First, thanks for your great tips and for being so willing to share your techniques. Just a quick question…you said that these were shot at f11 through a 24×32 softbox, I’m guessing with the internal baffle attached. Is the SB900 really powerful enough to give f11 through a box?? Or is it because you used 2 boxes and each was kicking out f8?

Thanks.

Bill

Linda, I’ll definitely return next year for another series of workshops in the UK and in Ireland.

As for the scenario you describe .. that is one of the toughest onces to encounter, and ultimately, there isn’t much you can do with bounce flash then. You need additional light if possible. But I will attempt to add some articles on that topic in the future and look at possible solutions.

Neil vN

Can’t believe I missed your visit to the UK, when are you planning another visit as I’d love to attend one of your courses.
Do you cover flash lighting in difficult indoor enviroments ie wood panelled rooms, low beamed ceilings etc, I seem to come across these a lot in the wedding work I do.

Thanks Helen

I’ve added Toronto on the list of cities to visit next year. I’ll announce the workshop dates in the next month or so. What time of year would be the best for Toronto and also Montreal?

Neil vN

Haven’t commented on this site since last year when you provided me with some great advice about an event I was shooting but I have been an avid follower of this site and thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

I am writing today to add my voice to the two other requests above for you to come to the Toronto area. Sounds like you now have at least 3 people on this thread alone who would love to see you in Toronto.

Thanks again for all the helpful knowledge you have shared with all of us.

Ross

Sorry for the repetition and stupid question from inexperience person like me.

I got the message clear now.

I like to attend your class if you ever go to Toronto area.

Just like other participant in this blog, I enjoy every much your lesson

Roy

Hi there Roy …

My answer(s) would still be very much as I had replied to you in this previous post – ambient exposure with TTL flash.

But to summarise some of the answers here again:

No, I would ideally not point my flash directly at them if my flash is my main source of light. It makes for ugly lighting. If you have no other option though (such as bouncing into a reflector, or something similar to give you off-camera lighting), then you have to accept that it will be what it will be.

I can’t use the black foamie thing in your scenario, since there is nothing to bounce the flash off. The piece of foam only has use in flagging the light from the flash.

There is no other way to angle the flash really in the scenario you describe, since there is nowhere to bounce the flash off. You might tilt the head up slightly so that the immediate foreground isn’t over-exposed.

It seems to me though, that you want me to give a different answer than is possible within the narrow constraints you describe.

As for why your flash over-exposed, I explained that already in the previous post.

Neil vN

I have a practical question for an amateur like myself in regard to taking a good shot with regular flash that is attached on the hot shoe on my camera in almost the same setting.

So I am in open space like the above amusement park where you can not bounce the light of my flash to anything around me. There is off course no soft boxes and no deflector with me. To make the matter worse, it is at night. The subject is close to me about 2-3 meters away.
The ambient light of the amusement park consisted of lights of the marry-go-round and light from other rides and stands. Sky is totally dark already.

I metered the background (ambient) to get a good background exposure( adjust to high ISO, speed and apature), turn my flash on with PTTL mode, apply EV compensation to -2 ( the max minus EV), I point the flash about 45 degree upward facing the object, I got a terrible overexposed subject, with Ok background.

My question are:
1. how do you use your flash in this situation, do you point it out directly to the subject (since there is no wall around you?), do you use flash modifier like your black foamy thing or other? How Do you angle the flash?

2. My subject is not lit with any light around . How do I get a good exposure of the subject with good background. What did I do wrong? Is it possible that my flash is too powerful for the distance of my subject?

3. When I meter the ambient light with ISO 1250, F 4, my speed is only 1/30 to 1/15 sec, which is too slow (i get some blurr on the subject). Do I have to underexposed the ambient by 2-3 stop, to overcome the problem? what is the general rules to set the 3 variables (ISO, apature, speed) in this setting? If I meter according to the camera, I got terrible picture

your comment is certainly appreciated.

thanks
BTW, I learn a lot from your blog, you are amazing !!

Yup .. since manual flash gives a consistent output, you can inter-relate the combination of aperture / iso / distance / power .. to a figure called the guide number.

This makes it easy to compare flashguns as well in how poweful they are. But the moment you use any kind of light modifier such as a softbox / umbrella, or bounce your flash, then the Guide Number means very little in calculating the manual flash exposure.

Then a flash-meter comes in handy.

Neil vN

In your 2008 workshop, I only heard you used the word “lightmeter.” You demonstrated the usage of the Sekonic L-358. Thus, I became accustomed to associating “lightmeter” with “device that measures light.” So, if I go into a store and ask to buy a “lightmeter,” I would expect it to meter flash and ambient light.

For some reason, I never heard of “flashmeter” until you mentioned it in this blog entry. I became confused and thought “flashmeter” was something entirely different. It sounds like “lightmeter” and “flashmeter” are interchangeable these days.

As for my “strobes have a built-in meter” comment, according to the Strobist link I mentioned in my previous post, the article said, “on just about any hot-shoe strobe capable of manual, there’s a guide number calculator built in.” You dial in an aperture and ISO into the strobe (via the camera’s settings), and then change the manual flash power on the strobe until its flash-to-subject distance meter closely matches your actual flash-to-subject distance. That reminded me of the way you used your Sekonic in the workshop (you dialed in an ISO, took a shot, and the Sekonic gave you an aperture value), so I thought the strobe had a built-in meter.

After re-reading the Strobist article, the strobe obviously doesn’t have a built-in meter. My mistake. The strobe is not metering off any light hitting it. Instead, the strobe has a calculator that indicates the flash-to-subject distance for a given ISO, aperture, and flash power. The Strobist article uses this calculator in a different manner (change the manual flash power until the strobe’s flash-to-subject distance meter closely matches your actual flash-to-subject distance).

Sorry about the confusion. I’m the one that is not current with the photographic terminology.