Fashion photography using Nikon system

[kevin_leong2]

Dear Forum members,

 

I am an amateur photographer and photography is my hobby. Last week

I attended a wedding fashion show and shot 3 rolls of ASA 400 film

in a hotel ballroom (least 20 feet high ceiling) setting with stage

lighting. However, when I got my contact prints back, 65% of my

shots were underexposed or had dark deep shadows (partial stage

lighting)

 

My equipment I used:

Nikon F100

Nikon SB28 Flash with bracket

SC-17 cable

Nikon lens 80-200 ED, F 2.8

Sto-fen (45 deg tilt)

 

The result of the contact sheets

2 rolls of Fuji NPH � Underexposed

Kodak Extrachrome slides: Underexposed -orange

 

All my shots were hand held (no tripod) with camera settings:

Program and flash setting at 3-D Matrix. The flash on the side made

taking horizontal pictures difficult because of the unbalanced

weight.

 

The models came out very fast which I had no time adjusting my

camera settings; just enough time to reload film. The stage was

probably 35 feet away and the models paraded down the aisle less

than 8 feet way from me. As a result, deciding which GN and

adjusting the setting was virtually impossible.

 

I read in this forum that I should use Aperture-Priority with 3-D

Matrix setting for the flash. Is this correct?

 

I forgot to mention that I have most basic equipment for photography

such as a grey card and light meter. Should I use a light meter

since most of my models were wearing white? Probably using a light

meter was not appropriate since the stage lighting were not lit

until the models paraded down the runway. May be I should of moved

closer to the stage / models where the lighting or foot candles were

much greater. Most shot were focused.

 

I would appreciate if someone can suggest or recommend the settings

for the above situation as I will attend another shooting this

weekend.

[EricM]

What program was the camera set on? P? M? A? S? what setting was the ttl set on? Did you have the correct asa entered? Did the flash blink and indicate an underexposure? Do you negs look okay and maybe the printer screwed up your contact sheet?

[spencer_hahn]

A 20-foot-high ceiling is a little high to be bouncing for someone 8 feet away, in my opinion. Did you notice your SB-28 blinking the red light after each exposure? That means it used full output, but it still wasn't enough--probably because of the stofen. I wouldn't recommend using the stofen next time unless there's an 8-12 foot white ceiling. It reminds me of my school paper's photo editor trying to use bounce flash on a 35-foot high stage ceiling draped in black cloth. Also, I personally would never use slide film on anything where flash is more than just fill lighting.

[chris_ladoulis]

Kevin, I think your flash was under-powered for balanced fill. Your Stofen, and the 45-degree tilt, are both only useful if you are bouncing off a ceiling or extremely close to a subject with a wide angle. These two settings probably stole 3 stops from your available power, and without forcing your camera to a wide aperture (with an A-priority mode instead of P) you probably were forcing the SB-28 to flash at full power. I'm guessing that you had a combination of underexposure from settings, and some recycle time issues.

 

On your next outing, consider (1) removing the Stofen; (2) use 0-degree / no tilt; (3) set to Aperture priority to a wide aperture, and (4) consider turning OFF the matrix fill (TTL only) if there is no ambient light to capture.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>...Sto-fen (45 deg tilt) </I><P> there is your problem! You have created the

problem by over equipping yourself and under thinking about the situation. Because

the Stofen is opaque and also spreads the light over a 360 degree hemisphere it is

not a particularly efficient light modifier. In factthe Stofen is best used when you are

only afew feet away from your subject and have nearly walls and ceiling (preferably

white if you are shooting color) for the light that is not hitting the subject directly to

bounce off of.

[watchin]

IMHO - here's what I see from your description...<br>

<br>

> in a hotel ballroom (least 20 feet high ceiling) setting with stage lighting<br>

> lens 80-200 ED <br>

> Sto-fen (45 deg tilt) <br>

<br>

recipe for underexposure .. <br>

High ceilings = no bounce light left so you're exposing from the diffused light coming off the flash directly and ambient light <br>

80-200 = long distance light fall off from flash won't reach <br>

Sto-fen = 1 or 2 stop light drop <br>

<br>

I would recommend (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong ;{)<br>

<br>

no bounce flash - straight on to subject with flash above lens on bracket<br>

no sto-fen unless subjects are 6-8 feet away <br>

shorter lens - 80-200 is heavy and will cause photographer shake even with it set at 80 <br>

Monopod - if you're going to use the 80-200 this will provide a stable point <br>

<br>

Frame and focus for 10 foot mark, set camera for that point, let subject come to you (old wedding photo trick)... don't try to track

the subject, even with Auto-focus and TTL you'll have problems.

