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NOTE: All images and diagrams unless otherwise stated are copyright W.Brooker 2000 and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the author.

Flash photography

Almost all modern cameras come with a flash built in, and while I know of many professional photographers, particularly landscape photographers, who avoid it like the plague, a flash unit does have its part to play.

One problem everyone has heard of is red-eye, and this is a direct result of cameras getting smaller and more compact. Red-eye occurs as a result of light from the flash unit striking the retina at the back of the eye and illuminationg the mass of tiny blood vessels, and happens when the flash unit is too close to the lens. The greather the distance between the source of the flash and the lens, the less chance there is of red-eye.

There are ways to reduce red-eye, but they all involve one basic principle, and that is to produce enough light to shrink the size of the pupil just before the actual picture is taken. While this doesn't really stop red-eye from happening, it does make it far less obvious as less of the retina is visible through the front of the eye. If you don't have a red-eye reduction facility on your camera, there are still a couple of things you can do to help.

a/ If it's possible, put on as many room lights as you can to brighten the surroundings, this will automatically shrink the pupil size of your subject.

b/ Carry a small torch and shine it into the eyes of your subject (explain what you're doing first).

c/ If the flash gun isn't fixed, connect it to the camera with a lead and hold it as far away as possible from the lens.

Fill in flash

This is one of the most valuable uses of a flash in normal conditions. Fill in flash is simply using your flash in normal daylight conditions to balance a picture, but there's a snag. To be effective, fill in flash should never be at full power. If you line up say a daylight portrait, then force the flash to fire, it will attempt to provide as much illumination as would be needed if the scene was dark. This tends to make the flash over power the natural light and can make the picture look unnatural. Ideally, you need the flash to fire at half power or less. Now, if you're lucky, your camera will have a fuction known as" flash exposure compensation", where you can set the power of the flash, again in F stops, to the desired level. -1 stop would give you half the flash output and thus a much more natural look, while -2 stops gives a much more subtle effect. Personally I only give 1 stop less (-1 F stop), but I know many photographers who prefer two stops less (-2 F stops). So what does fill in flash achieve?

a/ On sunny days, particularly if the sun is high in the sky, it can fill in and even out some of the harsh shadows that are cast by the nose, chin and eye sockets.

b/ On dull flat days it can make colours look punchier, and because the background isn't illuminated, the subject is made to stand out against the rather drab and muted surroundings.

c/ It can add a sparkle to the eyes of your subject by creating "catch-lights" These are simply the small patches of light that reflect in the eyes of your subject, but are considered essential to portrait painters.

 

Slow synch flash

Because the duration of the flash from a flash gun is so brief, most cameras will automatically set a very fast shutter speed when the flash is used. This doesn't affect the picture elements that are within the illumination range of the flash, but anything that is outside that range may not be bright enough to register with such a fast sutter speed.

In the shot above taken at dusk, the camera has chosen a fast shutter speed bacause I activated the flash. This means the background was not bright enough to register fully on the final image.

Using slow synch however (on some camera's is simply called a night or low light setting) allows the flash to fire normally, but also keeps the shutter open for long enough to capture some of the background too.

This picture was taken at the same time and from the same place. The only difference is that I activated the slow synch facility. This allows the more subdued background time to register, but it also means that the shutter remains open for a while AFTER the flash has fired and you must therefore ask your subject to stay still for a couple of seconds after the shot has been taken. Also, because the shutter is open longer, you will probably need a tripod or some other kind of support.

Fetch me my slave

I mentioned at the start of the course that I'd cover a way for people with only low powered built-in flash guns to increase their flash possibilities. You may be suprised to hear that even with just a simple built in flash, you can still use a powerful flash gun or even studio flash. The way you do it is with a fairly inexpensive device known as a "slave" unit. A slave unit is a small box onto which any standard flash gun can fit. on the front of the slave unit is a light sensor that picks up the flash from another flash gun and automatically firses the gun attached to it. This means you can put a slave and flash combination anywhere you like within the range of your built in unit, and the light from the built in unit will trigger the second slave controlled gun to fire

I had hoped at this point to cover techniques that allow you to "bounce" flash off a wall or ceiling to soften the light and change its direction, but Fuji had to call my review sample back in for a conference of some kind for which they had no demonstration models in. As my regular digital camera has no hot-shoe facility, I will have to cover that when I get the unit back again.

The fact that the camera isn't here also explains why there is no part three to the review this week, but as soon as I get it back I'll continue where I left off. Before I close for this week, here's a few tips for portraits where the subject has, how shall we say, interesting features.

Double Chin

shoot from higher than you normally would

Bald Patch

shoot from lower than you normally would

Double Chin and Bald Patch

put a soft focus filter on and pray :) Use very diffused flash ( a good tip is to place tracing paper over your flash, but make sure it doesn't cover any sensors )

Large nose

shoot from head on and avoid profiles. Keep well away from the wide angle end of your zoom as this exaggerate the features. Shoot at about 135 or 150mm and don't use side lighting other than as a fill. Keep the light fairly soft and near the camera so it strikes the face full on.

Glasses

Keep the flash at an angle to your subject. Shooting with your light source too close to the camera will almost certainly cause a reflection in the glasses.

So there we have it, a bit short and sweet this week, but enough there for you to be practising. Hopefully I'll have the camera back by next week and then it's business as usual.