With the recent video clip where I showed some of how I work with a couple, during an outdoor photo session, several people commented on not seeing my flash go off every time I take the shot. And the question was, when do I decide to use fill-flash and when not.
Looking again at those images I posted from the session:
With this image, you could see my flash firing during this sequence in the video clip. The light falling on them wasn’t even, although the light falling on Jen’s face was even. So I felt I needed to use a touch of fill-flash. Here I had flash exposure compensation set to -5EV on the Nikon D3. With Canon, I would most likely have been around -3EV compensation on my flash.
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With this following image, I had positioned them (and posed them), so that the available light fell evenly on Jen’s upturned features. With the soft available light falling in on her like that, I simply didn’t need any fill-flash. The available light was perfect. So I switched the on-camera speedlight off. Actually, with the Nikon D3 there is a customizable function button that I use to disable the flash momentarily as I wish.
The same goes for this image from a seperate sequence:
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In deliberately placing the couple against the soft light in the background from the sun going down, I didn’t need flash either. The light on them was even, and the rim-light helped to give some separation from the background .. along with the shallow depth-of-field. (f2.8 @ 70mm)
. The observation with all this is that I deliberately use fill-flash where I think it is needed … but at the same time it becomes necessary to recognize when the available light is perfect. And often it needs you to direct your subject such the light falling on them is improved.
The recent workshop in Boston area was held at the studios of LensProToGo in Concord, MA. (LensProToGo is the company I turn to whenever I need to rent equipmentfor a shoot.) Paul, the owner of the company, kindly allowed us access to the studio for the entire day.
As mentioned with previous report-backs, I’ve expanded the material covered, and gear used, with the workshops this year. Now in addition to working with flash, we also play around with video lights as our source of light. During the practical session here, we took our models outside while using video lights. By exploiting the widely different colour balance of the tungsten light compared to the existing shaded day light , we were able to create an interesting dynamic with the colours. Using video light on our model, and with our cameras set to Tungsten WB, the background becomes an interesting shade of blue – in this case mixed with the green colours of the foliage outside.
And as always, the lighting pattern from a video light is quite dramatic ..
Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop (and our models), who made it a hugely enjoyable day!
The third and last workshop for this year in the New Jersey and New York area, took place earlier this week. Still with the newer format, the workshop was very well received and gauging by response, would appear to have been a lot of fun for the attendees in addition to being informative.
As an example of some of what we played around with, here is an example from the practical session where we used areas outside to bounce flash off and use that to clean up the existing light. Working in the early evening in lower light levels, it becomes easier to get effective light from our speedlight even when bounced off the side of a building or other objects.
One of the most popular pages on this site is the one dealing with that often confusing phrase – dragging the shutter. The original page was written a few years back and needed some drastic updating. Not only did I want to improve the text, but the original article also featured some less than spectacular photographs (to be kind about it).
The main text on that page has now been complete rewritten, and I’d like to direct everyone to it and catch up with a more fresh explanation of dragging the shutter.
Based around a new sequence of images, it should be more clear now how a change in shutter speed affects the ambient light only, and not the flash exposure.
For example with this comparison, the settings for aperture and ISO remained the same (f5.6 @ 400ISO), leaving the manual flash exposure the same .. but I changed the shutter speed from 1/250th to 1/60th .. and thereby bringing a huge change in how the background appears.
Since shutter speed (largely) has no effect on flash exposure, it becomes our immediate choice in controlling our ambient exposure when using manual flash. With TTL flash though, it’s a different story … and the details are explained on the new page.
With this image from the recent workshop in Seattle, we were working outside the hotel and the city scene there wasn’t all that hip and urban. It was visually quite cluttered. So when I wanted to use this image, my first thoughts were to simplify it a little since there is a LOT going on in the background that doesn’t add to the image and just detracts from our model Julia. The leading lines of the cars, overhead train lines and the pavement all do help to give a more dynamic composition .. along with Julia’s crazy body angles. But the image definitely needed some work.
Here is the image without any editing done to it, aside from my default raw settings applied ..