<br>

 

Hope this helps,<br>

Greg

[ci_p]

This isn't the sort of thing I shoot very much, but some of the things you are trying confuse me.

 

If you are bouncing the flash, what is the point of the bracket?

If you are bouncing the flash, this will spread the light around the place anyway so the sto-fen thing is redundant, and will just reduce the light you have to play with further.

 

Some advice....

 

Forget about the grey card & light meter. The meter in your camera is fine.

 

Use print film. Don't use slide film. You can get faster print film, and exposure is not so critical.

 

Closer gives you several advantages - not least of which is getting your flash closer to the subject.

 

I'd either use flash & point it directly at your subject, no sto-fen, use a wide (f2.8 / f4) aperture & try to balance ambient & flash lighting & choosing as low shutter speed as poss (1/125 ?) while hand holding. Watch out for the shadows from the flash (not literally).

 

Or get some *really* fast film, wide (f2.8 / f4) aperture & forget about the flash.

[steve_muntz]

One more vote for losing the Sto-Fen in a case like this. Use something like Portra 400NC and a good lab that specializes in wedding photographs. I have an F100 and an SB28, and I would put the flash on Matrix TTL. I usually shoot this way on aperture priority at f5.6 for a lot of reasons, and it works pretty well. Program should be fine too if you're more comfortable with it. Try to get closer rather than having to use an 80-200 2.8.

[manh_le]

Kevin,

 

In addition to the many suggestion and recommendation above, I'd like to point out the particular settings on your camera and flash.

 

I don't know how the lighting was at the stage, but in general most stage tends to have spot light. This is the usual trap for automatic equipments, especially with the 3-D Matrix TTL flash and not high speed film.

 

I don't have a F100, but N90s with the same flash and extension cord, and got similar results to yours before. In my photos there were lots of speckles as a results of low ambient light. In my N90s, with aperture priority mode turned on, the shutter speed is set to its default 1/60s. This is settable with Nikon proper software but I won't go there.

 

With the flash sets to TTL with 3-D Matrix Metering, what actually happens is that the camera take ambient light into account. This is essentially "fill flash" and the camera will not output much flash power. To be correct, the camera output a very short flash cycle.

 

The 3-D Matrix metering, on my camera, is about half stop lower than if I were to meter with center weight. Putting everything together, the setting actually works the same way as if you take the photo in low light.

 

How to improve this situtation? Two options: use the spot metering with manual mode, or set the flash to TTL only (not 3-D matrix metering). With TTL-only mode the flash will compensate for any loss of light due to stofen, bounce, etc., upto the flash capacity. However, you may run into the opposite of underexposure, overexposure.

 

Is 3-D Matrix metering useful? Sure it is; try 1600 ASA film.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Manh

[nazir200_200]

kevin..

i got the same mistake as yours for my brother"s wedding party and got

more than enough scoulding from my relatives for the ugly photos which i had made.

the second time for my cuosins marriage party i had used the print film 200 iso and 400 iso (konica centuria) and setting the aperture

between 4 to 6.7 most of the time,and f8 for the portraits at the close distance around 2 to 3 meters.i didnt used the bounce flash

or matrix metring any where instead the centre weighted metering and

aperture priority or manual mode ...the results were more pleasing

and attractive.if you have more flash power and providing a reflctive

white cieling at 2.5 to 4 meters only u could try those techniqs u tried effectively.remember one thing the matrix metering is suitable for out door photography were the lighting levels on the subject and the surroundings are more or less uniformly distributed.then it will give a nice fill flash effect.

happy shooting

[EricM]

Another worthy mention�just because the red light tells you the flash is safe to fire and has recycled, doesn�t mean that it�s recycled 100%.

[kevin_leong2]

Dear Forum members,

 

I want to thank everyone who contributed to my enquiry regarding flash technique with Nikon F100 and SB-28 flash. I was ready to try and reshoot at another wedding fair/expo that had a fashion show, but I was told that cameras were not allowed. I called the hotel ahead, but they were not sure if photography was allowed. I had all my camera gear (tripod, camera, flash, films, etc). I was very disappointed. I will try to shoot in another wedding fair next month and kept everyone informed. Anyway, many thanks to everyone.

 

 

Regards,

 

Kevin