Thoughts on Flash Photography
Derek Smith • 18 January 2023
White Angel
Photo By: Derek Smith
Clock 1
Photo By: Derek Smith
Clock 2
Photo By: Derek Smith
Bounce Card
Photo By: Derek Smith
We all know that light is an essential element of a photograph, and when light levels are low, adding flash lighting can be an aid to a successful image, permitting higher shutter speeds, and lower ISO settings.
Managing light from flash can at times be problematic, photographers can very well struggle with camera settings, and managing the power output of the flash unit.
In a studio environment where a subject is relatively static, an off-camera flash unit in a large soft box, mounted on a stand, can be positioned above, and slightly in front of the subject, the soft box creates a soft wraparound light effect. The first task is to set the camera to shoot in “Manual”, choose the lowest ISO setting (usually 100, 160, or 200 depending on camera). Then adjust the aperture to a mid-range value, personally I find that f/8 suits my camera and lenses. The final camera step is to adjust the shutter speed to remove any ambient light in the room, a test shot taken in this way should show a black screen, the lighting will be supplied by the flash unit only. Once the camera is set to the optimum settings, DO NOT adjust anything on the camera, all that remains is to switch the flash unit on, and adjust the power output until the test shots give the correct exposure, I suggest starting at perhaps 1/8 power, then adjust the power up or down until the exposure looks correct on the test shots. The image of the model Angel demonstrates what can be achieved.
In a more dynamic photographic environment such as a wedding, a social event, party, or a family gathering in a house, where the subject(s) can be moving around a flash unit on a stand is simply not a practical solution. On-camera flash can be your saviour in this situation but can be more difficult to control the light from the flash, the biggest pitfall is the unflattering “deer in the headlights” lighting effect where the power of the uncontrolled flash gives a very defined overexposed image.
As an example, look at these two images of a clock, both are taken at the same camera settings, shutter speed 1/180 (camera flash sync speed for the Fuji X-T20), ISO f/2, and ISO 200, and with the flash set for TTL, the first very obviously shows evidence of the use of flash with blown-out highlights, the second image has more controlled lighting. What then has changed? The camera settings are exactly the same, the distance from the subject remains the same, and I used the same Fuji XF 35mm prime lens in both instances, the difference then is that instead of pointing the flash head directly at the subject, I have swiveled the speedlight flash head around to point up at the ceiling, the light bounces off the white painted ceiling and gives that softer light on the clock. This technique of bouncing the light, can also work by swiveling the speedlight head to a nearby wall, or any reflective surface. One drawback of this method is that when photographing a person, the eyes may look dark, if this is the case pop out the bounce card on the speedlight flash head which just adds a little light into the eyes to create a catchlight.
Flash lighting can also be used in daylight to photograph a person in bright sunshine against a bright sky, but this requires a different technique, known as High Speed Sync (HSS). Assume for a moment that you would like to take a portrait at an aperture at f/1.8, for subject isolation, and a blurred background, setting the exposure for the ambient light of the sky leaves the subject looking underexposed, now if you have a camera, and flash unit compatible for using HSS, the shutter speed can be raised from the standard flash sync speed (varies by camera body / manufacturer 1/60 – 1/250) to something like 1/4000, maintaining the ambient light of the sky, with the flash correctly lighting your subject, a couple of test shots will need to be taken to assess how much flash power is needed to correctly expose the subject.
Tips on buying a hot shoe mounted flash speedlight – ensure the light is compatible for your camera make / model, a swivel head provides more options, as does a “bounce card”, and some cheaper models may not have the option of High Speed Sync.
Louth Photographic Society
A visit to Whitby for a sunset picture didn't quite go to plan. Unknown to me today is the last day of the Whitby Regatta. Whitby in the summer is usually busy, but today it rivaled Time Square in New York. My planned shoot of the East Pier was a non-starter because for tonight only there's a fun fair along West Pier where I planned to shoot from. I had to re-think and resort to plan b, which was also a non-starter because the East Pier was closed as it was packed with fireworks. Plan c was OK though and I got an image I'm pleased with.
I've been up to RSPB Bempton Cliffs this week, and have taken some excellent photographs, the weather was fine, and the lighting was less harsh than usual. This pair were on the cliff top, obviously well established, and saw off this interloper trying to muscle in on their space, those beaks look very vicious. I hope that everyone else is having a productive summer break.
For club interaction, we are invited to these NELPS photo shoots. So lets start this club interaction, NELPS are now on there summer break, but it does not stop there. The NELPS club president has put together some outdoor photo shoots:- Lincoln 5th Aug meet at the Cathedral 11am Not forgetting the photo exhibition by Lincoln Camera Club in the Usher Gallery! Chambers Farm Wood & Butterfly Farm 12th Aug meet at 10am. Peoples Park Grimsby 19th Aug meet at 10am. Trolley Bus Museum Sandtoft 26th Aug meet at 10am Cadwell Park 10th Aug motorbikes, 24th Aug cars and both are track days so free to get in.
