Monthly Archives: March 2012

Light direction

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When you use a simple bounced flash, always ask this:

“Where should the light be coming from?”.

And then that is where you point your flash.

So if during a custom workshop at Seneca College I want to light up Seneca student and reader Danny Lee with lighting that compliments a man and provides some modeling, I want light from the side – so I aim my flash behind me to the right:

If, on the other hand, I wanted to light him evenly, which makes the face look flat and featureless (and women like featureless because “featureless” also means “wrinkle-less), I would aim the flash straight behind me:

So today’s lesson: always watch where your flash is aimed, and enusre that that is where you would like the light to be coming from.

 

More “simple light”.

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Here’s student Brittney, in a Seneca College workshop I did the other night:

Again: simple light: one off camera flash.

  • From yesterday’s post you will remember that I first thought about the background, then about the flash. In this case I set my camera (in manual exposure mode of course) to give me a very dark background. I wanted no ambient light.
  • And yes, you can use direct flash. I had a honl photo grid on a 430EX flash, driven by the camera’s 580EX.
  • The 580EX was disabled from contributing to the actual shot: all it did was fire commands.

Another student – and here I added a background light too:

How did I do that?

TIP: always do a “pull-back shot”, where you see your setup.

As you see, here I asked a student to hold the gridded main flash; then I used a second flash with a gel and, to prevent the color from hitting the subject or shining into my camera, a flag (a gobo – “go between objects” – the Honl bounce cards are also gobos/flags.

 

 

 

Who does the work?

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First question I always ask myself when taking a flash picture is: “who does the work?”.

What I mean is: is the light in the image just from the flash? Or just from ambient? Or from both?

Clearly :

  • When it is just from flash, the ambient needs to be dark (so I set my exposure for that).
  • When it is mixed, I set the ambient so that is is the right level compared to the flash.
  • In a mixed environment, sometimes I want to turn ambient UP (as in a party indoors), and sometimes DOWN (as in a dramatic portrait).  The principle, however, is always the same: worry about what you need from ambient (from all-dark to bright), then worry about the flash.

And mixing is essential. This is how I look at most of my images:

WHICH LIGHT DOES THE WORK:

As you see, in most creative work, I like to mix the two light sources.

If you do not think of this, you will get unpredictable results.

So before hitting that flash, always ask first:

In this picture, do I want to mix light, and if so, what should the ambient light look like?


A simple chiaroscuro portrait or two

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In the last few days I took two people’s portraits using just one off camera flash. Here’s Michelle and Adnan, respectively:

How did I take those?

First, I set the camera so that the ambient light looks dark. The room was not dark – it just looked dark to the camera, because I had set the camera up specifically to achieve that. 100 ISO, f/5.6, 1/200th second. You could use any combination of ISO-Apertyure-Shutter that gives the same brightness, but keep in mind:

  • High aperture or low ISOs mean the flash has to work harder, and it may not have enough light
  • The shutter speed cannot achieve 1/200th second; your camera’s fl;ash sync speed.

Then I added the flash. I used an off-camera speedlight on our right. I could have used TTL remote control or pocketwizards: I used TTL in Michelle’s portrait and Pocketwizards in Adnan’s. Light is light! Note that I put a Honlphoto Grid on the fl;ash, else the light would have lit up the background too. The flash (fitted with the grid) was aimed directly at the subject. To get the right exposure, I metered the Pocketwizard-driven flash, and I “flash exposure compensated” the TTL-driven flash.

Then I positioned the subject properly. I wanted the light to hit them just about from their front, with their face turned to get short lighting. I also wanted to see both eyes, even if one is only just visible.

And that was all. A one minute portrait, and a pretty cool one, no?

 

Portrait reminder

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You can use any lens for portrats: from super wide to super long.

But when you are making a headshot, as opposed to an environmental porytrat, the face is large. And in that case you do not want to use a wide lens, like a 24mm lens, or this will happen:

The face is distorted; the nose is too large.

Instead, using a long lens, like a 70-200mm lens – or at least 50mm or more on a crop camera – is more flattering:

The wide-angle lens is good for environmental shots:

Rule of thumb: if the person/face is large in your pic, go long; if the person/face is small, you can go wide.

 

Challenges… and solutions: Low Light.

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I shot a classical concert the other day (Mahler’s second symphony). Performance in a church, by Masterworks of Oakville.

The church had the worst light: dark, with bright back light. Ugh!

Terrible. So what can I do? Not use flash, of course.

But that is what photographers are for! So I use:

  • A fast lens – two, one wide (16-35) and one long (70-200), both f/2.8 lenses
  • High ISO: 1600 ISO
  • A slow shutter: 1/30th second
  • Stabilizer ON, on the long lens.
  • When needed, a little push in post (rather than slower shutter)
  • Patience – shoot the conductor when he is not waving TOO much…

All that gave me:

Not too bad, eh? What do you think?

This shows the importance of the right equipment.. the fast lenses were essential. This is why you hire a pro to shoot your event: you simply will not get the right results if you do it yourself, unless of course you have the same equipment and technique.

 

Point of view

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Changing your point of view often helps simplify your picture.

Here’s an example. A group shot a few hours ago of my Sheridan College students on a field trip in Oakville;

And here it is again, but now with me on an object to raise my level about three feet:

The shot is a demo – in a formal portrait, I would have had people look at me and so on – but you get the idea! The second picture has:

  • a semicircular appearance, as opposed to “flat”;
  • a much simpler background;
  • an unusual appearance due to the angle.

You should always ask yourself: could I take this picture from a different vantage point? Higher, lower, right, left, front, back: each of these can lend an image a different feel.

 

Outside direct flash technique

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You can use a flash outside on the camera for some pretty cool shots, like this one I took yesterday of talented model Kim:

You do this as follows:

  1. Position the subject away from direct light (see the back light here? The sun is behind her).
  2. Expose to make the background a little darker (using either manual exposure, or an automatic or semi-automatic mode and minus (-) exposure compensation).
  3. Turn on your flash.
  4. Adjust your flash if and as necessary with Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC). In this example, a subject with a white dress needs “+” flash exposure compensation. If not sure: try!
  5. Because your flash is aimed directly at the subject, you need to allow for this. Ask the subject to aim their head slightly down, perhaps, so the light will come at the head from slightly “above”. Watch for shadows.

And this very simple technique makes for some pretty good “flash outside” shots when you have no off-camera flash or softboxes etc available.

 

Exposure Triangle

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Every photographer needs to learn the “exposure triangle” of ISO – Aperture – Shutter.

For a brighter picture you can do any of three things:

  • Higher ISO
  • Lower “F-number”
  • Slower shutter speed

For a darker picture you can do the opposites:

  • Lower ISO
  • Higher “F-number”
  • Faster shutter speed

Those are the only ways.  Whatever mode you use, whatever compensation you use: these only use the mechanisms above.

So it is best to start off in manual mode, with auto ISO disabled. If you are not familiar with the above, start today: manual, auto ISO disabled, and go crazy. Try – and do not confuse exposure (“how bright an image is”) with colour, focus, or blur.

 

Shot of the day

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..taken by my student Nick, on a sunny day – super sunny in Ontario – at mid-day:

Here’s Nick, showing how it is done:

Exposure is set to create a dark background. 1/200th second (sync speed!) and f/11 at 100 ISO did the trick. And then the flash direct – but off-camera, fired by Pocketwizards, metered with a light meter.

And that’s how you take a dramatic portrait on a sunny day!