Fill Flash Lighting Techniques Page 1 of 5

Synchro-Sun “Fill-Flash” Lighting Techniques

Using Flash to control contrast

The thing that stands out to me most prominently, that gives away the experience level of a
new photographer, is the failure to use fill flash to control contrast. Unfortunately,
sometimes I see this in the work of new professional photographers, particularly in wedding
candid shots outdoors in the sun. Now, the client may not know what it is that the
photographer did, or did not do that made the photographs better, but they certainly will
recognize that one looks “professional” while the other doesn’t. Using fill flash to control
contrast for those inevitable candid photos in the bright sun is just a fundamental technique
that every photographer needs to know how to do.

Many photographers, even those who have been shooting for many years, have a hard time
calculating the correct exposure when using fill flash. If you don’t know how to use fill
flash, or have a hard time calculating the correct exposure settings, I hope to make that
process easier with the information I am providing here.

I don’t like to use fill flash to shoot portraits as the quality of the light from the small light
source of the strobe is quite “hard” and tends to bring out the texture and white specular
highlights in the skin. Large, softer light sources such as the slightly overcast sky, the sky at
dusk after the sun has set, or the soft box or umbrella in the studio, are much more
conducive to lighting portraits. However, for larger groups that have to be shot in the
sunlight, as well as candids and action shots, using the strobe to fill the shadows is essential
to producing professional work.

The challenge with fill flash is to use just enough to fill the shadows, or bring them into
the range of the film, but not to overpower the natural light. For group shots, or any
situation where I have the control to be able to turn the subject, I will usually have the
subject back lit, with their face in the shadow. That way they are not squinting. The idea is
to bring that exposure close to the level of the sunlight. But I still want the subject to appear
back-lit. (Caution: Don’t forget the importance of using shade on the lens. This will be
particularly important when you are shooting in the sun with the subject backlit. You
must keep the sun off of the lens.)

To some extent, the level of fill is personal choice. You will find the look you like and
develop your technique to achieve that look. In the two images that follow, the first has
more fill than the second. Now in this case, the group was already in the shade and could

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Fill Flash Lighting Techniques Page 2 of 5

have been shot without any fill. However, I wanted to brighten up the faces some because
there were some many distractions with the hotspots of sunlight all around the picture.

In the two photos of the cheerleaders below, the first one has slightly less fill than what
might be ideal, on the monitor I‘m working with right now, it is slightly dark. However, on

Copyright (C) 2005, Michael N... 4/1/2006

Fill Flash Lighting Techniques Page 3 of 5

my monitor at the studio, it looks perfect. But the second photo has too much flash fill when
viewed on a monitor that is calibrated with the lab. The subjects are too bright for the rest of
the picture.

You may notice a couple of the girls on the left are near losing detail. (Of course this may
not appear that way on your monitor, but hopefully you will get the idea. You will notice in
the first shot that the grass in the large shaded area behind the group is lighter, or closer to
the brightness level of the girls faces. So, if printed a bit lighter for the skin, the shaded areas
behind will have a good amount of detail. When we brighten up the faces with the fill flash,
if we have to print darker for the faces, then of course the rest of the print goes darker too.
Including other shaded areas.

One of the great things about digital photography is the ability to get the immediate
feedback and see exactly what is happening with the fill light to daylight balance.

To keep a nice backlit look to a scene, I want to calculate the exposure for the on camera
strobe to be about ½ of an f stop less than the exposure for the sun.

Using the f16 rule for determining exposure for sunlight, I then want to set the strobe to put
out an ideal exposure that would be slightly less than (or equal to, if you prefer) what would

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Fill Flash Lighting Techniques Page 4 of 5

be adequate for f16. So, using an automatic strobe with a “thyristor” that reads the fill light
reflecting off of the subject, I fool the strobe into thinking the camera f stop is actually
between 11.5 and f16. The strobe will cut off the amount of light for an exposure adequate
for the fstop that I have set on the strobe.

( Use f16 for your f-stop and the iso of your film for your shutter speed)

Now, one problem here is that many cameras don’t synch with the strobe at shutter speeds
faster than 1/60th of a second. So, for bright sun exposures, you will have to use your flash
with your shutter set for 1/60th at a likely very small aperature, such as f22 or f32,
depending on your film speed. If you do that, your strobe may not be powerful enough to
provide enough fill for those small aperatures. The best solution is to use a lens with a “leaf”
shutter in the lens rather than the “focal plane shutter” in the camera body. Or, at least make
sure you have a camera that will synch with the strobe at higher speeds.

Using the formula for determining exposure that I indicated above, since I use iso 400 film,
my exposure is f16 @ 1/400th. My camera doesn’t have a shutter speed of 1/400th so I shoot
at 1/500th ( 1/4 stop less light than 1/400th) and adjust my f-stop to f-113/4(+¼ of a stop
more light) to offset the difference in shutter speed. Of course this is with my Hasselblad or
Bronica lenses that have the leaf shutter.I want to set my strobe to produce slightly less light

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Fill Flash Lighting Techniques Page 5 of 5

than the the f11&3/4 fstop I am using.

I could set the f-stop indicator on the strobe, the setting that tells the strobe what f-stop to
produce an adequate exposure for, to around f-11.25 to f-11.5 if the settings allow that. The
other way to accomplish the same thing is to set the strobe to the actual f stop I am using on
the camera, but set the iso setting on the strobe to be slightly higher than the iso setting of
the film (and camera) The strobe will put out a likewise slightly lower amount of light,
thinking it is exposing for a faster film.

Now, a few things to keep in mind about flash fill. Most automatic strobes are not terribly
accurate or reliable for producing very consistent results. Keep in mind the range that you
have to work in for a given setting on the strobe. Then, you will likely have to compensate
for certain conditions to get the look that you really like. Also, certain conditions are going
to throw off the accuracy of the exposure from the strobe. Most strobes will over expose the
subject if the subject is in a wide open area and they are only a small part of the picture area.
The lack of light being reflected back into the scene from all of the empty space will throw
the thyristor off, causing it to allow too much light to be released from the strobe. You will
want to experiment with these types of problems and learn to compromise to get the ideal
amount of flash fill for various situations.

I hope that this has been helpful to you. I believe that if you understand the methods I
discussed here for compensating for the exposure of your strobe, you should be able to
establish a system of your own that works for you, and that will produce adequate and
consistant results.

Copyright (C) 2005, Michael N... 4/1/2006