Flash photography: How far can you bounce your flash?
Flash photography: How far can you bounce your flash?
The question regularly comes up: how far can you bounce your flash? The answer is quite straight-forward: It depends on the power of your flash, the bounce distance (and surfaces), ISO and aperture. Power, distance, aperture and ISO - the four things that control flash exposure. Yup, we can't really escape this. So how far can you bounce your flash? It depends on how far (and reflective) the surfaces are that you are bouncing your flash off; as well as how high you're willing to take your ISO and how wide you can take your Read more inside...High-ISO bounce flash photography
High-ISO bounce flash photography
One of the misconceptions about bounce flash photography that many photographers cling to, is that you absolutely need a white wall or ceiling near you. While it does help, this shouldn't stop you from trying to be a little adventurous with on-camera bounce flash to see if it gets you the results you want. There have been several articles on the topic of bouncing off various other surfaces, or, not any particular surface nearby: Bounce flash photography at wedding receptions (bride: Juana) Wedding reception lighting with one flash (groom: Read more inside...On-location headshots and promotional portraits
On-location headshots and promotional portraits
One of the things I like the most about photography, aside from the cool toys, is that you get to meet interesting people. Characters. People with spark. The challenge is then to capture that and show it in the photographs. A headshots photo session needs to be more than just a mere glimpse of your subject's personality. Jonathan Arons, also known as “the trombone dancer”, is a multi-talented actor, singer, dancer and musician, based in New York. Jonathan needed some professonial headshots and some portraits for promotional use. We Read more inside...Comparing output: Studio lights vs. speedlites / speedlights
Comparing power: Studio lights vs. speedlites / speed lights
Speedlights pack a huge amount of light for the size. Very portable, and loaded with sophisticated features, owning a speedlight is a must. A simple choice. Studio lights and the larger portable flashes such as the Profoto B1 TTL flash (B&H / Amazon) , offer a lot more power than speedlights. Exactly how much more powerful, isn't all that easy to gauge. There's very little available as direct comparison. Even the specs aren't directly comparable. Speedlights' power is given as a Guide Number (GN), and studio Read more inside...Various scenarios: Balancing flash with ambient light
Various scenarios: Balancing flash with ambient light
Adding flash to ambient light - its's a topic that can appear to be confusing. With advice that ranges from under-exposing the ambient light by a stop or two ... or dialing FEC down for fill-flash, or advice that you should be metering for the background ... it all appears confusing and contradictory. What we do, and the thought-process we step through, depends on the (lighting) situation we find ourselves in. There isn't one blanket do-all method. No single piece of instruction that will fit every occasion. So let's try to Read more inside...Gelling your flash, and post-processing for deep blue skies
Gelling your flash, and post-processing for deep blue skies
The warm light from the nearly-setting sun, accentuated with gelled flash. Towards the end of the recent photography workshop, we were shooting on the rooftop - the warm tone of the sunlight contrasting beautifully with the blue sky. To punch it even more, we added gelled flash via an off-camera speedlight in a softbox. We had to gel the speedlight of course, to make sure the blue color balance of the flash didn't kill the natural light. We used a 1/2 CTS gel here which brought the flash's WB down to around 3700K. (This Read more inside...Flash photography: questions & answers (FAQ)
Flash photography questions & answers (FAQ)
Looking at some of the questions about photography that appear via Google searches, I wanted to more directly answer some of the questions. This article is a selection of questions on the topic of photography, that I decided to amalgamate into one longer article. Read more inside...Studio photography – Image projection effects for creative backgrounds
Studio photography - Image projection effects for creative backgrounds
Working with an idea in mind in the studio - a moody B&W portrait with a stylized cityscape as background. Using the Light-Blaster again in the studio, this final image was a progression of that idea. I knew I wanted to use the cityscape background of one of the metal gobos that came with the Light-Blaster kit. Because I wanted the final photograph to be black and white, I set my camera to Monochrome so that I'd have a good idea during the shoot what the final image would look like. Since I shoot in RAW, Read more inside...Gear updated: Flash photography workshops
update: New gear for flash photography workshops
The material covered, and the gear used in the flash photography workshops, are constantly being fine-tuned and adapted with each workshop. With the first workshops (around 2006) centered around bounce flash photography. Over time the workshops expanded from that fairly simple premise, into what is a more comprehensive on-location lighting course. The past two years there has been a surge in the various brands and types of flash. For example, Canon used to be just the 580 speedlights and wireless system. There's now the 600EX Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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