Fun With Flash

[Brian K]

Hello,

After attending our discussion group last week where the topic of flash came up (on camera, off camera, settings, ETTL, etc), I thought I could stick my neck out and tell what I've been exploring with flash lately.

Firstly, in the beginning I avoided flashes because I was trying to learn how to see light naturally. Secondly, I kept avoiding flashes because it seemed complicated and well, time consuming to learn (in addition to all those other bits from pre-capture to print I was trying to wrap my head around). And thirdly, I thought it was cooler to be an au-natural light shooter.

That all changed one day when out of the blue, I received a package from my father chock full of all his old Canon film equipment. To my surprise, there was a Canon 550EX flash in there with an off camera cord. So...the inevitable day had finally arrived, I needed to learn flash.

What I instantly didn't like were:
1) holding my camera in one hand and the flash in the other
2) the pictures seemed flat and fairly one dimensional
3) didn't know where to start, and
4) I seemed to only need flash when someone else was requesting a picture from me (you know, the family, friend, acquaintance who says you have a nice camera, take a nice picture!).

So my first goal became how to add flash quickly without upsetting the look and feel I was after; meaning, not switching the camera to Program Mode out of fear of missing the shot, any shot. I experimented, adding a second 550EX flash, then an ST-E2 (Infra-Red trigger) and modifiers as well. However, all that time, I remained in ETTL (Through The Lens) mode, relying on the system to balance flash for the exposure. Slowly and with time, I became less worried by it. A more puzzling issue for me was what kind of photographer do I want to become.

And here's the thing about flash: I know going manual gives me more control ultimately. But as a photographer-hobbyist, I'm just not at that level as of yet. Flash for me has to be quick, convenient and purposeful.

With that in mind, what I can offer, though, are 5 things about flash that I find useful:
1) Size and distance of the light source affects shadows (smaller and farther away = stronger shadows, larger and closer = softer shadows)
2) Bounce a diffused flash backwards off a light coloured wall (spreads the light evenly, prevents "falling light" that is brighter at the top of the picture than the bottom, and puts a larger catch-light in the subject's eyes). If that doesn't work, bounce up.
2) Your aperture controls ambient light, not the shutter speed (as with using natural light). Higher f-stop (lower number, like 2.8) means more ambient light is coming in
3) High-Speed Sync allows fill flash in bright daylight and/or when shooting wide open portraits
4) Reducing/increasing flash exposure on the flash is a quick way to fine tune the light

To help demonstrate this, I took some very quick pictures of my daughter over the weekend. I've put captions to help give some info about the shots and I have not done anything in post. Also the background behind her is a light blue wall which you can see in the natural light shots. With the first series of bounced flash shots (at f5.0), the camera was on P mode (not full idiot mode though) and the wall goes grey. In the second series of bounced flash shots with the camera in full idiot mode, you can see the loss of detail in the shadows on the wall. But the shadows come back with the gridded shots. Lately, I have been experimenting with a gridded flash attachment to control the stream of light and its falloff. I got one made by Opteka off Ebay for about 8 quid and I think the results aren't too bad. In these shots on this contact sheet, her face definitely stands out from the background and the picture has depth, which I like. Also, I noted the judge this past Tuesday kept mentioning the main subject should be brighter than the surroundings.  


Okay, so those are shots where I've encourage my subject to sit still by placing her upon on object she could not get down from. Smart or cruel, I'm can't decide. But how does this gridded flash work in action. Here's 2 pictures from the same time. Note there is strong sunlight entering the window and flash is working in high speed sync mode to give me fill light and not spilled light. To these shots, I've upped contrast a little and vibrance and saturation very minimally.


I hope this helps a bit to see the different light affects you can get from an attached flash using ETTL without having to learn rocket science.

[Alan Graham]

To me, a guy who tries to tape down the built-in flash on his camera, this sort of guide is very useful.

I'm a way off from experimenting with flash but it's good to know there is a simple guide I can refer to. Hopefully it will be added to by others with tips, examples and comments to build up a very comprehensive guide.

Thanks for that!

[David Barnes]

Can you run through this at our next discussion group?

[Brian K]

Oh, I used to hold down the internal flash a lot too! It used to irritate me until I stopped shooting in the program modes and moved over to the manual side of the camera.

If you do a search on Amazon for Pop Up Flash Diffuser, it brings up a load of options for making the light bigger and softer. I personally like:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Pop-up-Flash-Diffuser-Camera/dp/B00F34A4MM/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1391678827&sr=8-10&keywords=pop+up+flash+diffuser     or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opteka-PD-10-Universal-Diffuser-On-Camera/dp/B005OCMS2M/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_4 

When I was using my camera in a program mode (i.e. portrait, close-up, etc.) where it was deciding when to use flash, I just put on a Gary Fong Puffer (just doesn't sound right, does it) Diffuser to see what the results would be. It did really improve the image overall, but I felt it let too much light spill around the diffuser and didn't really work well in portrait orientation. Unfortunately it also proved to be fragile and it broke! However, by that time, I understood the importance of diffusing direct light.

An easy way to experiment though, is to do a 3 shot comparison: 1) forcing the flash down, 2) let the flash do its thing unencumbered, 3) place an empty cigarette box (as white as possible) over the pop up flash or  cut out piece of a plastic milk container in front of the flash. Then look at these images on your computer screen and check the affects.

For me, the trick to using flash started when I began learning how to diffuse the light and not so much trying to understand all the scientific reasons behind it first.

Enjoy and so sorry for the long posts...

[Brian K]

Sure, would love to.