Clowning around at Camera club

Bright, sharp, but lit from a single light source to the front? Hat in shadow because of it. On the laptop the base is black, line around the feet level but the background isn't, it appears noisy.
 
I don't know what happened but the original got uploaded instead off the edited one ???

David I have not shot flash before never needed to & as it was camera club, I thought I would try learn a bit about flash something completely different to sport / animals
I was lent a Universal White Soft Cloth Flashgun Bounce Diffuser of another member & the clown was placed on two bit of black card shot with 70-200 f2.8. We all start
some where :p
View attachment 23370
 
Last edited:
Don't mean to be harsh, but the camera is on auto, and you've used the pop up flash. You've taken a snap shot... so I'm not sure what to say. It was sharp...
 
?? No the camera was in aperture priority f14 auto ISO 500 with full flash Sigma dg 610 with the diffuser & camera set flash sync 1/320
 
Digisatman said:
?? No the camera was in aperture priority f14 auto ISO 500 with full flash Sigma dg 610 with the diffuser & camera set flash sync 1/320
Click to expand...


Just reading EXIF.

Still looks like a snap shot.. here's why...


If aperture priority, why f14? Was that just an arbitrary decision, or was f14 chosen for a specific reason? As the black background is still relatively sharp, I suspect f14 was not necessary to keep all of the clown sharp. Using such small apertures don't make the best of the lens usually, and most would only really use f14, f16, f22 etc when depth of field was the most important aspect of the shot.

While the processed version has made an attempt to darken the background, it's still there and it's still lit with the same light source the clown is. This is the problem with no camera flash. Your EXIF just said "Flash fired" which led me to believe it was the pop up flash, however... just plonking a flashgun on your camera doesn't really change anything, as it still looks identical to on camera flash. If you think about it, it's obvious why - it's only 2 or 3 inches further away from the lens than the in-built flash is. The results are identical, and always will be if you just use direct on camera flash. Direct lighting from on camera flash is horrible light. It's ok for a snap shot, or a press shot, but for lighting still life in a studio, it's truly horrible. This is why despite processing (never the answer to making a shot better BTW as it's not changed the quality of light one iota) it still looks like a snapshot from a cheap compact taken by anyone. The diffusers you put over flashguns are useless.. they don't really have much of an effect. The flat lighting is because it's coming from the same direction as the lens axis, and the harshness is because, despite a diffuser, it's still a small light source. See my tutorial, and read the section on flash, lighting and inverse square law.

If you can't use the flash off camera, then at least experiment with bouncing the flash. The head of your flash should angle and rotate... try turning it away from the subject completely, and instead bouncing the light of various sizes of white card t experiment.

If you wanted the background black... and you only have one light source, then the best thing to do would be to get the background as far away from the clown as possible, and let inverse square law take care of how dark the background is. The further light travels, the more it drops off in intensity. Moving the clown forward from the backdrop, even by a couple of feet would have made a real difference.

If this was an event or something, at a camera club, I'm surprised no one suggested bouncing the flash.

Radio trigger systems, especially those that still allow TTL are a great way of getting the flash off the camera to allow better lighting positioning. The pocket Wizard system is great, but there are cheaper alternatives. You could even just buy a long sync lead, and use the flash manually, but you would need a flash meter for that.
 
Last edited:
Cheers David as said never shot flash before all completely new, It was supposed to be a macro lesson but the guy never turned up, I went f14 as I was thinking of a cropping it from just under his chin /tie to just above the rim of his hat & was going for detail, I do not own any Macro lens :( so was seeing what the 70-200 f2.8 could do, I will have a read of the tutorial :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top