Imp. Winartho, Your Bali Photographer

when shooting outdoors on a sunny day using the sun as your main light source, normally we will get a very high contrast images.

cases-1: the background is great, but the model or object is little bit unbalance in brightness.
or object is good exposed, but the background is overbright.
cases-2: the shadows (example: shadow of nose or chin of the model or object) are look much darker than what it should be.

to encounter this matter, we use a technique called fill flash (or fill in flash). most of the latest production of flashs or speedlights have a setting for doing balanced fill flash (TTL BL) automatically. just set your flash to TTL BL, done.

to do fill flash manually, follow this steps. in this case i use my nikon SB-800 as reference. please adjust the concept into your own flash light.

1. position your model or object under the sun lighting, however you like.
   tips: when shooting a portrait, avoid the direct sun light to their eyes, this causes them to squint.
2. use the camera’s light meter to determine the correct exposure.
   tips: a typical exposure for sunny day at iso 100 is f/16 at 1/125 second.
3. determine the proper exposure for your flash.
   use formula aperture = flash GN /distance
4. set the flash exposure at 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop under the proper exposure.
   the actual amount of underexposure needed depends on the brightness of the sun and the darkness of the shadows.
5. take the picture and preview it on lcd.
   change the exposure compensation and take another shot if you are not satisfied.

note: be sure the flash head zoom is set to the proper focal length for the lens in use.
ref: nikon creative lighting system.

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