 Susan Bohanon |
Artificial light and flash... How can you use a flash on a subject and not make it look like artificial light?
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
you mean the color of it? or direction/look of it?
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Susan Bohanon |
Definitely the look of it... like the brightness. But the color is definitely a concern as well. I just want a soft natural light look. I use the Canon Rebel Digital and am getting the 420EX flash.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
To try to explain quickly, due to the fact that light falls off quickly as distance increases, direct flash results in a darkground with a bright subject standing out. Add to that the feel of straight on, undiffused light from direct flash. Depending on the situation you're shooting with, you can make it look more natural in several ways. But to try and hit on what you might more commonly run into you can: 1.Bounce the flash off a ceiling. This will diffuse the light by scattering because of the ceiling surface, and also because when the light hits the ceiling, that area becomes a bigger light source which makes the light softer. It's the same as if you used a small umbrella/soft box in a studio, and switch to one that was twice as big. The bigger one will have a softer, more diffused look. And plus all that, you change direction of the light, plus more background is filled in with the light because the relative extra distance the light travels from ceiling to the background isn't as much. In other words, straight on from you to subject is 8ft, then 8ft behind subject is twice the distance. But by bouncing off the ceiling, ceiling to subject can be 8ft, but ceiling to same spot 8ft behind subject may be 9-10 ft. Less light fall off. Bouncing off a ceiling is just one way, and it's more of trying to explain the principle of making things look more natural. 2.Adding light to the background. Or I could say adding exposure to the background. One example is a studio situation that needs a flash to light the background because the flash that's on the subject, when it reaches the background is at a different exposure because of distance. so you use a second light so that the exposure for background and subject is the same. Another way is with increasing the exsposure from available light with a slower shutter speed. A flash exposure can be f/8 at the camera's sync of 1/125. But available light isn't enough for that exposure, shoot without flash and everything's dark. But if you kept the same aperture, but lowered the shutter speed,like to 1/30, you'd get the exposure for the flash, because flash depends more on aperture. The slower shutter speed gives more time for availabel light to add to bringing out the background with available light. Sorry if I didn't do a good job of making it a little more clearer. It's something that's really better explained by using more specific situations. As well as pictures to explain.
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Susan Bohanon |
No, I think you explained great. Thank you so much for taking the time to do all that!!!
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Jon Close |
(1) Use balanced fill-flash (ie. Av or M mode) so that the background and near subject get the same exposure. May give shutter speeds too slow to hand hold or too slow to stop movement. (2) Bounce flash (3) Use a diffuser over the flash head, such as those made by Sto-Fen (Omnibounce) or LumiQuest (4) The Digital Rebel does not have FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation), but there exist hacks to the firmware that will enable it (at the expense of warranty coverage).
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