Using Flash Fill

I have been working on using the pop-up flash on the D700 as a fill source when taking photographs of Janet when we go out to eat. Many of the photographs posted in the last couple of weeks have been taken with flash fill. I don’t want the flash to wash out the modeling from the overhead lights but I do want it to fill the shadows and soften the foreground lighting. Like in all of my photography I want a degree of drama in the end result so I generally like the background to be somewhat dark. I could rig a CTO gel over the flash and use incandescent but I really like using a daylight white balance with a slight adjustment in cooling. I generally end up doing a little darkening to the background or lightening of the foreground.

I shoot a test of the background on Program, make any needed corrections and use that as my starting point in Manual. I know from past shots that using 400ISO with the pop-up flash at minus 0.3 EV that at the distance I am working at the table the flash aperture will be f/7.1 or f/8. I count the number of aperture clicks between the aperture used on the Program test shot and f/7.1 or f/8. Then I use the same number of clicks to increase the shutter speed. In other words I adjust the exposure for the background to be the same as my final background test. The shot above required one test shot of the background that came out at f/2.8 at 1/100 sec. I counted the clicks between f/2.8 and f/7.1 and opened up the shutter speed the same number of clicks. The first flash shot came out correct using f/7.1 at 1/15 sec.

If I had not known the aperture from previous shots I would have set a test for the flash using the shutter speed of the background test and then made the same click correction for the shutter speed.

I got my 12x18 prints for the NWHPC Portfolio Challenge today. Mpix did an excellent job. I ordered twelve thinking that I would get at least ten out that I would like. As it is I believe I will use all twelve. After the Challenge is over on Wednesday October 7th I will post the portfolio to Flickr.


A new project. I think I will start shooting photographs of the places that we go out to eat. Been thinking about that for a while but just now getting started.

BTW: If anyone is interested I have a pdf document posted to Scribd on the flash technique that I am using for fill. It is private so you will have to use the following link to access it. It is titled Balancing Flash with Background Ambient with the Nikon. You can download it if you like for your personal use, just honor my copyright. It will also work for Canon or any other brand of camera.