SOONER OR LATER, every photographer runs into the challenge of mixing different light sources in a single exposure, especially when working with electronic flash and ambient light. The flash has one exposure value; the ambient light has another.

But combining ambient and flash exposures isn’t as difficult as it seems. The key is to meter off the right part of the composition. Also, it is vitally important that your camera is metering in manual exposure mode and not Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Program mode. You want full control over how much or how little of that ambient light is exposed, and only manual exposure can do that. Yes, I know it can be done when in Aperture or Shutter Priority modes if you use your autoexposure overrides, but those can get complicated, and you’ll have big problems if you forget to reset the autoexposure overrides to zero once you move on to another location. Just use manual exposure and your worries will be over.

24–85mm lens, f/11 for 1/200 sec.