Sutton & Trusthorpe Camera Club have their annual Exhibition at the Meridale Hall, Sutton on Sea, on 29th / 30th August. Drink and a Home-made cake only £3!
I’ve lost my photographic “mojo”, that desire to go out and take impactful photographs. That creative spark has gone, vanished, will it ever return? Writers talk of a “writers block”, when they just sit in front of a blank page, and can’t think of anything else to write, I’m the same, still out with my camera, but just not creating anything meaningful. Some of this I suppose is due to the fact that I’ve almost stopped my genre of model photography, we had the Studio evening, and other than that I’ve only had 2 model shoots this year. So what is my photography genre now? I know that I’m not a bird photographer, I haven’t got the patience to sit in a bird hide for hours with a long lens, waiting for the right bird shot to appear. Landscape, possibly, but I look at the work of some of our members, and YouTube videos, and don’t know whether I can achieve as good a standard in my work? I do enjoy macro photography, but again do my photos reach a good standard? One way forward is to look at our Societies annual project, this year it’s “water” one photo a month depicting water. Then of course there are the planned photo competitions for the rest of the year, those subjects could inspire me to go out and take some images. Anyway, that’s me, enjoy the rest of the summer, and if any of our members could share a photo, with a line or two of text I will be very happy to post on this blog.
Good Morning All Last week we had a very good evening at Kirkby Gravel Pits, it was a warm sunny evening and there was wildlife about to photograph. There were Dragonflies about, but all flying, but we did manage to photograph some Damselflies and grasshoppers etc. We then called at the local pub in Kirkby on Bain for refreshments. There were only 7 of us, if you have other ideas for outings please let me know and I will look into them for next year. Derek has also done a blog on the evening. Louth did make it through to the LPA Battle finals coming fifth overall, the final is on the 18 th October at Nettleham village hall. That was the last event before the summer break, so we now have a break before returning in September. I won't be doing any newsletters unless there is something to report. If you do anything interesting over the break you can always send Derek a blog for our website. There are things you can do over the break, the monthly project of water, preparing for the PDI competition in September, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". In September our first meeting back will have members speaking on the topic "15 minutes on what you have done over the summer", you may want to prepare something for this. Have a good summer, Graham
Lincoln Camera Club are holding an exhibition at the Usher Gallery, Lincoln. Commencing July 30th to November 1st.
This was our last outing before the summer break, on this occasion several of us met up at Kirkby Gravel Pits nature reserve for an evening of photography. The evening weather was perfect for photography, and we ambled around the reserve stopping to take some macro photography where opportunities arose. We did see a couple of butterflies, and I managed to take this image of a red admiral. As we walked along the paths, several grasshoppers could be glimpsed in the dry grass, they are very difficult to photograph as they are tiny, and agile, but I captured this one while I was laying down in the grass, at eye level, a lot of patience is needed to capture a quality image. In the brambles damselflies could be seen, one took off straight into a spiders web, luckily Graham was able to release it. On the water a heron, and egret could be observed across the water. It was an excellent evening of photography, as well as a social meetup, these outings are ideal for newcomers to photography to learn camera skills.
Good Morning All Last Wednesday while most of us were watching the football Derek took our LPA Battle prints to Axeholme for the final round, as in Derek's report on the blog we finished 2 nd and should have accumulated enough points to make the final, though not yet confirmed. Congratulations go to Dave Turner and David Whitehouse for the two highest scoring prints over the three rounds. Thank you Derek for taking our prints and missing the football. This week, Wednesday 22nd July, will be our last meeting before the summer break, and it is an outing to Kirkby Gravel Pits near Woodhall Spa. the directions are on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's website. It is usually a good place to photograph Dragonflies and birds (but you know our luck) anyway I hope to see quite a few of you there on Wednesday meeting at 6.30pm, you can go earlier of course and meet up with the rest of the members when we get there. The Willow Emerald Damselflies were there last time and are quite rare. Regards Graham
The LPA Battles competition was held last night at Axholme Camera Club, in Haxey Church Hall. I attended as the Louth Photographic Society representative, bringing the Battles prints with me. It was a closely fought contest with some excellent prints from Axholme, Barton, and ourselves. The judge for the evening was Steve Dormer, from Doncaster, and he was very relaxed in his judging of the prints, providing excellent critique on each print. At break time, Steve had held back a total of 13 prints for further assessment and award of higher points, Axholme, and Louth had 5 each prints held back, with Barton 3 prints. The attached photo shows all the held back prints on the print stand. At the end of the evening Axholme took 1 st place with, 266 points, Louth came 2 nd with 258 points, and Barton 3 rd with 251 points. As the prints were taken off the stand, one print remained, it was a Louth print titled “Sleeping” by David Whitehouse, this print was awarded 20 points, and the judge Steve was very taken with the image, well done David.
