Flash photography tip: Make the background darker
Wednesday 29 November 2023, 16:32 by Elja Trum | 3,016 views | 3 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Does the flash illuminating your subject also fall on the background? Try moving your flash closer to your model. Your background will become darker, with a correctly exposed photo.
Read that sentence again, because the effect of moving a flash closer to your model is the opposite of what you might expect. The light fall-off behind your subject towards the background becomes greater.
Suppose the distance from your flash to your subject is 2 metres. And the distance from your subject to the background is another 2 metres. Your subject receives a certain amount of light, and the background receives a quarter of that light, because the distance has doubled.
Now halve the distance between your flash and your subject. That quarter of the light then falls 1 metre behind your subject. At the background, 2 metres away, only a ninth of the amount of light reaches it.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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3 comments
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guest wrote on Tuesday 5 December 2023 at 15:27 | replyIt can also be done by stopping down the aperture to achieve a longer shutter speed.
Translated from Dutch. -
Elja Trum
wrote on Wednesday 6 December 2023 at 09:24
| reply
Perhaps I don't understand you correctly, but as far as I understand it, the aperture has no effect on the background here.
Translated from Dutch.
If you 'increase the aperture', for example from f/5.6 to f/11, you also have to increase the flash power of your flash for the correct exposure on your subject.
The falloff of light on the background then remains the same in terms of proportions. The background therefore does not become darker or lighter as a result.
The higher aperture (at equal ISO) may be a reason to adjust the shutter speed (to make it longer). However, the shutter speed only affects the ambient light, not the flash light.
With a longer shutter speed, more light therefore reaches your sensor and the background (if there is sufficient ambient light) will only become lighter. -
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