I love nighttime photography. There is such a sense of magic in capturing a scene despite the lack of visible light. In this walk-through, I will show you how I created this photo with a long exposure and flash. It’s really pretty simple, and a lot of fun, so give it a go yourself!
What you’ll need
- Camera with a long lens (I use my Canon EOS 7D Mk II and my Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8)
- Two tripods (I used an SLR Gorillapod for my camera to support it on the slope, and a Vanguard, extended as tall as I could make it, for the main flash)
- Two flashes (I used a Canon Speedlight 580EX II for the main flash and a Canon Speedlight 430EX II for the in-hand flash.
- Off-camera radio trigger system for each flash (I used my Godox system, with an X1T transmitter on the camera and an X1R receiver on each flash)
- Camera remote (I used the Canon RC-6 remote)
- A white bed sheet
- A helpful friend who’s willing to wrap a bed sheet around herself in a field, at night, in winter*
*Winter optional. Also, it’s Australian winter, so I’m not even asking that much, really.
Setting up the scene
My goal was to capture my model, Falon, with the night sky behind her. I found a hillside that had the look I needed: High enough to have nothing visible behind it, as long as I got the camera down low.
I set my camera up with a long lens on a low tripod, down the hillside from where Falon stood. The first flash was set up on a tall tripod higher up the hill so that the camera, Falon and flash made a triangle. Falon held the second flash, after getting dressed in her stylish bed sheet outfit. Both flashes were bare (meaning no diffusers or modifiers).
I used a Godox receiver on each flash and a transmitter unit on top of my camera to set off the flashes remotely. The newer Canon flashes have radio transmitters built-in, but mine doesn’t, so I needed the extra kit.
Once we were ready to shoot, I laid on the grass behind her, trying to be like Harry Potter at Dudley’s birthday party.
Camera settings to use for long exposure with flash
To get your settings right for this, it’s important to understand the lighting logic. First, I wanted the background to show the stars. Therefore, my camera settings needed to expose for the starry sky.
I made sure my camera was on manual, and experimented with shutter speeds, ISO and aperture until the sky was exposed to my liking. Then I chose ISO 1000, a shutter speed of 15 seconds and set the aperture to f/6.3 to make sure Falon was in focus.
I also set the lens to manual focus: I shone a torch on Falon so my autofocus could see her and bring the lens into focus, then switched it to manual so it wouldn’t try to refocus on her for every shot.
Flash settings for long exposure
Second, Falon would be “stamped” onto the photo by the burst of rear curtain flash at the end of the exposure. Therefore, the output from both flashes needed to expose her properly. Again, I experimented with test shots and found I was happy with the main flash (in manual mode) set to about half power and the second hand-held flash on quarter power.
The power needed depends on the distance from the camera and your exposure settings, so just have a play with it. Instead of experimenting, you could get it exactly right with a light meter, but I didn’t have one, so I tweaked the main flash until things looked right, then added the second flash.
Rear-curtain sync
Using rear-curtain sync is critical, so don’t forget to set it. Rear-curtain sync means the flash fires just before the shutter closes, instead of when the shutter first opens. To be honest, I always have my flashes set to fire on the rear curtain. It’s great for low light situations like wedding receptions: Set the camera to 1/40 second exposure, flash on TTL (auto) and fire on the rear curtain, and you’ll capture a beautiful atmospheric glow from the room as well as people clearly and sharply exposed with the flash.
Treating each part of the photo separately is key to a successful long exposure with a flash photo. The background is exposed by the camera settings, and the foreground subject is exposed by the flash. It’s like taking two photos in one.
If all this talk of flash is both confusing and exciting to you, I can thoroughly recommend the CreativeLive class, “Speedlights 101” with Mark Wallace. It was a game-changer for me.
How to get the shot
Once everything was ready, I laid on the ground behind Falon, with my camera remote in hand. I hit the trigger, started counting out the fifteen seconds, and shook her bedsheet dress up and down to give the impression it was billowing in the wind. Falon held her position, the flashes fired, and I threw a blanket at Falon (did I mention it was winter?) before scurrying down the hillside to check what we got.
It took us two hours, 93 photos, a lot of bloopers and at least one accidental selfie, to get two photos that I was thrilled with.
These two were my favorites from the set. The first I like because she looks like she’s dashing away into the night, and the second because she looks like an ancient Roman goddess.
You can see in all the photos there is an orange haze around the bottom of the sheet. That’s the light from nearby streetlights reflecting off the sheet during the 15-second exposure. Although Falon is being “stamped” in by the rear curtain flash, there was still enough ambient light to expose her a little, so she had to stay motionless for the whole 15 seconds. I liked the golden glow around her, but to get a really clean exposure, you could find a darker field where the only light source is your flashes.
With some basic flash equipment and a bit of experimentation, it’s easy to create a unique night portrait.
I love this so much! I do a lot of wedding and engagement portraits at night beneath the stars, so it was fun to see another way to get creative with light. I love your enthusiasm and willingness to dedicate yourself to the shot!
Thank you Alicia! It was such a fun session and Falon was the real MVP for freezing her butt off, haha! It was one of the first times I’d set out to capture something like that too so I was stoked when it all came together.
I’m new to photography and flash photography especially and was hoping you could answer this question for me:
So your model had to be still for 15seconds due to the ambient light, and you were waving her sheet to create the wind effect, but the sheet itself looks very sharp (atleast here on mobile). Why is that? My logic is that the ambient light catching on the sheet should’ve made it look pretty messy compared to the model herself, who gets frozen in time by the flash.
Awesome pictures! And thanks!
Thanks George! That’s right, the ambient light did bounce off the sheet more – can you see the yellowish haze around the sheet in the photos? That’s the ambient light on the sheet as I moved it around during the 15 second exposure. The sheet is then “stamped” on top of that ambient glow when the flash fires at the end of the exposure, so basically that flash “stamp” covers much of the yellow glow from the ambrient light. I hope that makes sense! That’s the great thing about flash: so much blobby hazy light and blur from long exposures… Read more »
Thoroughly enjoyed this post Jemma, thank you! As primarily a natural light landscape photographer, I’ve made it my personal goal this year to overcome my fear of ocf. This article was incredibly helpful and I would love to see more like this. I think I’ve gotten into the head space that I need fancy strobes and that my two speedlites won’t be enough to do much, but this article was a great example of how I’m just making excuses for myself!
Thank you for your feedback Sara and I’m glad you found it helpful! I had no idea where to start with flash for so many years but once I started using ocf I wished I’d tackled it and learnt years ago! You’re right – there is a lot you can do with two speedlites. I find two speedlites a great way to shoot because it is complex enough to get some cool effects but not so complex that I loose track entirely of what I am doing, haha! I’ll write another article later this month exploring another outdoor flash set-up… Read more »
I would love shot something like that, but unfortunately my speedlite are youngnuo and they don’t have rear courting sync
That’s a shame Gustavo – I wonder if you could manually trigger the flash to do the final “stamp” at the end, by hitting the test fire button? My flashes have a button that does a test fire of the flash, so maybe you could count out the 15 seconds and then at second 14, fire the flash yourself with the test button. And have your model do the same with the hand held one. It would require more trial and error but may be doable!