well how do u do outdoor night portraits?

[Numnumball]

guys.. anyway i guess eventually my above situation will be a potential scenario for any newbies taking night portrait without a tripod.

thanks again for those who commented. ur help/tips greatly appreciated.

not tt i do not trust D90's ISO but sometimes they work sometime they just destroyed the image.
but as advises from Scott Kelby/Joe Mcnally, noisy pics are still better than blurry shots.

more practices on flash ev..

Bro, D90 to me at 1600 still usable.. though thats the extreme in certain situations where shadows prevails over highlights...

But ulitmately it really boils down to how to use flash approriately at night.. for me i will normally place the flash 90 degrees with diffuser (demp flip it - those with the bouce card kind), never straight on.. If direct with external flashgun, even with diffuser, the effect is still undesirable..

Slow sync and shutter drag shall do the trick and fev compensate accordingly.. U shd get fairly acceptable results (or even better)

HTH

 

[akagi07]

hmm.. i deleted those horrible shots.. but shall check tonight else tmr morning
haha perhaps my target standard at least decent well lit exposed shots

drilled too deep into the pic to check the image. if viewed from original, image are alright

 

[NeTHaCk]

Threadstarter,

you are using a D90 with sb600. ever thought of using your built in flash as commander and your sb600 as slave? try it out.

next, rule of thumb: if your max ISO setting is hi1 aka 6400 , never go anywhere above half of it (3200) . I've shot in iso2000 before for weddings and not much of a problem

 

[zac08]

ya, 1 more thing btw.. though I shot entirely all in RAW, i had my WB set to auto..
seems like my shots mostly are all in bit of yellowish tone.

when viewed in LR2, good that LR2 auto tune my subjects skintone to more natural..
I was thinking, what WB is typically used in such situation? i doubt sunlight since no sun, no flash as the color tends to be incorrect too.

Use RAW and then correct when converting to Jpeg.

Use a white zone or grey area. This will give you the best control as under night lights, it tends to be more yellowish. It's natural...

 

[Lumiere]

mY my.. my mistake.. i used AP.. way too dependent on AP mode recently..




i guess 1/10 is my extreme max for stability.. ok, gotta try.. thanks for the full coverage tips
But my stand is that, typically I cannot get too many shots on the 4 ladies in a straight line.. gotta compromise bit here and there..



as mentioned, F2.8 I'm ok, but shallow DoF, so i try to close bit more to ard F3.2-4 to get more details. totally not good in flash, my self-confession. Totally forget abt Flash ev.



Ok thanks Rashkae for the tips... last attempt using noiseninja, I find the software made the subject skin-tone, way too fake.. can you point out what is the setting optimum? appreciate that..




Thanks. true but no $$$ for FX and i believed even with DX things are still workable.

But F1.4, aren't ur DoF too shallow to get everyone into detail? Else if u stand further back, your subject gonna be small..





thanks for the tips, ya I guess I gotta try more on flash ev..
kudo to all for the above. greatly appreciated.

ok let me take reference from when I was still using the D70s, Sb-800 and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

my settings are usually at ISO 800, f4 and 1/50-1/80...flash is at TTL 0 or +1/3

 

[akagi07]

Even though rear sync get more "background light", you are subjected yourself to more chances of subject ghosting.

provided if the subject moves.. ;p

 

[akagi07]

ok let me take reference from when I was still using the D70s, Sb-800 and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

my settings are usually at ISO 800, f4 and 1/50-1/80...flash is at TTL 0 or +1/3

1/50-1/80 @ F4, how well lit is your scene?

 

[daredevil123]

LS=lightsphere
WT=?

ya. left my LS at home.. jus equipped with a omnibounce and last min resort using a blank white paper tied with rubber band..

PLease note, if you are shooting outdoors, the stofen will produce light only very slightly softer than direct flash. This is due to the small size of the cap. Indoors, the light from the cap will bounce around the walls. In the absence of walls, the light has nothing to bounce from and will still come from a size similar to the size of the flash. A bounce card, LS or WT will give much much better results.

 

[akagi07]

yup.. got tt in mind. thanks.. flash still my weak link

 

[daredevil123]

yup.. got tt in mind. thanks.. flash still my weak link

Bro, take a look at this site. It has helped me tremendously in flash photography.

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com/

 

[akagi07]

thanks for the sharing. its great site

 

[aspenx]

Perhaps its time to start trusting you equipments

:thumbsup:

I second this. I never had a problem when D200 and SB600 and shooting at f/4. Don't see why you can't do it with f/2.8.

And... 1/10s shutter speed to shoot FOUR live subjects sounds VERY extreme to me. I doubt you can get all 4 of them sharp even after 10 tries.

 

[akagi07]

:thumbsup:

I second this. I never had a problem when D200 and SB600 and shooting at f/4. Don't see why you can't do it with f/2.8.

And... 1/10s shutter speed to shoot FOUR live subjects sounds VERY extreme to me. I doubt you can get all 4 of them sharp even after 10 tries.

actually, correcting myself.. this trust thingy is not on aperture or speedlight.. its actually pointing to the ISO performance which I dislike when I zoomed in.
Rashkae did point out to me.. :b blame my expectation

i realized this gotta be my incorrect usage of my sb600. :nono:

tts y you mentioned 10 tries:sweat:.. even if i had 1 sharp / clear take I'm happy.

 

[Anson]

provided if the subject moves.. ;p

Subject ghosting can be due to subject or camera movement.

 

[akagi07]

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com/

was reading the above shared by daredevil.. its good..

ok anson.. noted. thanks

 

[aspenx]

:thumbsup:

I second this. I never had a problem when D200 and SB600 and shooting at f/4. Don't see why you can't do it with f/2.8.

actually, correcting myself.. this trust thingy is not on aperture or speedlight.. its actually pointing to the ISO performance which I dislike when I zoomed in.
Rashkae did point out to me.. :b blame my expectation

Anyways, I'm sure your D90 has much better "high-ISO" performance than my D200 did. :sweat:

 

[akagi07]

Just tried shooting in 85% darkness. Ya definitely my flash light usage. But find rather inconsistent. Will elaborate more later..
Still at iso 800 i am trying hard to tolerate e grainy in e bg. Actually was wondering for those mentioning u guy are okay with even 2000. . how's Ur img like?

 

[pokiemon]

fact of the matter is this - when you shoot portrait at very dim light, even at the widest aperture f1.4 and iso at 6400 you may not get as sharp a pic as in the day. noise and temperature can be adjusted in photoshop but sharpness is almost impossible.

i would suggest using a flash. if you do not like the harshness of flash and dark background then bounce it off ceiling where possible and use it as a filler.

 

[Lumiere]

1/50-1/80 @ F4, how well lit is your scene?

generally in order to deliver "bright bright sharp sharp" photos

in RAW: i have to add +0.5 to exposure, fill light +5

in PS: sharpen

 

[aungzawwin]

Just tried shooting in 85% darkness. Ya definitely my flash light usage. But find rather inconsistent. Will elaborate more later..
Still at iso 800 i am trying hard to tolerate e grainy in e bg. Actually was wondering for those mentioning u guy are okay with even 2000. . how's Ur img like?

onboard flash alone cannot do optimal shots in 85% darkness

by the way, if ADL is turned on, it can increase noise in dark areas.. and it you don't look at the pics at 100% on the computer, there should be no problem with ISO800 shots of D90.. they are quite clean (as long as they are exposed properly)
in your scenario, i'd shoot RAW and PP later