Portraits at sunset
May 16, 2015 19:18:10 #
Hi I was asked to take some family portraits at sunset- I shoot with a Nikon D3300 and have 2 lenses-an 55-200 and an 18-200-could someone please tell me an easy way to capture the subjects- being the family so that their faces are not dark?This is my first attempt and all help is appreciated.
May 16, 2015 19:25:37 #
LizzieD728 wrote:
Hi I was asked to take some family portraits at sunset- I shoot with a Nikon D3300 and have 2 lenses-an 55-200 and an 18-200-could someone please tell me an easy way to capture the subjects- being the family so that their faces are not dark?This is my first attempt and all help is appreciated.
Lizzie, if the sun is behind then, you need to:
1, use flash or reflected light to balance the sun... or....
2, expose them correctly and blow out the background, which could look really awesome as well(like very high key). Good luck. ;-)
SS
May 16, 2015 19:25:49 #
LizzieD728 wrote:
Hi I was asked to take some family portraits at sunset- I shoot with a Nikon D3300 and have 2 lenses-an 55-200 and an 18-200-could someone please tell me an easy way to capture the subjects- being the family so that their faces are not dark?This is my first attempt and all help is appreciated.
Use the camera flash or other lighting on your subjects while they are framed against the sunset, I'd practice with inanimate objects to get my settings.
Work quickly. Sunsets don't last forever except in your mind and images.
May 16, 2015 19:34:08 #
it is all about the lighting...you will need to use an external flash to fill all shadows.i use a diffuser on mine ...for starters you need to place your subjects where the sun will fall to the side or behind them to give them a soft glow...go before the actual date and try out different settings for different lighting ..taking photos at sunset is actually a lot easier than midday..the light is softer..if you don't have a flash then try reflectors to use on the side of the subject to avoid dark shadows..bring both lenses..if you're just doing one or two people then i would use the 55-200 ..for the group use the 18-200 ..try to experiment before hand..the light will change as the sun is setting ..use your intuition and be sure that you get enough ambient light by opening up your aperture when it gets darker..good luck ..you should do fine ..
May 16, 2015 20:03:31 #
Focal length should be chosen to frame the people correctly as well as getting the right amount of the sky. Wide angle lens will give you more of the sky and long lens would give you less.
May 16, 2015 20:39:23 #
One problem is that sunset light is very warm. If you simply use fill flash the result will be very "artificial". You will want to use a yellow filter over the flash to approximate the warm sunset light. Doing that it will be much easier to balance the color in post processing as sun and flash will have a more closely matched warm cast and any post processing will look much more "natural". You want to balance the illumination but you also need to balance color temps. Colored flash can help you do that. Colored gels come in varied amounts of color so you may want to experiment a little but even just getting "in the ballpark" will make a huge difference. You can even get a yellow "Omni Bounce Diffuser" that would probably do the trick will enough.
May 17, 2015 00:28:44 #
katbandit wrote:
it is all about the lighting...you will need to us... (show quote)
Overall decent advice except for the diffuser part. If you mean that dome diffuser, it is worthless outdoors. All it does is require the flash to put out 1.7 times as much light to get the same exposure as without it. It is meant for indoor bounce use.
May 17, 2015 02:17:36 #
Possibly shoot in raw to allow more latitude in PP just incase you don't get it just right the first time and need to salvage less than perfect shots. Properly taking the shot is ideal, but.....
Personally, this is what I would do if I was unsure about what I was doing or how well I could implement proper technique.
Personally, this is what I would do if I was unsure about what I was doing or how well I could implement proper technique.
May 17, 2015 06:13:53 #
LizzieD728 wrote:
Hi I was asked to take some family portraits at sunset- I shoot with a Nikon D3300 and have 2 lenses-an 55-200 and an 18-200-could someone please tell me an easy way to capture the subjects- being the family so that their faces are not dark?This is my first attempt and all help is appreciated.
Lizzie - shoot your images as raw, have an assistant hold a reflector to provide fill light from the sun. If you use a separate strobe or speedlight, make sure you add the appropriate CTO color correcting filter, otherwise the color of the fill will be blue compared to the warm color of the sun at that hour.
But shooting raw will be your most important step, to provide complete flexibility in post processing so you can easily and quickly make very specific local corrections that would be difficult and less effective if you tried to do them on a jpeg.
May 17, 2015 06:50:08 #
LizzieD728 wrote:
Hi I was asked to take some family portraits at sunset- I shoot with a Nikon D3300 and have 2 lenses-an 55-200 and an 18-200-could someone please tell me an easy way to capture the subjects- being the family so that their faces are not dark?This is my first attempt and all help is appreciated.
http://improvephotography.com/632/10-tips-for-beautiful-sunset-portrait-photography/
May 17, 2015 07:00:17 #
jerryc41 wrote:
http://improvephotography.com/632/10-tips-for-beautiful-sunset-portrait-photography/
Pretty much everything that was stated above - nice summary.
May 17, 2015 07:07:54 #
CaptainC wrote:
Overall decent advice except for the diffuser part. If you mean that dome diffuser, it is worthless outdoors. All it does is require the flash to put out 1.7 times as much light to get the same exposure as without it. It is meant for indoor bounce use.
sounds good...i usually use it just to add a bit of pop to the photo ..i don't have the big dome cover but i usually use the one that comes with the flash..have it set at half power..and have the light turned upwards ..it gives me just enough light to give the photo a bit of umph..i don't use it all the time..mostly i use reflectors and bounce my light off that...or an umbrella..it all depends on the lighting ..and how i want the photo to look..
May 17, 2015 07:30:02 #
not mentioned in the remarks I read is your lens availability. the two lenses you list are variable zoom lens only offering you 5.6 at the longer focal lengths. obviously, you can alter ISO to make greater use of your limited lenses' capacity. the 55-200 at 3.5 from a distance will allow you have great depth of field to include your sunset background. there are a myriad reflectors that will help you with your lighting.
when doing sunset portraits, I normally allow my flash exposure for the face, and the background exposure for the shutter. good luck
when doing sunset portraits, I normally allow my flash exposure for the face, and the background exposure for the shutter. good luck
May 17, 2015 10:21:01 #
May 17, 2015 10:45:08 #
valley3photo wrote:
Fill flash
I think he spells it with a Ph, as in Phil Flash. :D
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