Month: May 2010

The catch 22 scenario of flash photography

by Stanley LearyPhotography

Flashes are used in a sunroom to balance the light to the outdoors. You must be very careful in your flash placement, or the glass will become a mirror and reflect the flash. Here the angle of the flash and the power match so well that you almost don’t notice the glass separating the indoors from the outdoors.

You are at a wedding under a tent, and there appears to be enough light, but why does the subject keep coming out so dark? If I turn on the flash now, it looks much better. But, now it gets closer to dusk, the background is too dark, and I can’t tell where we are anymore; what can I do? The problem is that the flash lights up subjects close to you, and the background goes dark on black.

THERE’S HOPE FOR YOU.

You are in luck if you have one of the newer digital cameras with 1600, 3200, or 64 ISO settings00. These high ISO settings let you take photos with very little light. As a result, you can get pictures in many situations where flash was required before.

The issue many of us face is not the amount of light available but the direction and quality of that light. For example, if you are under a tent, it is challenging to take a photograph where the outside isn’t in the background. This is where almost every subject has more light on the background than on their faces. On the other hand, if you shoot in the daytime, it is straightforward to turn on your flash and take photos. In this situation, you most likely will not only get a well-exposed photograph of the subject but the background will be adequately exposed.

Another situation we will find ourselves shooting in is those beautiful sunrooms. You get to experience some of the outdoors in not only a calm air-conditioned environment, but for many of us, we share it allergy free. In this situation, if you turn the flash on to compensate for your subject’s being backlighted, you may have to move a little not to get glare in the glass. The simplest way to do this is to be sure you are not perpendicular to the window but on a slight angle.

Flashes help light up under the tent to match the outside light. But first, you must match the f/stop and ISO to the outside by ensuring your flash puts out the same amount. The easiest way to do this is using a TTL flash.

Once you have used a flash in these scenarios, you quickly discover the joy of photography: you have a well-exposed subject and a well-exposed background that helps you capture the environment.

SUNLIGHT AND FLASH DO MIX

A flash can improve your photos even at the beach, where sunlight is everywhere. So often, we light to have the sun behind the subject at the beach for a self-evident reason—less squinting. But now the subject is backlit, and due to this, you have a similar effect of under a tent, just not as drastic of a light difference. So turn your flash on and open up those shadows.

Two flashes are used in TTL mode to fill in the shadows under their eyes and help with the color balance.

During the middle of the day, when the sun is directly overhead, you end up with people having raccoon eyes. This is where the sun casts a shadow on folks’ eyes, especially if they have deep-set eyes and are wearing a hat.

FLASH AT DAWN AND DUSK

Just the other day, I was photographing at a friend’s wedding. The wedding started at 6 p.m., and as we moved into the reception, the light dropped quickly until it was dark. Now if you have your camera set to do it all for you automatically and you read the manual on how to force the flash on rather than just automatic mode, you could take the photos as I described above. I didn’t tell you how to do this with your camera because every camera manufacturer has a different way to do this, not only for their brand but often their separate models do it differently—so read your manual.

Fill the flash on the couple; another flash helps light up the background.

No, if you turn your flash on under the tent as the light drops off, you will most likely get a dark or even black background. The reason for this is your camera if in an automatic mode, will drop to the lowest ISO setting when your flash is turned on. Even if your camera has an ISO as high as 6400, you will most likely shoot at an ISO of 100 or 200 the minute you turn the flash on. Why is this default? The main reason is that the lower the ISO, the better the image quality. You have a more excellent dynamic range, the photos have less contrast, and the colors are more accurate.

Up until just a couple of years ago, they were shooting anything above an ISO of 400 rendered pretty awful quality. Only in the last couple of years did the camera manufacturers improve the quality of the high ISO. Today the quality of many cameras shooting at an ISO of 6400 looks as good as ISO 400 just a few years ago. Now you can shoot at ISO 6400 and get beautiful results.

With the lighting taken care of by the high ISO and flash balancing the background, you can concentrate on the important moments.

In most situations today, with these new cameras with an ISO of 6400, you can take great photos without flash in ordinarily lit rooms inside.

For the wedding I was at, they had candles on the table and one chandelier in the middle of the tent, and the amount of light, even at 6400 at 10 p.m. that night, wasn’t enough to take the photos. But when we first were under the tent at 6:30 p.m., there was enough light outside. So, I could have had my camera set on auto everything, forced the flash on, and had good exposure on the faces and background looking wonderful. So, this doing this then, but as the night fell, the background started to go very dark. So, I changed my ISO to 800 a little later, raised it again to 1200, and I was up to 6400 ISO by the night’s end.

