Tips for outdoor shooting with a Speedlite

<p>I have a Rebel T1i and a Speedlite 430EX II. If I'm outdoors and want to use a fill flash to take a picture of a person it would seem that since there's no place to "bounce" the flash it would have to face directly at the subject. Wouldn't that create the same type of "shiney" effect as a regular flash? (If not more because the flash is more powerful.) Any tips for this?</p>

<p>Not necessarily. Keep in mind that your flash has different levels of output. The easiest way to get fill flash is to shoot in Av mode (I think Tv mode works as well). The camera will now use the ambient light as the main light source and will direct the flash to output at fill level. You may also want to vary the level of flash compensation to get your desired level of fill.</p>

<p>The best way to deal with this is to take control of the situation. While the camera's computer is good, it can't read your mind and know exactly what sort of ratio you'd like between the ambient light and the fill.<br /><br />If you want the background to be pleasantly exposed, meter on the background, noting the combination of ISO and aperture that will give you the look you want, while being sure to stick with a shutter speed that's at or below your flash synch speed (say, 1/250th or slower). Can you get a good-looking shot of the background? Great! Note the exposure that gave it to you, and then switch the camera to Manual exposure, using those same settings. That way the camera's not going to mess things up by trying to help you. <br /><br />Then, fire up the flash. Set the power manually. Try it at 1/4 power, or half power - see if you're getting the look you're after in the fill. If you're doing this in warm light (early morning, or late in the day), you might want to gel the flash with an amber gel so that your fill light doesn't look jarringly white - which is a big part of the artificial-looking results that some people notice. <br /><br />To fine-tune that scenario, you've got to find the sweet spot (for a given scene) between a slow enough shutter speed to drag in the ambient light and an aperture that gives you the depth of field you're after. You may need to raise or lower ISO to make the whole rig more or less sensitive to light, depending on whether you're using flash fill in a softly lit environment, or in brighter, harsher light.</p>

<p>Matt has given great advice. I might add that what you are concerned with are the specular highlights (glare on the forehead, nose, cheeks etc) that a flash might cause. For this reason, we use a simple Sto-fen type dome when shooting outside, flash forward. I might also suggest trying to get the flash off camera. The sunset shot in my gallery was a single SB800 off camera, frame right. It did have a diffusion dome on the flash. But the direction of light vastly improved the shot. While this was via wireless, the same thing could be done with an off shoe cord.</p>

<p>Learn to use FEC. That feature along with a bounce cards should be all you really need.</p>

<p>When outdoors and am lokking for a little fill I will usually shoot in AV mode and set FEC at between minus 1 and minus 2. This works well for me. Do a few experiments and you will eliminate the appearance of flash but will open up the dark areas of your images.</p>

<p>Thanks for the great responses! Very helpful.</p>

<p>With my 50mm 1.8 prime & Speedlite 430EX II I shot a few outdoor pics of a subject who was just about 6 feet away. There was LOTS of washout and the picture seemed really overexposed. Sunny day. Here's my settings: Av, Flash Comp -1, AWB, ISO 100, Exposure -1. Any ideas why? Thanks.</p>

<p>Here is the picture....</p><div></div>