Cobalt Noon: a daytime flash AI photoshoot
Cobalt Noon is a midday street snapshot where a small flash outshoots the sun, so clothes glow flat and bright while the sky sinks to deep cobalt. You get five frames on a concrete plaza with yellow steel posts, plus a close-up of a chrome keyring.
Art direction: Alex But
- Camera
- Digital compact
- Lens
- 28 mm
- Aperture
- f/8
- Shutter
- 1/1000 s
- Light
- Noon sun + hot-shoe flash
Best for
Six frames from this shoot
Five frames and one detail, made by haloshot from three phone photos of one person.
Frame 1 · Cobalt Noon 
Frame 2 · Cobalt Noon 
Frame 3 · Cobalt Noon 
Frame 4 · Cobalt Noon 
Frame 5 · Cobalt Noon 
Detail · Cobalt Noon
About the fill flash look
Exposure does the heavy lifting. The camera is set about a stop under the daylight, darkening sky and concrete, and a hot-shoe flash 1.5 to 3 meters away lights the person back up. On this digital compact the 28 mm lens shoots at f/8, and a leaf shutter syncs the flash at 1/1000 s, far beyond most cameras. Brow shadows fill in, and only a short hard sun shadow stays at the feet.
Clothes, place and when to pick it
On this shoot haloshot gives women and men separate outfits: women wear a tomato-red technical tee with a black nylon cargo skirt over wide trousers, men the same red tee with enormous parachute pants. Earbuds, pale yellow oval glasses and silver mesh runners are shared. The concrete plaza suits a streetwear lookbook or a bright profile photo with your own face.
How it works
Add three photos of yourself: face, half turn and full length. haloshot renders a free five-frame preview of Cobalt Noon with your face. Pick the frames you like and keep them in 4:5 HD.
How to darken a noon sky with daylight flash
Underexpose the sun by a stop and let a small flash near the subject become the main light, so the sky goes deep while clothes stay bright.
- Choose a concrete plaza with yellow posts or railings on a clear day near noon, with the sun high.
- Set a leaf-shutter digital compact with a 28 mm lens to f/8 and 1/1000 s, a stop under the daylight.
- Put a small speedlight in the hot shoe at full or half power and stay 1.5 to 3 m away.
- Shoot from chest height tilted up, roll the horizon three to five degrees, and ask for eye contact.
Focal-plane cameras sync near 1/200 s, and high-speed sync wastes the power this needs.
Set notes by Alex But, art director · Updated
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Shoot Cobalt Noon with your face
Three photos in, five free preview frames out. Keep the best ones in HD.