The couple would be silhouetted without a flash, but now they balance the background.

BONUS FEATURE

Another bonus of shooting with a flash when your camera is set at ISO 6400 is that the flash doesn’t use as much light, and your batteries will last longer.

SUMMARY

Find your camera manual and read two sections: turn your flash on and change the ISO. Once you know how to override the auto everything on your camera, you will get better photographs and finally get the photos this camera can do that you couldn’t get with the $8 disposable camera.

Shoot for a variety, not just the one shot.

by Stanley LearyPhotography

The other night I watched a slide show of a friend’s trip. They showed a lot of stuff they came across; a building they saw, a person they met, a famous location they stumbled upon. In every snapshot, the subjects were dead center (and I mean slow). I began to wonder if their camera had sights rather than a viewfinder. My friend kept us informed (not necessarily entertained) by telling us what each photo showed.

I have another friend, Joanna Pinneo. She shoots for National Geographic. When Joanna showed photos of some of her trips, each image was a story. Her photos spoke volumes. Her pictures were worth a thousand words. There was no need for a running dialogue with her presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The difference wasn’t subject matter. My “dead center” friend showed us a subject, but Joanna used verbs. Instead, she presented her issues from various angles, including framing, lighting, and mood.

What Joanna, and other photojournalists, do that many photographers do not do is offer an assortment, a mixture of images.

Jeff Raymond is the director of photography for a Christian missionary agency. Jeff and I were training his student photographers in a workshop.

Jeff said, “A lot of these students have improved their coverage of stories, but mostly what they have done is just move their subjects from dead center and made nice portraits of them.” Jeff calls these “People Need The Lord” photographs. He called them that because every missionary was copying what Steve McCurry did when he made that iconic image of a young Afghan girl wearing the red scarf for the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem Jeff Raymond was addressing is that there is so much more to photograph than just a lovely portrait.

Some photographers use the “Day In The Life” approach to move beyond a lovely portrait. Just follow a subject for a day and capture what they do. You could tell the story as if you were doing a significant paper for a school project. Take photos systematically over some time and use these to help tell the story.

No matter the approach you take, you will need a variety of photos. A classic way to accomplish this is, to begin with an overall establishing shot. Then make some medium shots that show the environment. Follow this with close-up photos like a portrait or extreme close-ups to show those details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like when you write that major paper for a class project, you will need to gather lots of material before you start writing or, in this case editing the project. You will need a lot of variety for each type of photo to pick the best that work together as a package.

If you are covering an event, look for a broad view that gives a sense of the scale of the occasion. For example, a wide-angle lens, like 28 mm from a birds-eye or worm view, adds drama and makes the presentation more exciting.

Use those leading lines and graphics for impact. Study National Geographic or Sports Illustrated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend Bob Rosato, staff photographer for Sports Illustrated, spoke to a professional photographers group not long ago. Bob talked about how important it is to capture the atmosphere and grandeur of an event. He showed many images in the magazine, shot with a wide angle. Sure, he had photos made with those super behemoth telephoto lenses we typically think they always use, but to capture the splendor, he used wide-angle lenses.

Capturing the atmosphere is difficult. The sensations of an event are gathered from sounds, smells, and all our senses. Therefore, relying on visual cues to evoke these emotions in your audience would be best.

Shoot wide, but highly close also. Show details as close as your camera will focus. For example, find a fall leaf that brings to mind autumn rather than only showing the wide-angle view of the forest.

Now we see why photojournalists carry two or three cameras. You see something and shoot; no need to change lenses to capture the moment.

Ah, yes, the moment. Don’t limit yourself to a predetermined list of shots. Be ready for the unexpected. These serendipitous moments are what will add a human touch to your photography.

You cannot sit in a chair and capture it all at an event. Instead, you must move around and look for unique perspectives and various images.

No matter how many shots you take of an event, you usually wish you had taken more because you need transition images as you tell your story with pictures. Also, you need photos to lead the audience to the next point or subject.

In television shows, they use bumps to help break up the changes. For example, the TV show Home Improvement used little detail graphics of a tool, a fence, or something with a sound to let you know you were changing thoughts.

You have done the job when you show your photos, and you feel little need to explain what is on the screen—a good job.