Adjusting studio flash on location

Balancing a light from a studio strobe with available light outside can give you some stunning images. When you use a flash outside, you have to control two exposure at the same time. Reason for this is that you are working with two different sources of light.

One of the sources of light is ambient light. Ambient light is the light comes from the sun. Sometimes it also called Available light. Other source of light is called Artificial light, the light comes from studio strobe. Ambient light  is the light we cannot control. We have to adjust the camera settings to the Ambient light for its proper background exposure. Artificial light is the light we can control. Once we have the exposure set for the Ambient light, we can adjust the settings of the strobe to match and get a perfect fill light.

As told we can't control the Ambient light, its really important that you shoot at a time of a day when the light looks its best. Try shooting just after sun rise or just before sun set. If you shoot at the middle of the day you won't get the desired result. Since you are using a studio strobe on location we have some limits what we can do with our camera.

There are three steps to get started:
1. Set your camera to manual mode. Make sure your shutter speed is set to your camera's sync speed.
2. Point your camera to the area just behind your subject, and adjust your aperture to have correct exposure.
3. Meter your flash: adjust your flash  up in telemeters at the same f-stop value, as your camera settings.

Once you finished these steps, you are ready to shoot. There are two more steps which would help you out.
4. Take a test shot and see how everything looks. You might want to adjust the shutter speed if you want to change the ambient light exposure. You can always overexpose or underexpose the background depending of the looks you want to achieve.  

You should keep measuring the Ambient light as its changing continuously.

Travel Photography Tips:

Here are some tips for Travel Photographers. 

1. Getup early in the morning.
2. Take wide angle and telephoto lenses with you.
3. You can take pictures with same 18-200mm lens. But its better to split to two lenses, 18-55mm and 52-200mm.
4. Don't shoot everything with the lens at infinity. Go in close for interesting details. This can reveal a lot of information about the place.
5. Some pictures look better in the portrait or vertical orientation.
6. Don't shoot every time in high level. Try to shoot from lower levels too.
7. Don't put the camera everything in the Program Mode, it will miss the opportunity to take creative shots. Try setting lower shutter speeds to have creative blur and wide aperture for shallow depth of filed.
8. Some times flash does magic in day light too. So try to use flash in low light (shadow) situation. Off course use flash at night. But
9. Don't forget to take snaps of people. A Place is much about its people and culture. A telephoto is recommenced for portraits.
10. Try to shoot the Sunset as it shows the end.   
    
    
    
    
    An example for great travel Photography: 
    
    
    
    
    

RULES TO TAKE GOOD PICTURES

Composition is an essential to know how to take good pictures.
1. The Rule of Thirds states that the strongest composition is created when the subject is off-center in the photo. You look through the viewfinder on your camera and visually, divide the area into three areas vertically and horizontally. Your subject should be in the upper left, lower left, upper right or lower right section of the viewfinder.

2. When to ignore the Rule of Thirds. Sometimes, you will have a subject that will just not follow the rule, but still works as a strong composition. For example, when photographing a flower or face that it fills the entire frame of your viewfinder it wouldn't make sense to use the Rule of Thirds. Filling the viewfinder is usually a great way to have a strong composition when you are photographing just one item.

Rules take good pictures

Composition is an essential to know how to take good pictures.
1.  It is important to learn the Rule of Thirds.
The Rule of Thirds states that the strongest composition is created when the subject is off-center in the photo. You look through the viewfinder on your camera and visually, divide the area into three areas vertically and horizontally. Your subject should be in the upper left, lower left, upper right or lower right section of the viewfinder.
2. You need to know when to ignore the Rule of Thirds. Sometimes, you will have a subject that will just not follow the rule, but still works as a strong composition. For example, when photographing a flower or face that it fills the entire frame of your viewfinder it wouldn't make sense to use the Rule of Thirds. Filling the viewfinder is usually a great way to have a strong composition when you are photographing just one item.