Flash photography on location

Flash photography on location.

Using your flash in manual mode.

For this exercise we are going to put our subject in the shade, under a tree canopy big enough to project shade over our subject and the surrounding area, not facing the main ambient light, the photographer will be looking towards the ambient light.

ON CAMERA FLASH:

First, put your flash on the camera and make sure that it is set to manual mode. You need to start at this point deciding on the exposure; set your ISO (for example 400), determine your aperture based on your desired DOF. For a shallow DOF, go to a wide aperture, so you can get a nice blurred background (bokeh).

With your flash off, expose for the highlights in the background, zero off your exposure and take a test shot. If you like the exposure, turn on your flash in manual mode, and set it to a lower power (1/8), take the shot and see if the light on your subject is right, soft and not too specular. Caveat: if you already set your camera to "high speed sync" mode (Canon) or "Auto FP" (Nikon), you should not have any problems shooting at high speeds, as a result of having a lot of ambient light available. If your camera does not support high speed sync, then pay attention to your speed and lower it to much lower levels, as 1/200 or 1/250. You do this modifying you aperture value, the smaller the aperture, the slower the speed that you will need. Or you can lower your ISO, to reach an equivalent exposure, without closing down your aperture that much.

If the light on your subject pleases you, play a little with the flash power and lower it a bit, or raise it at your convenience.

OFF CAMERA FLASH:

If you have a remote trigger or wireless communication between your camera and flash, you can detach your flash from your camera and start using it off camera, ie: mounting it on a tripod, or with the help of a light modifier (umbrella, soft-box, etc.).

Position your flash at a 45 degree angle to your subject and as close as possible, then start with the adjustment process like in the example above, in the On Camera Flash Section above.

This should be a process of no more than a minute, adjust your flash power and distance to your subject, till you reach a result that appeals to you. You can use the help of another person to hold a reflector for you, opposite to your flash and much closer, to compensate for the lack of light on that side.

This is a process of trial and adjustment, but the criteria is always the same, so practice and try to get use to it for our next class.

For the handy person:

It is always a good idea to use a bounce card, you can buy one of this for a dollar at Michaels, 

http://www.craftsuppliesforless.com/images/white-foam-visor.jpg

The printing providers that I use

I mostly use these two places for my prints: They color correct my images to make them work with their printers' color space.

http://www.mpix.com/

http://www.bayphoto.com/

Occasionally I might print at Costco, but just prints that are not important, mostly I use them for the convenience of having the prints within the hour.
Costco, or any other pharmacy style machine do not color correct your prints, so they will look just ok, either dark or without much detail in some areas.

http://www.mpix.com/

http://www.bayphoto.com/

Taravella Level 2 Flash recap.

Last Thursday, I introduced flash photography to most of the class; as a recap I would like to make a list below of the equipment that I brought to class, should you decide to purchase similar elements.

• 43"Apollo Orb Softbox by Wescott  (BH $ 130)
• 30"Octagon Softbox by Cowboy Studios (Ebay around $ 40)
• Maxxum 4000 AF Flash (1985) (Ebay around $ 35) very powerful and inexpensive.
• Remote triggers (Ebay around $ 10), will work well with any flash
• 42" Reflector (Ebay around $ 40) 5 in 1.
• Inexpensive light stand (Ebay around $ 25) Make sure that is sturdy.

If you are serious about flash photography, it is always nice to have at least some inexpensive elements to practice either at class or school.  Of course I will bring every class several Maxxums and triggers for your convenience as well as the softboxes.

There is a great little gadget, a small softbox for portraits, (Ebay or BH around $ 20), it is foldable and very light.

This is an example: 

Vello Universal Softbox for Portable Flash (Large)

So, getting back to the first class: 

• First I showed how a TTL flash mounted on camera with a dome diffuser pointing to the subject directly would project a harsh flat light on the model's face.
• Then I pointed the flash to the ceiling on a 45 degree angle to find out that although less harsh, the light was still not creating any contrast.
• Again, I pointed the flash upwards and a bit back, this time the light was very soft but deeply flat, no contrast, a nice passport picture.
• So I mounted the 42"softbox with a Nikon SB-910 in iTTL mode, put it at a 45 degree angle to our male model and voila!! I got a more 3 dimensional portrait, more sculptorical, with a nice lighter side on the left and a subtle shadow on the right giving the 2 dimensional picture an immediate POP of contrast, no flat anymore eh!!
• After that I used FEC, flash exposure compensation to decrease the power of the flash just a bit and achieve a result that was more pleasing to me.
• Until this moment I was using iTTL mode, so the camera and the flash pretty much did all the work and gave me a nice result. This is like shooting (without flash) in one of the priority modes, you define the f stop or speed and the ISO and the camera accommodates the exposure.
• But I like to customize and tweak everything, so I went to ALL MANUAL, yes, manual flash and manual exposure. Now I was in control of everything.
• The camera and the flash were communicating through light pre_flashes, so I commanded my flash from my camera.
• First I put the flash to 1/16th of its power, having set  the camera to: 400 ISO, f 5.6 with a speed of 1/60. Remember speed only affects the ambient light not the light of the flash over my subject.
• I shot, and liked the results, but if I remembre well the light was a little harsh, decrease the power to 1/32 and the results were much more pleasing.
• Remember, flash photography is quite abstract until you start to discover it and practice it a little bit. Then, everything becomes quite apparent all of the sudden. 

Ok, hopefully I was able to recap everything, next class we will practice on location, so bring your equipment if you have some. I will also bring Rosita for your delight!!

Comments below are more than welcome, please be constructive!!

Taravella Level 1

If you are taking my Level 1 photography class, go the the menu on the right and do a search using the following string: Depth of field (DOF)

You will find several articles that I posted over the years and come be very handy for our second class.

See you tomorrow!!

The picture below is a classical example of macro photography with a shallow DOF.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbuten/13252891243/