Have you wondered how to take flowers or other objects where the background is dark or black? Off course you can use a studio or room where you shut out all external light and use your flash. But you can also get the same effect outdoors.
These 2 photos were taken minutes apart from each other. It was around 4pm with the sun shining brightly. Two different outcome with different techniques.
ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/1600 sec Aperture: 8.0 Focal Length: 21.6mm
Flash Used: Yes
Here’s how you do it. In the 2nd photo, it is just a normal shot with the camera on full auto or program mode. The settings are
ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/125 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 21.6mm
From the settings, you’ll get that I under exposed the first shot severely and used the flash to light up the flowers. I turn down the flash power so that only the flowers are lit and the light fall off will not expose the background. The background of the first photo was not totally black, I had to adjust it in Picasa by increasing the shadows just a bit.
The original untouched photo below.
The challenge was the there was another plant very close behind the flowers, reflecting light and it was 4 pm in the afternoon. Just out of the range (aperture and shutter speed) for the point and shoot FZ28.
I could have waited a while for the sun to go down a little but this tip expands your arsenal to photography tricks. Besides flowers, you can try the same for portraits and other times you want a dark background.
