Have you ever had this situation? It's bright outside, so you figure your photo will look great. You aim, use auto, and fire - and, your subjects are dark, like in this test photo (taken at Pedernales Falls in Texas):
What's a day-time shooter to do? Surprise - flash use is not limited to the indoors! Whenever your background is brighter than your foreground, and you use auto-exposure, the foreground will end up darker than you would like. This type of situation is called being "back-lit." Sometimes the brightness contrast between fg/bg is too great, so you have to simply choose to expose for the foreground, and consequently "blow-out," or overexpose, the background (you could expose for the background as well, and "block-up," or underexpose, the foreground, but this is rarely what is wanted). But when the fg/bg contrast is more manageable, using the flash can help "fill in" the foreground enough to provide a usable photo. Here, I used the on-board flash on my Canon 300D, and while the background stayed the same, the foreground now is much better exposed:
The trees in the background are still kind of hot, but the people in the foreground are much better exposed. This still isn't a great example of flash photography, really, because (a) the foreground could still have used some more flash power (the on-board flash's Guide Number is only about 15 or so), and (b) there is noticeable glare/hotspots on some of the people's faces due to the flash being close to the lens. But given the situation, out in the hills of Pedernales, fill-flash made a photo with an unusable foreground, into a much more usable photo (aside from the horizon being skewed a little to the right =D ).
You can also do this with digicams; hit the flash button until you get the lightning bolt by itself (as opposed to lightning bolt w/ an 'A' on it, or the lightning bolt w/ the no-smoking sign on it) to force the flash. Try it out! Even if the subjects aren't completely in the shade, photographers often use fill-flash to get a little eye sparkle, or to fill in the slight shadows under people's noses, cheekbones, and chins. And if you have any comments or further tips please feel free to comment back. I think John will give a more in-depth treatment on flash in a future post, but I thought this might be a nice end-of-the-week post that could be useful for people's outings over the weekend. Happy shooting!
yeah this is a great point! i often debate about blowing out the background slightly or using flash. i guess it really depends on the shot. flash shots show grease on ppl's faces though... haha
ReplyDeleteYup on-board flash can get that undesirable effect! As well as demon red-eye if you're unlucky.
ReplyDeleteFor Canon, the 420EX is a good flash and probably fairly cheap now. Couple that with a Stroboframe VH2000 Stroboflip (camera bracket that flips readily between portrait and landscape, but is still compact) and you get enough distance between the lens and flash so that the illumination is much more natural.
It does add to overall weight though.
oh yeah i remember using your stroboflip thingamajigger for a Joyland event at Alc. It was awesome!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I need a flash..it can really kill batteries though..
Hey Eileen, if I ever get around to getting my 420EX repaired (I don't know why they make these with the weakest feet and lower chassis - it's like Transformer toy plastic, or maybe worse), it's yours!
ReplyDeleteFor batteries, nimh AA rechargeables is the way to go. You get longer usage per set of batteries, as well as faster recycle (due to nimh batteries' flatter discharge curve, and higher current draw capability. yay more nerdy stuff).