Light up the day, light up the night. Nikon D5500 outdoor shots with artificial light

When it comes to taking pictures with artificial light, the first thing that comes to mind is a studio filled with racks of lights, umbrellas and soft boxes. But sometimes artificial light is much easier and more interesting. You can use ambient light in reportage, architecture or lavstory photography. And we will not shoot indoors, but outdoors. For the job we need a flash such as the SB-600, SB-800 or SB-900 with a set of gel filters, a remote control unit SU-800 and a powerful tactical flashlight which gives a narrow beam of light.

The sunlight and night illumination of the big cities bring a special color to the frame. But sometimes it might not be enough for your story, and then you need to supplement it a little: to the natural light add artificial light that you brought with you. In this case, the flash is also used to give the characters extra highlights.

First we have to decide what parameters to set on the camera before we start shooting. Working with ambient light is a path of trial and error, so the initial parameters are worth setting approximately. First of all, think about what you want to get out of it. Let’s say we want to make a spectacular portrait of a couple in love on the bank of a river. Overcast, diffused light – that’s what will light up the faces of our models. And the flash adds a twist.

We measure the exposure by the daylight, memorize it and switch to manual mode M. There we set the shutter speed and aperture value which the meter shows us. If we want to visually separate our heroes from the background, we should open the aperture to blur the background. Sometimes, you can compensate a little, up to -0.7, to make our characters stand out, so that the background becomes darker and we can use artificial light to make our characters stand out. Watch the shutter speed very closely. Most cameras have a limit on the fastest shutter speed that can be synchronized with the flash. So on the camera Nikon D5500, the setting is 1/200 second – at shorter shutter speeds because of the mechanical nature of the camera flash will only light up part of the frame.

Then we should think what kind of light we need. We can, for example, simulate the setting sun – then the flash should be placed to the side or in front of the object. I like to create a halo of light around my characters. This is done by setting the backlight, which means the light is directed to the camera, so the flash should be set behind our characters. Try to hide the flash behind one of the characters in the shoot, so that it illuminates the characters, but does not get into the frame itself.

The flash will fire automatically from the Nikon SU-800. If you want to do this, you would want to have an assistant who can hold the flash and move it or change the settings if you want to do it manually. You can also use a stand and run to the flash yourself, rearrange it and change settings, but it takes a lot of time, and mobile stands are not the most stable jokes. One time on my set, a strong gust of wind knocked over a light stand, which fell on another stand that knocked over a tripod with a camera. The result is a busted syncro, and I got away with it just fine. So it’s better to find a helper among friends who would be interested in participating in the shoot.

Once you’ve made the first shots it becomes clear at once how and which parameters you need to adjust to get the result you want. If the background is too dark, increase the shutter speed, open the aperture and raise the ISO sensitivity. If the flash pulse is too bright, turn down the output or have an assistant move the flash farther away. Also see if the flash is hiding something it shouldn’t be hiding – any extra grass, a piece of wall, trees. If you see that the flash has caused extra bright details in the frame, think about how to rearrange it to get the desired effect and avoid highlighting unnecessary.

You can take pictures like this right up until darkness falls. The dark time of day opens up new possibilities for artificial light. We no longer need to use a sync terminal, we are going to use the flash completely manually.

First we need to put the camera on a tripod, because we will be working in the dark at shutter speeds of a few seconds. Next you need to compose your shot. It’s going to be hard, because it’s already dark around you and you can just barely see what you’re looking at in the viewfinder. When you compose a shot I suggest you turn the camera off to get rid of the bright lights so your eyes can adjust to the darkness quicker and you can see the outlines of the scene. Then we have to focus. It’s good if you have a bright object like a flashlight, but if not, you can have someone shine a flashlight on your characters and focus on that bright spot. Now turn off the autofocus so you don’t accidentally lose the focus you’ve worked so hard to catch.

Set the camera to M mode and set the shutter speed to 20-30 seconds, ISO 400-640 and aperture around 5.6-8.0. These are the initial settings and you will need to change them depending on the result. The final touch is to put the camera in delayed release mode or plug in the shutter release cable. The flash also needs to be set to M mode.

All set to go. Arm yourself with a flashlight and a flashlight and start painting the world around you. Each flash has a Test button on it that gives you a pulse of the set output. If you have people in the picture, it is better to light them with the flash to avoid blurring from minor movements – very few people can stand perfectly still for half a minute and a momentary flash pulse will freeze the movement. Just run around your characters in the “flash” light, but don’t forget to warn them to close their eyes before each pulse. If there are some stationary objects in the scene, like houses or trees, you can illuminate them with a flashlight.

You probably won’t get the shot of your dreams the first time around. Experiment with the camera and flash settings, lighting the subjects from the front, side and back and see how the lighting pattern changes. You don’t have to get perfect light in one shot – you can take good parts from different shots and assemble them into a graphical editor.

When using the flash as a backlight which means light is directed at the camera , be sure that the flash itself is not in the frame. You can hide it behind the characters, for example.

Hiding the flash is much easier with close-up shots

And sometimes a bright light source can create an interesting effect in the frame. In this case, the flash was partially hidden behind the characters

Even in daylight photography the flash can be the main light source. Using artificial light can turn the day into twilight, as was done in this case. Measure the exposure, set the camera to manual mode, and set the shutter speed and aperture so that the picture is severely underexposed. Then choose the power of the flash so the light pulse brightly enough to illuminate the objects you want.

Use colored filters on your flash and flashlight to tint the artificial light and get interesting effects, like firelight

In this case, the flash was the primary and only light source in a very dimly lit area

The flash can be used for reportage photography. In this case, I needed to emphasize the quirkiness of the souvenirs in the Nikola-Lenivets Landscape Park store. I decided to use a flash for this.

In this case, the flash to the left of the camera helped create contrasting spots of light and deep shadows on the turtle figure. It’s much more atmospheric than shooting the same turtle in daylight.

Here I decided to enhance the outline of a fish figure by placing the flash behind the subject.

With sunset comes a fleeting but very interesting time for photography – the blue hour. Clouds in the sky still reflect the sun, and at slow shutter speeds the sky in the frame can glow. It’s time to shoot! Here I used a flash to illuminate and “freeze” the figures of the characters. The flashlight was used to illuminate the figure of the Bobur art object. And the sky was burning with the reflected light of the sun that had gone below the horizon