Candid moments

D-Eff

D-Eff

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Hello

I like taking candid photos, mostly of children and sometimes they are moving or running around. I like using a large aperture.

I was wondering how do you control the light indoor in these situations?
I have a speedlight which I use as a fill light bouncing off the ceiling or the nearest wall, is that good enough?
 
I used to take a lot of pictures of children in a school and only rarely did I feel the need to use a flash as for me the important thing was the moment. High ISO wasn't so important, and anyway these days it is less of an issue given how good cameras are now.
But to answer your question yes, a bounced flash is fine, or even a piece of card/foam taped to your flash which you then angle to suit, ideally as a fill rather than the main light source.
 
stevewestern said:
I used to take a lot of pictures of children in a school and only rarely did I feel the need to use a flash as for me the important thing was the moment. High ISO wasn't so important, and anyway these days it is less of an issue given how good cameras are now.
But to answer your question yes, a bounced flash is fine, or even a piece of card/foam taped to your flash which you then angle to suit, ideally as a fill rather than the main light source.
Click to expand...

That's true. The moment is more important which is why I don't think about the light that much. Thank you!
 
stevewestern said:
I used to take a lot of pictures of children in a school and only rarely did I feel the need to use a flash as for me the important thing was the moment. High ISO wasn't so important, and anyway these days it is less of an issue given how good cameras are now.
But to answer your question yes, a bounced flash is fine, or even a piece of card/foam taped to your flash which you then angle to suit, ideally as a fill rather than the main light source.
Click to expand...
Tbh, I can't see how it would be feasible to use the on-camera flash as fill indoors, unless there was masses of natural light coming in.

OP, I'd just bounce it off the ceiling and worry more about composition, expressions, etc.

Strike that, I’m talking cobblers.
 
Last edited:
D-Eff said:
Hello

I like taking candid photos, mostly of children and sometimes they are moving or running around. I like using a large aperture.

I was wondering how do you control the light indoor in these situations?
I have a speedlight which I use as a fill light bouncing off the ceiling or the nearest wall, is that good enough?
Click to expand...
When shooting candids at weddings I’d control the light by putting myself in the right relative position to the light.
IMHO as photography is all about light, then I’d want to control the relationship between light source, subject and camera.
So the same story if I needed to add flash, it’s not just about sticking a flash on camera to make sure there’s enough light. It’s a question of bouncing it off a large surface to create soft light, or holding it in the right position for an interesting harder light.

But this all comes down to the boring theory that when you’re pointing a camera at an object, you’re not simply ‘taking its picture’, you’re literally capturing the light that’s reflected from that object on your sensor (or film)
 
learningtofly said:
Tbh, I can't see how it would be feasible to use the on-camera flash as fill indoors, unless there was masses of natural light coming in.
Click to expand...
It's very easy, basically dial down the flash so that it just adds a bit of light, and bouncing it off a piece of card, wall or even ceiling will make it a larger light source softening it to some extent.
 
Often, if the room isn't too large bouncing the flash backwards creates the largest/softest/most even lighting, but it eats a lot of power... it's really more like bringing up the ambient light level overall w/o adding it heavily from any one direction.
 
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