Jennifer and David met up with me on their first anniversary of their wedding for a photo session in the same place where we had their engagement photo session – Skylands Manor in Ringwood, NJ. What I really like about the estate grounds is that it offers such a variety of beautiful settings for portrait sessions. Here is a video clip of the photo session as another glimpse in how I work with my clients and look for opportunities and angles to give my client a variety of images.
Here are a few of the images from the session that were used in the clip ..
I’m very happy to announce that my book on flash photography techniques for on-camera speedlights, is now available.The book is based on the articles published on this website, but I extended it with material I present at workshops … and then fleshed it further into a cohesive and thorough approach to getting the best from your on-camera speedlight. Particular care was taken to present it all with a logical flow in the hopes that it will all progressively help the reader attain a better understanding of flash photography.
You can either purchase a copy via the Amazon link here, or alternately, if you’d like an autographed copy of the book, you can order one directly on this page, below.
Neil vN
Shipping and packaging is included in the price.
Please select the correct region when ordering.
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Erratum:
The correct description for plate 14-14 (page 107) should be:
Adjusting my camera settings, I droped the ambient light and left the couple illuminated mostly by flash. Settings: 1/250th @ f2 @ 320 ISO
Everyone in the NJ / NY area is invited to come attend mypresentation on flash photography at Unique Photo, on Monday, Sept 21.
The title of the (approx) 2 hr presentation is: Just give me the f-stop
The presentation is based on the perception that many photographers, in trying to get to grips with flash photography, try to break it down into what they think are the understandable elements – the numerical values of the settings used. They want numbers, believing that in knowing a certain image was taken at 1/125th @ f4.5 @ 400 ISO, that they might get closer to understanding lighting. They want the f-stop.
However, the scenarios we encounter as photographers vary so much, that it becomes meaningless for anyone to “give you the f-stop”.
What is far more important is the methods we use in lighting, such as how to get to correct exposure, and how to get beautiful light, and how to enhance the existing light with controlled use of flash. And it is in this intersection between available light and flash that we get great results in seamlessly blending flash with available light.
And with that in mind, we will cover three main topics in the presentation:
- achieving (soft) directional light from your flash,
- flash exposure (incl use of the histogram: and the value of max sync speed),
- balancing flash with tungsten light
I would like to correct a few errors in my book on flash photography. It seems no matter how many times the work is cross-checked, mistakes do slip by.
1. One mistake that a few people have pointed out to me, is on p.107 – plate 14-14 .. the camera settings are incorrectly given. (They are correct in the actual text on p. 106). The correct description for plate 14-14 (p.107) should read:
Adjusting my camera settings, I droped the ambient light and left the couple illuminated mostly by flash. Settings: 1/250th @ f2 @ 320 ISO
2. The image on p.71 (plate 10-13) has a slight error. It says that I bounced the flash to my right .. but as should be clear from the photograph, I did indeed bounce the flash to my left. (I have a life-long tendency to confuse left and right when I give directions or descriptions, and it unfortuntely creeped in there as a typo with that image.)
The flash photography workshop in Seattle was one floor up in the hotel from where Electronic Arts where holding a Community Day for a video game titled “Army of Two: The 40th Day“. A community Day is when a video game company (such as Electronic Arts) brings in some of their biggest fans, as well as bloggers and site owners to get an exclusive look at the game before it releases to the public.
As we were walking back from the session outdoors where we worked with manual flash and softboxes, it just seemed like a good idea to have our two models, Julia and Jamei, join the two characters from Army of Two for an impromptu session there in the hotel lobby.
For the techies amongst us who would want to know about the lighting .. the lighting was with two softboxes at 90′ from each other. The one softbox was on my left, and close to me. The other was 90′ from me to my right, pointing at the models and beleaguered warriors. Each softbox had a speedlight, with the one to my right set to twice as much power as the one to my left.
As for the wild child Julia sprawled there on the ground .. um, yeah .. that’s all Julia. No direction needed!
Here are some other favourite images from the workshop ..
