Sunset Portraits

Last night I went over to see some friends that I hadn’t seen since I left San Diego to head for Maine.  We talked, laughed, ate, and then out came the camera!  I used on of my favorite little tricks to take some portraits just after sunset.  I used one SB800 on a stand fired into a 45″ silver Westscott umbrella.  I placed a CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel on the flash and then set the white balance on my D40 to Tungsten.  This allows the sky to go into a deep blue (as well as everything else) with the exception of what is lit with the flash.  I exposed for the sky and then dialed in the power on my flash to get my light just right.  Here’s some of the shots that I ended up with:

For the first picture you see above, I set up my camera on my tripod and set it’s built-in timer, focused, hit the shutter release and then ran around to get into the picture with them. 

That’s it for today, so I hope you guys have a great day!  I’ll be out enjoying the sun later this afternoon and doing some shooting.  That way I can get the landscape shots that I have been promising to bring you!  It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it!