again! I really like the Portra series and the VC stuff for more subdued lighting but the UC is, in my opinion, just plain over-the-top.