Body mounted flash and orientation for landscapes vs portraits

[Phil V]

For many years I have been aware that some Nikon cameras use the af assist beam to focus, the camera reads the distance data from the lens and that is used to make decisions about the light from the flashgun after measuring the pre-flash and I am sure they are not alone in this


Mike

My understanding of the way Canon measures light for TTL is that it pays next to no attention to the focus distance, and is guided only by the light reflected from the preflash.
In any bounce or OCF scenario, the camera to subject distance could be detrimental to any calculations.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I feel that this is all getting a bit too complicated. Flash, as routinely used by wedding photographers in bright sunlight conditions to add a bit of sparkle and reduce unnecessary high contrast, doesn't need to be off-camera, or to be modified in any way. Obviously, this all changes when the flash becomes the primary light source, at which point one or more much more powerful flashes can be used to create light, rather than to supplement the existing ambient light.

Different people have different ways of working and that's generally a good thing. There are no set protocols or procedures with most types of photography, and if there were then the result would be that everyone would produce exactly the same results as everyone else. . .

Grand mother and sucking eggs come to mind.

However natural available light always looks "Natural"

Some photographers never did use flash, (Cartier Bresson)
Or used it almost exclusively (Weegee)

There never have been any rules.

When I specialised in Store interiors, I almost always used the natural light, as that is the way the architects and lighting designers wished them to be seen.
The like of Harrods and Liberty spent a fortune on getting the ambience right, the last thing they want is photographers ruining it with flash.

With respect, I don't feel that this is relevant. Wedding photographers are highly visible and don't hide in the shadows the way that Cartier Bresson did - and anyway, he didn't have our excellent, modern equipment. Flashbulbs, because of their very slow burning, produce a much more obvious distraction than small electronic flash units.
Weegee had no choice, he had a day job and took all of his photos (mainly of crime scenes) at night, using a 5"x4" plate camera and a big flashbulb, his lighting was terrible but he was successful mainly because he was the only one who had the contacts and who could be in the right places at the right times.

Flash, used as fill in bright sunlight conditions is always a positive thing to do, there is no downside.

The easiest and possibly the best solution for you is to always use the camera in landscape format when using flash, that way you won't need to worry about the orientation of the camera / flash combination. Obviously this will lead to some loss of image quality when you crop from landscape to portrait but this should not be significant and anyway it will become much less of an issue when you move to FF.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I feel that this is all getting a bit too complicated. Flash, as routinely used by wedding photographers in bright sunlight conditions to add a bit of sparkle and reduce unnecessary high contrast, doesn't need to be off-camera, or to be modified in any way. Obviously, this all changes when the flash becomes the primary light source, at which point one or more much more powerful flashes can be used to create light, rather than to supplement the existing ambient light.

Different people have different ways of working and that's generally a good thing. There are no set protocols or procedures with most types of photography, and if there were then the result would be that everyone would produce exactly the same results as everyone else. . .

With respect, I don't feel that this is relevant. Wedding photographers are highly visible and don't hide in the shadows the way that Cartier Bresson did - and anyway, he didn't have our excellent, modern equipment. Flashbulbs, because of their very slow burning, produce a much more obvious distraction than small electronic flash units.
Weegee had no choice, he had a day job and took all of his photos (mainly of crime scenes) at night, using a 5"x4" plate camera and a big flashbulb, his lighting was terrible but he was successful mainly because he was the only one who had the contacts and who could be in the right places at the right times.

Flash, used as fill in bright sunlight conditions is always a positive thing to do, there is no downside.

The easiest and possibly the best solution for you is to always use the camera in landscape format when using flash, that way you won't need to worry about the orientation of the camera / flash combination. Obviously this will lead to some loss of image quality when you crop from landscape to portrait but this should not be significant and anyway it will become much less of an issue when you move to FF.

When I shot weddings, and I shot lots of them. I had a flash constantly fixed to a flash bracket on my camera, almost every shot was taken with flash fill, or with flash as the main light.
However some of the best wedding photography that I have ever seen has been taken with out flash at all. The work of the Lithuanian photographer that used to show his work on here, but whose name I have forgotten, comes to mind, as amongst the very best.
I do not see the problem of using the camera and flash in portrait mode as long as you keep the flash above the lens. with a flash bracket that should have the flash above and left of the lens for landscape, and in portrait orientation that will bring it above right... there is nothing to move or think about.

 

[sk66]

The easiest and possibly the best solution for you is to always use the camera in landscape format when using flash, that way you won't need to worry about the orientation of the camera / flash combination. Obviously this will lead to some loss of image quality when you crop from landscape to portrait but this should not be significant and anyway it will become much less of an issue when you move to FF.

Post #4

 

[gilbouk]

I always thought it was dumber than that, and that it simply provided a line of contrast for the AF points to pick up on.
Projecting a pattern onto a 3D object to be measured very accurately would take some computing power, and whilst I could imagine something like a D500 being capable of that,
AF assist on flashguns goes back to the 80’s, I can’t imagine an early AF camera doing it.
Add the fact that 3rd party speedlights use a different pattern and how would the camera know what it was trying to measure.

However, a speedlight on a bracket offsets the pattern where it might not fall under the AF sensors, as is often the case here, a radio transmitter with its own AF assist beam is the obvious answer.

While on the subject of the AF assist light on flashguns, isn't it only useful in situations when the subjects are stationary? The reason I say that, is that when I switch to AF-C which is predominantly what I use to shoot weddings, the AF assist light doesn't function. As far as I can see, the AF assist light only functions in AF-S. Do you guys switch between these AF modes frequently? The only time I use AF-S is when AF-C is struggling in low light. Often at this stage, I'm capturing first dance and I end up switching over from single point to Auto AF and use BBF followed by rapid use of the shutter following lock on to avoid OOF photos as much as I can.

 

[Phil V]

While on the subject of the AF assist light on flashguns, isn't it only useful in situations when the subjects are stationary? The reason I say that, is that when I switch to AF-C which is predominantly what I use to shoot weddings, the AF assist light doesn't function. As far as I can see, the AF assist light only functions in AF-S. Do you guys switch between these AF modes frequently? The only time I use AF-S is when AF-C is struggling in low light. Often at this stage, I'm capturing first dance and I end up switching over from single point to Auto AF and use BBF followed by rapid use of the shutter following lock on to avoid OOF photos as much as I can.

Pretty much, except... I always use BBF, unless I need the AF assist.