Flash Challenge #3

This weeks challenge is to create an image that combines existing light, known as ambient light, and on camera bounce flash.

Try to balance the exposure of the flash and the ambient light to create a natural looking image.

Forward your images to photochallenge@photolen.ca if you would like me to review them.

Bouncing Off The Walls

Last weeks challenge was to create an image using bounce flash. The goal was to create an image that had directional lighting.

On camera Direct Flash

Very often, photographers will dismiss using on camera flash because of the harsh, specular light it creates on the subject. Two weeks ago I was discussing on camera flash techniques to my students at Focal Point. The first image, shown here, was taken with direct on camera flash. Notice the small, bright specular's, the harsh shadows, and even though the wall was some distance away, the very obvious shadow on it.

So how do you have an on camera flash and still create directional lighting. The answer is in bouncing the flash. But from where? The first thing that comes to mind is to bounce it off the ceiling. the problem here is that you wind up with office lighting and racoon eyes. The better option is to try and bounce it from the side. The easiest is to get side lighting is to bounce the flash off a wall. If one isn't within range, try a reflector or a white shirt. Anything that will bring the light from the side.

On Camera bounced from wall

In the class, we bounced the light off the wall, the results are shown here. Some great information about flash photography can be found on Digital ProTalk. This link, David Ziser - Digital Pro-Talk , will take you to a video on his site that speaks directly to this topic. If you want to learn more about flash photography, I would encourage you to check out this link.

Have fun and great shooting. Come back tomorrow for next weeks challenge

Bounce flash

Last weeks challenge was to use on camera flash as fill. This week, the challenge is to use on camera flash as the main light.

In order to do this, bounce flash is the way to go. But instead of bouncing it off the ceiling, try bouncing off the walls. This will give a very nice directional look to the light. Be carful of your colours though. The light will take on the colour of the wall that you bounce off of.

Looking forward to seeing your images

Fill Flash Challenge Image

Last weeks photo challenge was to photograph a portrait using on camera fill flash.  The real challenge with fill flash is not allowing it to overtake the image.

Very often yo can find yourself in a situation where you have nice directional light but the shadow density is to much to allow you to make a print with detailing both the shadow and the highlight. The on camera fill flash, when used correctly, will let you reduce the shadow density of the image yet maintain the directional light. When it is really well done, the use of on camera fill flash is barely noticeable.

When photographing this image, I found myself with a very strong and high directional lighting.  the first thing I did was lower the light angle by putting a gobo above the subject. I found that the shadow on the subject face was too dark.

To fix this, I put a speedlite on camera, set the mode to ttl, and set the flash exposure compensation to minus 2.  this gave me just enough light to open up the shadow without giving the image a flashed look. The only real give away in this image that it is flashed is the catchlight generated by the flash.

Come back tomorrow for the next photo challenge.

Photo challenge #1

This is the first of 52 photo challenges. The goal is to present one new technique each week and then produce an image that incorporates that technique. You can submit your image to photochallenge@photolen.ca . I will post 2 to 3 images that I receive.  There is no prize for the best image for the week, best overall image, or anything else. But, you will have the chance to learn and practice 52 photographic techniques over the course of 2012.

So here it is, the first challenge.

On camera flash gives you very flat lighting. Refer back to my post on December 7, 2011, On Camera Fill Flash. For this weeks challenge, use on camera fill flash to reduce contrast in an image. Very often, light on a subject can be very harsh. Super bright on the lite side and really dark on the shadow side. By using fill flash, you can reduce the contrast by putting light into the shadow area.  The trick here is to not overdo the fill flash. As soon as the image starts to look flat, you have overfilled.

This week, create an image that uses on camera fill flash to reduce shadows yet remains natural looking.

On Camera Fill Flash

On camera flash is generally not considered to be the most flattering light source - especially when photographing people. There are times however when on camera flash can make a big difference in an image.

Many photographers love to use available light because it can create a very beautiful light on your subject.  Sometimes however, the light can be very contrasty, creating detailless shadows on the shadow side of your subject.  The natural reaction is to find some sort of reflector to fill light in to the shadow side.  Well here is another possible solution that when executed well, will give you excellent results.

It is well known that a soft, wrap around light source, needs to be large relative to the subject.  the problem with a speedlight or on camera flash is that it is a very small light source, which will create a very harsh or hard light. When handled properly though, this is OK for fill light. Lets see how that works out.



Figure 1

Take a look at this image. It is a Styrofoam ball photographed with a speedlight inside of a 2 ft soft box. Most definitely a soft light source or this object. Notice that the ball is virtually shadowless except for a little around the edges (this is because the object is round), making it an excellent fill light.
Why is this an excellent fill light?  The purpose of a fill light is to reduce the contrast in an image. A fill light should bring the exposure level up in the shadow side of your subject. Most of the time because you want to have detail in the shadows. a good fill light will create no shadow of its own. If it does, you can start to get very unnatural looking double shadows on your subject. A soft box (or any other larger light modifier) is one way to help prevent this from happening. Another is placement of the fill light.

A light source that is on the same axis as your lens will not produce a shadow that your lens can see. In figure one, the light source was place as close to the lens axis as it could be without putting the camera directly in front of the light source. This further helped to create the shadowless lighting.



Figure 2

 Now take a look at figure 2.This was taken with a bare speedlight or flash. Even though it is a hard light source, it created a shadowless light on the Styrofoam ball. To achieve this shadowless light, the flash was also place as close to the camera axis as possible without having the camera in front of it. The fact that the two light sources created a nearly identical light can be put to use.

Consider the next time you are out creating a portrait and you have very contrasty light. Instead of grabbing a reflector, try using a flash to fill in the shadows. Here's how you can do it. Determine the exposure of your subject so that you get detail in the highlights. Put your flash as close to the camera axis as you can - this will usually be on the hot shoe. With your flash on E-TTL or I-TTL if you use Nikon, set the flash exposure compensation around -1.5 to -2. Take your image then readjust exposure to achieve the results you want.

Here are a couple of pitfalls to watch for

1. Do not overpower the flash. this will create an unflattering, flashed looking image.
2. Keep the flash above the camera, even if it means always shooting horizontally then cropping to vertical later. Because the flash will not be exactly on axis, it will create some shadow and it looks more natural when it is going downward.
3. Have your subject far enough from the background so that any shadow will fall behind the subject and not show up on the background.

Go out and have fun with this technique. Once you master it you'll love it.

Idea books

Next week starts my next group of flash photography students and one of the things that I tell all my students is that they need to create an idea book.  In a nutshell, an idea book is a collection of your own images that you have put together along with information on how you photographed them. It is one of the best long term learning aides that I have ever discovered.

The concept of the idea book is to create a collection of your own images that you can use to spark your creativity and as a source of images that you can build and improve upon.  So how does this idea book work?

Building and idea book.

1. Find yourself an album that can hold 4x6 prints.  The large the album, the better.
2. Get a bunch of 4x6 index cards

When you take an image that you like, make a 4x6 print of it and put it in the album.  Write down every detail of how you photographed the image; lighting, exposure, location, time of day etc.  Even if the image isn't perfect, but you like the concept, put it in the book. As you get more and more images in the book, you will be building a source of ideas that can trigger your memory.  It will also help you become a better photographer because you can go back to an image you like and work on it and make it better.

Its awesome.  Many photographers on the lecture circuit sell there idea books.  If you want, you can pick one or two of these up as starting points, but ultimately you need to be the one taking the images or you will never understand how they were created.