The first series of workshops for 2009 took place in California – one workshop in Dana Point, and two workshops in San Francisco. Having lived a while in the greater Bay Area a number of years ago, it was great to visit San Francisco again. This just added to the pleasure I had this week of meeting everyone who attended the workshops – and as always, seeing those aha! moments kick in at various times. Thank you to everyone who made these workshops a success, incl our three gorgeous models, as well as Fundy and the kind people at ProDPI.
A few images of our models at the workshops in SF:
This image was taken during the practical session where we worked outside in the early evening light. We practiced bouncing flash off the outside walls of buildings, to add enough light to the models. This next image shows what the available light looked without flash, and give you an idea of just how much the simple application of flash helped.
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And from the session earlier on, with each of us using our on-camera speedlight to flood the large lobby area, to give soft light.
Neil,
I was wondering if you can clear something up for me … I have been trying to use your techniques for bouncing the flash backwards off of walls, etc. for a softer effect as well as trying to learn the ins and outs of shooting in manual mode. For the most part this is working well for me and I can see a big difference in my shots since I have moved this this technique.
However, I was in more of an intimate setting for a small birthday party this past week. The lighting was dim with candles in the center of an 8 person table. I was shooting at a range of ISO settings up to 800 and 1600ISO (I think the limit for my D80). I found quite a bit of variation in my lighting in the resulting photos. Some very bright and others a little more representative of the setting.
Any advice/suggestions?
Comment by Derrick — March 23, 2009 @ 10:17 am
Neil, correct me if I am wrong.
Derrick, variation in lighting is usually caused by 2 things when using flash.
1) Camera is on some automatic mode, and the meter is trying to normalize everything so that is it “18% gray”. Therefore when you get slight variations as you move about – brighter dresses, darker shirts, the automatic mode attempts to adjust for this from shot to shot, and you end up with variations in your shots.
2) Assuming you are using TTL flash, the TTL will also adjust from shot to shot, depending on the reflectance of the item you are shooting, tonal variations, etc.
Typically, the actual ambient light doesn’t change from moment to moment – only the variations in people’s faces and clothing does. Therefore, the in-camera ambient light meter can be ‘fooled’ into thinking that things are changing constantly. The way to combat this is switch to FULL MANUAL mode, establish your baseline exposure through histograms and chimping, and then move from there. It is also advisable that if you are going to be using flash as the majority of your light to set you EV a -1.5 to -2.0 so that the ambient will register but not dominate. Since you are working with birthday candles, though, you might want to consider cranking your ISO, opening your aperture and using the candles as a major source of light – it gives a pretty cool effect – very intimate.
As for the flash, bouncing off of the walls should provide plenty of light, but since you’ll be moving around, you need to ride your FEV to compensate for the camera’s TTL variations – it’s not that it is ‘wrong’ it is that it is automated, and automated to try and make the world 18% gray. Therefore, you’ll need to adjust your flash head AND the output based on your composition and experience (and a bunch of chimping).
Those are general comments concerning causes for variations in lighting. In your case, you said that some are bright (suggesting overexposure) and some were more representative. Were you using flash? You didn’t say. Overexposure could be caused by either the TTL flash OR the camera on automatic reading something dark (like someone in dark clothing) and trying to make it 18% gray, and thus overexposing. Then when you move to something lighter (closer to 18% gray), it evens out and gives correct exposure.
-James
Comment by James Johnson — March 23, 2009 @ 11:15 am
Comment by Neil — March 23, 2009 @ 11:25 am
hello neil,
how was your journey and your WS?…hopefully good.
1) How much FEC do you use between the upper two and the pic without flash?
2) Did you figure it out by taken some pic´s with Flash and see how much power is applied?
3) When there is only one or two chances to make the picture, how is it possible to figure out how much FEC/Power has to be applied(for persons who has not so much flash experience, but reading your blogs very carefully ;-) )
i mean….i could dial FEC in about +1 EV …or -0,7EV….is it right, that at the first pic i could not clear set the right FEC?(to show the face either over or underexposed)
no white there, so histogramm could show a bit more left or a bit more right off the center?
………
to find the FEC on the first or the second pic makes me some headache.
right, you said it comes with the experience .
but sometimes i want to shoot my 2years old daugther and there could be only one or two chances to get the right pic.
mostly it end in a(for me) correct background and over or underexposed skin.(due to high or low flash power output)
ok, if the shoot takes a bit longer than i am able to correct the flash power a bit more or a bit less, until i have good skintones on the LCD(known that is the worst thing to check the pic)
for my E-1….forget the LCD
for my E-500…i know that skin tones have to be a bit overexposed, so that on the computer they are looking right exposed.(due to bad LCD, brightness still down to fully -7)
camera always to manual and flash to TTL, except i am stationary…than i use flash in manual mode
happy with an answer
thank you very much for your knowledge and your time
peter
Comment by olympus_fotograph — March 23, 2009 @ 11:29 am
Comment by Neil — March 23, 2009 @ 12:55 pm
Thanks James Johnson.
To answer a couple of your questions, my camera was in manual mode but my flash was in TTL/FP and generally pointed over my left shoulder at about 120 deg and up about 45deg. I was riding my flash exposure quite a bit but could not seem to get a consistent read on it as I moved around the 4 sides of the table.
I wasn’t really using the birthday cake candle as lighting but the two main candlesticks on the table were certainly a major source of light for our eyes and I was looking to capture that in the photos. Unfortunately my results were spread across the board. The “bright” shots did not appear over exposed as photos go. They look OK and look as if they were taken with the kitchen lights on. The do not appear washed out, etc. They are just not the intimate lighting I was looking for.
Comment by Derrick — March 23, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
hey derrick,
why do you use Focal Plane on your Flash when you shoot in lights given by candles?
peter
Comment by olympus_fotograph — March 23, 2009 @ 2:08 pm
On the Nikon SB-800 this is for “Auto FP High-Speed Sync Mode” and this automatically kicks in when the camera’s shutter speed is set higher than the sync shutter speed. I leave this on, but it should not have had any effect given my shutter speeds maximum (with one test exception) was 1/200. I think the Auto Fp High-Speed Sync kicks in over 1/200.
Comment by Derrick — March 23, 2009 @ 4:38 pm
Hi Neil,
It was great meeting you last Friday (finally) and sharing those “aha” moments together.
Actually, before those “aha” moments, there were lots a “Damn” and “S###” moments when I was struggling with the settings and trying to apply what you said in the morning. None of my pictures are as good as yours but I am getting a hang of it now. My confident level is getting higher and I believe with some more practice sessions on my own (or with some seminar classmates), I should yield better pictures on my next photo event.
Once again, thank you for the great seminar and hope to see you again in SF or the Silicon Valley.
Ben
Comment by Ben Hui — March 24, 2009 @ 12:01 am
Comment by Neil — March 25, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Neil: Like Ben, I also learned a lot during the workshop and a group of us are planning to get together periodically to practice the techniques we learned. I think one of my favorite parts of the workshop was trying to overcome the harshness of the “video” light that you had trained on Sivan. Thanks for a truly great workshop.
marcia
Comment by marcia — March 25, 2009 @ 5:46 pm
Comment by Neil — March 25, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
Neil,
I missed your WS last year, and was so glad I could make it this year. You’re really a good teacher, and the workshop has been an eye-opening experience for me. The practice session is awesome, the models are gorgeous and very easy to work with. The group is fun, and I had captured some images that I can be proud of … ;) Looking forward to using flash everyday now …
Comment by Kim — March 26, 2009 @ 2:28 pm