j_maro Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Hi, I am to shoot a restaurant interior including people eating and drinking. My equipment is the D70 using th sb-800. Here's my question. I'm scheduled to shoot with the light in the restaurant being partial sunlight and partial exsisting interior lighting. I would like to use my flash, bouncing the flash off the ceiling, but I want to preserve some of the ambient light and have crisp shots with perhaps a short Depth of Field (which I could tecnically add later in PS) What are my settings? What camera and flash setting should I use to accomplish this as this is a one time shoot. ISO? shutter? flash ev? etc thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice_guy Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Really difficult to tell without knowing the exact conditons. It will be worth noting which is the predominant light source, the daylight or interior lighting. The interior lighting may be tungsten, or strip lights and if it is more predominant you'll want to set your white balance for that and then use the appropriate gel on your flash so it's balanced. If daylight is predominant then your flash should be fine without a gel. Also bear in mind if the ceiling you're bouncing off has a colour or tint then that will affect the temperature of the bounced light, ie. if the ceiling is red it will bounce red light. If it's white, you're fine. Settings will be determined by how much light there is so I can't offer any advice other than if it's very low and you're looking to capture the ambiance then a tripod and slow synch flash may work. You're shooting digital though so you'll get immediate feedback on your results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchin Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 If you are going to use bounce flash, might try the Lightsphere II if you can get your hands on one. It will provide an additional softening of the overall light. Like was said the predominate source will dictate the white balance, although the flash will probably dominate it. You might try using the flash in manual mode (to get full power) and adjust your f-stop accordingly, I'd use a midpoint distance as the start. If there is enough light try a couple without the flash, or just use the flash (off-camera) as a fill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchin Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 forgot to answer some of your questions... ISO - I'd go with 400 (higher speed low noise) or if you're shooting raw you might try 800. Shutter try 1/30 and work up, you'll get different results with each major step. Flash EV I'd give it +1 at least or go for max like I said above. Actually if it's a one time shoot. Try as many as you can get away with. Use your main settings (that you believe will get what you want), then experiment like hell :{O Sounds like fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd peach seattle, washi Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Mixed lighting is one of those things where you have to 'be there' to evaluate what you have and understand what you're working with. With a D70, your best 'tool' may be the in-camera meter in 'M' mode. The display is going to tell you what the ambient lighting is doing for your exposure, and then the I-TTL of the flash is going to layer in on top of that. Too little/too much ambient (based on chimping)? Dial your basic exposure up or down. Flash 'too hot'? Dial in a little negative EV on the flash itself. ISO is probably going to be a function of the outdoor light. If you really have 'partial sunlight' lighting a significant portion of the scene, your ISO will be low (200) and your WB will be a variation on 'daylight' (or auto) with the flash kicking in most of the interior fill. If the sunlight turns out to be not really a factor, you're probably going to boost ISO to 800 or so to pick up interior lighting. Here, the 'mixed color' of the lighting may eat your lunch. If it's incandescent, dragging the shutter will probably give a 'warm' feel to the place, which is usually an ok thing. If they're using CFLs, watch out, as the color could easily go green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_maro Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 Thanks you all for such quick replies. If anyon else has ideas please add to this discussion. thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_maro Posted June 16, 2005 Author Share Posted June 16, 2005 Thanks again for all your feedback. I shoot went okay. I need to get more comfortable with the sb-800. I wanted to show you all some of the results I got based on your feddback. Thanks again http://www.thelightroom.org/23p/vietnam/1.jpg http://www.thelightroom.org/23p/vietnam/2.jpg http://www.thelightroom.org/23p/vietnam/3.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acedigital Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 The lighting looks very good - need some practice with Depth of Field ..a lot of the photos have the foreground out of focus, unless this was intentional. Sorry to be picky, I know you were experimenting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice_guy Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 It went well by the looks of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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