Flash photography tip: Darken your background
Tuesday 15 April 2025, 16:32 by Elja Trum | 3,664 views | 4 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
By playing with your shutter speed, you can darken the background in your photo. This creates an effect as if you were shooting in the evening or at night, even though you're simply shooting in the middle of the day.
You can also use this to make your background a little darker. It won't look like night, but more attention will go to your subject.
You need to make your shutter speed faster than your camera indicates for this. Suppose the correct exposure with your settings is 1/20th of a second, for example. Then go to 1/160s.
You are effectively underexposing the background by 3 stops. So you'll see your background getting darker while you can still light your subject with your flash.
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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4 comments
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Donald Willemsen wrote on Thursday 17 April 2025 at 10:29 | replyHallo Elja, je schrijft het volgende: 'Door met je sluitertijd te spelen kun je de achtergrond in je foto donker maken. Dat geeft een effect alsof je 's avonds of 's nachts aan het fotograferen bent terwijl je gewoon midden op de dag bezig bent.'
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.
Nu las ik in een ander artikel van jou dat wanneer je een oranje filter op de flitser zet en de WB instelt op kunstlicht, je ook een nachteffect krijgt, al is de foto overdag genomen.
Wat is nu de beste methode om dat nachteffect te bereiken? -
Elja Trum
wrote on Thursday 17 April 2025 at 11:08
| reply
In beide gevallen onderbelicht ik de achtergrond. Dus dat is een constante om het nachteffect te krijgen. Bij de versie met het kleurfilter maak ik de achtergrond ook nog blauw.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.
Het is verder wat mij betreft een kwestie van smaak. -
Donald Willemsen wrote on Thursday 17 April 2025 at 13:39 | reply
Elja, dank voor de verduidelijking.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet. -
johandeman wrote on Tuesday 22 April 2025 at 12:24
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1/20e sec lijkt me wat lang om scherpe foto's van mensen te maken. En van 1/20e sec naar 1/160e sec is 8x minder licht, 3 stops, dan wordt de foto wel heel donker. Maar wel n goeie tip
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.
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Elja Trum
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