Artificial light. Balancing flash and ambient light.

I have been continuously experimenting with artificial lighting since completing section 6. I have been carrying out one of the exercises recommended on strobist.com on balancing flash and ambient light.

So I chose a subject to experiment on and here it is.

this photo is shot with just ambient light, f4.5 at 1/750th of a second with window light from the left of frame. The light is a little harsh I think and could probably do with diffusion. The shadow detail is poor too.

I placed a speedlight below and in front of the orchid, about a meter away set on manual. I took a series of exposures and reduced the output from it eventually down to 1/16th of full power. The flash head is zoomed fully to 105mm. I got the exposure above. Not a great improvement. The sun is on the left and quite strong. The flash throws a nice shadow on the wall behind and does improve the shadow detail. However the overall effect of the lighting is too harsh.

Here I have moved the strobe above and to the left of the flowers. The power is reduced to 1/32nd and the head is zoomed out to 70 mm. I like the speculative highlight on the green leaf and the shadow fill on the flowers. The effect on the wall behind is nice too, the splash of light.

The exposure is 5.6, 1/125th of a second. ISO 200.

Here the exposure is the same. The flash power is the same but I have placed the clear grid diffuser on, which zooms out to 17 mm. I like the quality of the light, the shadow fill and detail are good. The direction is good too. I think though that the light is too white.

The same shot but I have used the cloudy white balance on the camera to warm up the shot. I dont own any flash gels at the moment and I think that that would make a difference.

Here I have used tungsten balance on the camera. The flash still white as you can see on the background.

A closer shot of the flowers. !/60th of a second at f5.6. Flash is same position and power output.

So I was looking at some of the earlier photos and I thought about the ambient light. I prefer the balance between the ambient and flash with the balance slightly tipped in favour of the flash and the way its splashed on the wall and highlighting the flowers. So I left the f stop at 5.6 and changed the shutter speed to its max which is 1/250th of a second. This has the effect of cutting down on the available light. Something I might try is to cut it even more by using my variable ND filter, a trick that David discusses in a recent post here http://strobist.blogspot.com/2010/06/using-nd-filters-to-kill-depth-of-field.html

I turned off the flash to see how much ambient I would get and above is the result.

Now add the flash back in;

I like the balance here .

Strobist

Using speed lites has opened up a world of new possibilities for me. The possibilities are endless. The amount of information available on the internet is also endless.

I have become a big fan of the blog strobist http://strobist.blogspot.com. I find it a fantastic learning resource, full of tips and hint from everything concerned with lighting set ups to making homemade lighting gear.

I took Davids recommendations on some books and have bought these two The Moment it Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries both by Joe Mc Nally who has a blog here Joe McNally's Blog. He has a channel on youtube here YouTube - joemcnallyphoto's Channel. Speaking of youtube there are so many good videos to be found there like; Strobist Preliminaries, YouTube - PhotoGavin's Channel and so on. Also worth looking at are the videos by Zach Arias.

I am currently thinking of buying some more kit. At present I have two canon speedlites, one 580 EX and a 580 EX mark 2. I found a great blog here My Blog , with a great post on budget kit hereStrobist Startup Kit — Budget vs Premium.

project 61; Making the best use of built in Flash.

A shot with direct flash, a book, so what? Well I was browsing for ideas on the strobist flickr group and I came across some interesting photos where the light had been fired through a frame or template to give a more interesting effect.

Here I have cut a piece of cardboard to give the effect like venetian blinds, its more interesting. The flash was fired directly at the subject.

Same again, I like the way the light is focused here.

I used a household colander here.

Here I have photographed a colour subject with no flash. Too much in shadow I think.

Here direct flash. I ike the dark surround caused by the high shutter speed but do not like the bright highlights. Lots of contrast, very dark shadows. Overall a harsh effect.

Here I have bounced the flash off the ceiling. This is the best of the series in my opinion. The reflected light is more even, and the edge details on the petals are better, there are still shadows but they have more detail. The contrast is better.

Direct Flash. the subject is on a white background. The camera and light are positioned directly above the subject. The flash power was reduced to 1/128th of full power.

Here the flash is bounced off the white ceiling above, I prefer this to the previous one. The shadow adds something to the shot, contrast. Also the outline is crisper. Flash was on full power.

