Overpowering the Sun – Strobist DC Meetup
Yesterday Strobist DC met to talk about overpowering the sun and some of the techniques that can be used to achieve the technique.
The meeting took place at the Meridian Hill Park, a beautiful park right in the middle of DC. We had a good time discussing different techniques and then we shoot using High Speed Sync and applying the Sunny 16 Rule with small strobes.
So, what the term overpowering the sun means? The answer may vary depending on who you ask. I interprete the term as this:
“To expose your subject matching or overpowering the ambient light, being the ambient light source, the sun.”
Let’s define it by examples:
First let’s take a look at a typical picture during daylight exposed for the subject.
Exposed for Subject
The picture above is exposed for the subject but because we are under daylight the sky comes a bit over exposed, colors ar a bit flat, hence boring.
So, if I want to get a nicer sky color I need to lower my exposure. Like in the picture below.
Exposed for the Sky
Now we get a nicer deep blue color in the sky but we loose our subject as it is way under exposed. (Note: the picture above is more under exposed than it should be for demonstration purposes).
We need to add our own light source in order to be able to balance with that ambient light or overpower it. By adding a single strobe I was able to overpower the ambient light (the sun) by just a notch giving the picture a much better contrast between the subject and the sky.
Overpowering The Sun
In the picture above I under exposed the sky by just one stop to avoid under exposing too much the rest of the background. If you compare this picture with the first one above, you’ll notice the better contrast without any retouching. This was done by using a single portable strobe (Canon 580EX II) with a shoot through umbrella and a CTO gel. Add another light source and you can turn that sky a very deep blue or use no modifier for a stronger light source.
There are a few ways you can achieve this technique.
- Power
- Using a powerful lightsource like a studio strobe will make things lot easier, especially if you are competing with the sun at noon.
- Pros
- Easier to compete with the sun even in mid day.
- You can use wide open apertures (e.g. f/2.8) as your flash will be able to compensate with its power
- Cons
- Heavier equipment to take to the field, so you may need assistance.
- If in the field you need to find your own power source (e.g. Power generator or a Power pack)
- Will get expensive. Of course, if you’re shooting for Sports Illustrated magazine cover, then, who cares?
- Limited to the cameras highest sync speed
Profoto Pro-B head 1200 Ws
Profoto Pro-8A 2400 Air Power Generator
- High Speed Sync (HSS)
- Your camera may have what is known as High Speed Syncing, if this is the case by using a HSS capable flash of the same brand you can overpower the sun. HSS allows your camera to use a flash at higher speeds than the camera top syncing speed which is normally caps at 1/250 of a sec. With HSS you can go to speeds of 1/8000 (depends on the camera) and still be able to use the flash to lit the subject. This is achived by firing lots of flashes during the time the shutter curtains are moving. This is a great feature, but until recently you were limited on the use of this feature. But now thanks to wireless triggers like the Pocket Wizard Flex and Mini we can make use of this great feature off camera in full daylight and even add light modifiers.
- Cons
- You need to have a camera and flash(es) capable of HSS and they must be of the same brand as this is proprietary functionality.
- If using off-camera flash during strong daylight the camera infrared system can fail. You can use wireless triggers and these can get expensive as you add more lights.
- Since this is limited to your cameras manufacturer strobes, your light power is also limited.
- Pros
- You can use wide open apertures like f/2.8.
- You can use high shutter speeds.
- Is great for portraits or sports photography.
Canon 580EX II w/ HSS
- Sunny 16 Rule with small strobes
- The Sunny 16 Rule says that “On a bright, sunny day, the correct exposure for any subject is f/16 at the shutter speed nearest to the reciprocal of the film speed”. Well we are on the digital days, so we can translate the film speed to our ISO. An example of the Sunny 16 Rule would be to have f/16 with a speed of 1/200 and a ISO of 200. Based on this rule this should guarantee a balanced exposure. Since small strobes like flash guns are not very powerful, we can use this rule to overpower the sun with those. We all know the photography rules are meant to be broken so depending on the power of our flash we will have to play with these numbers a bit. But it will serve as a good starting point.
- Cons
- You are limited to small apertures (e.g. f/16)
- Don’t try this at noon, strobes most likely won’t be powerful enough
- Limited to the cameras highest sync speed
- Pros
- Relatively inexpensive
- Light to carry for on-site jobs (everything needed can fit in a backpack)
Speedlights
Also, always remember to leverage the equipment you have available. For instance, make use of your camera histogram which helps inmensely when shooting directly under the sun, turn on the high alert to view any over exposed areas in the picture, take advantage of your max camera sync speed and, of course, always shoot RAW.
Here’s another photo from the event after post-processing:
Anastassia on Strobist DC
[Note: Big thanks to Anastassia (model above) & her father Val, Mike, Phil & Ninoska, all Strobist DC members for their help with the meetup and getting these shots]