A silver(tinfoil) reflector was used to reflect the light downwards onto the subject. I prefer this to the last, the light is less harsh.

Again a tinfoil reflector but this time from the right hand side, I like the light here the shadow of the pine cone can be seen and the shadows are good. Nice contrast.

The above 3 are from left to right, no flash, flash on full power and flash on 1/128th of full power. The distance from light to subject is about 1 meter. The first one has shadows under the eyes and around the face, you can see a reflection from a surface below. The second is typical of flash light, overexposed and white. The last is o.k, there is enough light around the eyes but its still not great.

These 3 photos are a similiar subject but the results are slightly different. The first has no flash, I wanted the edge lighting on the hair. In the second shot I have bounced the flash off a white ceiling, I like the light best in this one of the three but the results are still harsh. The final one is direct flash and looks the worst of all 3. Too white and harsh. One thing to be careful of in front of a window like this is to stand to one side to avoid the reflection.

In conclusion Direct flash is very harsh on the subject. Reflected or bounce light is more natural looking. I have not shown any diffused direct light here but I can see how this would be preferable over direct flash. Also it is better to get the flash off camera. However direct flash can be used to create interesting effects too, it depends on the image one has in mind.

I do not have an on camera flash, I used a canon speedlite 580 hotshoe unit.

Project 60;Shiny Surfaces

This is the first of the photos without any paper construction around the tea pot. You can clearly see the camera and me in the reflection. In the next few photos I have moved the light around to different sides of the teapot. It is very difficult to see how it would be possible to remove the reflection except by using something to block it, or hide it. I guess the other possibiliy would be to clone it out in photoshop.

Even by rotating the teapot the lens shows up.

Project 59; Concentrating light.

This was great fun! I made a snoot from a piece of black paper. I am going to keep it as I think it could be very useful. I shot the jug from the previous project and moved the light around to highlight different parts of it. There was a great deal of trial and error involved. The light can be used to highlight different aspects of the subject.

Project 58; Contrast and shadow fill.

This photo was taken as instructed in the course notes. I positioned the light source (a speedlite) on the viewers right of the frame. The light source was used without a diffuser and I used a flash meter to set the exposure which was F16 and 1/250th second. Without doubt this is the photo with the strongest contrast in the series. The shadows are very dark and the highlights are very bright.

This is the second in the series, the light source is in the same position but this time I have used a diffuser positioned just outside the frame and as close to the subject. The exposure was checked first with a flash meter and was 1/250th of a second and F8. the amount of diffused light that leaks around the subject is clear to see in this shot.

Here I have used the same exposure as the first shot and placed a white reflector 3 feet on the other side of the subject and opposite the light. This has filled the shadows.

Same exposure, naked light source and white card reflector moved to within 1 and 1/2 feet to the opposite side of the light, again the shadow fill is easy to see and more than the previous photo.

Exposure 1/250th of a second and F16. Light source is one undiffused speedlite 3 feet to the right. Shadow fill here is achieved using the duller side of a piece of tinfoil. Interesting, the shadow fill is uneven compared to the previous shot with the white reflector. There is hardly any shadow fill on the bowl, now this could be because of the position or angle of the reflector.

Exposure is as noted for the previous photo, the light source has not changed. The only thing that has changed is the reflector. This time I am using the shiny side of the tin foil. The shadow fill is greater, the greatest amount so far.

The only thing I have changed here is the reflector. The tinfoil has been crumpled and then straightened out. The shadow fill is again different and more like the white card. The difference between this and the previous shot is that the shadow fill is more even, more diffused perhaps? comparing this last shot to the white reflector, the white gives a more even shadow fill.

Here I have used a gold covered reflector. The shadow fill is less.

Here I have placed the light behind the subject to get a silhouette, I wanted to compare this with the next few shots.

Same exposure but this time using a grey reflector behind the lens to give a little shadow fill.

Here a dull silver reflector has been used to give more shadow fill.

Here I have used the tinfoil again crumpled. Nice shadow fill, not too much.

Here I have used the light source on the right and a black piece of clothe on the left to darken the shadows. I can see very little difference between this and the first shot in the series.