How to use a flash: a few tips

[Lyrt]

This is an important subject because the misuse of a flash is the prime reason a photo comes out poorly.


Look at the following picture, taken at f/3.2, 1/60 s with the flash oriented toward the mug. The flash calculated the necessary power to correctly expose the mug. However, two problems came up:

• The scenery is underexposed, because the flash could not light up the background as it did the foreground (that’s logical). If it correctly exposed the background, it is the foreground that would have been overexposed, resulting in burnt out highlights on the mug.
• The flash created an unnatural shadow clearly visible with the handle of the mug.

This typically is the kind of photo casual photographers do.





Now look at the next photograph, which was also taken at f/3.2, 1/60 s. The only difference is the flash was oriented toward the ceiling. The light bumped on it and created a natural lighting. The problem is a point-and-shoot camera is not mounted with a flash with a rotating head.




Now look at the last photo. The flash was orientated toward the mug, like in the first photo, but the shutter speed was set at 1/2 s (with aperture still at f/3.2). The captor had the time to record the surrounding light and correctly exposed the mug. It created a warm ambiance. The drawback with slow synchronisation is you need a tripod and a static subject, or else the result will be blurry.





In my next post, I will suggest some solutions for our fellow SOTDist (yes, that’s a barbarism).

[ratcheer]

Excellent info. Thanks!

Now, how do you accomplish this with a P&S model where the flash is solidly mounted on the front of the camera?

Tim

[Lyrt]

I have no P&S, that’s why I did not post tips yet. I’ll ask a friend to lend me his Canon Powershot during this week so I can experiment different tricks.

However, the first thing I would suggest is to light the room as much as possible, disable the flash, put the camera on a stable support and use the self-timer so as to avoid shaking. If the W/B is set on automatic, you’ll probably get a yellowish photo that can be easily and quickly corrected via Photoshop or any image software.

[Kyle Stoner]

Some P&S cameras (Canon being prominent) have slave-flash accessories that you can buy seperately. Even my Ricoh Caplio R4 which isn't sold in the US has such accessories. Many slave flashes are designed to fit several different types of camera.

[Lyrt]

So a few hours ago, my friend lent me his Ixus 750. I’ve tried a few things and I can say that the flash unequivocally sucks. However, even in a challenging low-light environment, I managed to take very decent pictures.

Step 1: go in the menu and allow for long shutter speed
Step 2: disable flash
Step 3: put your camera on a very stable support (tripod, table, whatever)
Step 4: enable the 10s self-timer
Step 5: focus then shoot

If you’re actually holding the camera and have no stable support, bring light, but don’t rely on the flash. I have no idea how that Ixus is representative of P&S cameras’ flash performances, so do some tests with your model with slow synchronisation.

[letterk]

Here's a trick that I use with P&S flashes. Place a white sheet of thick paper in front of the flash. It should touch the camera so as to not let any light by, and angled at 45 degrees so that the light bounces upwards. This is sort of a make-shift bounce as described above. If your ceiling isn't too far away, it actually works pretty well.

[Lyrt]

I tried with a mirror, but the mirror was too big and deflected the light too much. I'll try with different paper sheets.

[Lyrt]

Trick approved.

Here are two unaltered photos, straight out of the camera.

Normal flash



Normal flash deflected

[Androclese]

My local camera shop here in Saint Louis, Creve Coeur Camera was giving away these promo items once. It's sort of like a cloth frisbee, white nylon stretched over a springy wire hoop. I think it's supposed to be used sort of like your white sheet of paper. I've never tried it with a P&S and I don't need it with my SLR set up. I'll have to give it a try. I do wonder about the company logo silk screened in dark blue ink on one side though.

[Roman414]

I set up a little folding table outside in my patio and use the flash as fill lighting. I can move the table into the shade or direct sunlight until I like the lighting. Where did you get that Nat King Cole mug?

[Emile]

My local camera shop here in Saint Louis, Creve Coeur Camera was giving away these promo items once. It's sort of like a cloth frisbee, white nylon stretched over a springy wire hoop. I think it's supposed to be used sort of like your white sheet of paper. I've never tried it with a P&S and I don't need it with my SLR set up. I'll have to give it a try. I do wonder about the company logo silk screened in dark blue ink on one side though.

it's aptly called a "bounce", or more verbosely a collapsable reflector and you can get them used from most local photo shops for under 10 bucks. they are typically some combination of white, silver, and gold (one per side) to achieve different highlights. they're usually for eliminating shadows by making your assistant hold up a big one on the dark side of the models face to throw some of the flash back up.

if you are using a p&s, i'd go the lightbox route, and there are a few good threads here on the subject.

[mbritton]

for on camera flash diffusion I would check this out...

http://store.garyfonginc.com/delta.html

his products are great and fairly reasonable

[jhclare]

Looks like your ceiling was too high for the flash to bounce off. Bouncing flash needs a powerful flash, something which P&S cameras aren't designed for!

Think about it, the light has to travel from camera to ceiling, then some light is absorbed by the ceiling itself, then has to travel from ceiling to subject.

This is best achieved with a camera able to trigger a separate, off-camera flash unit!

Best solution here is to use a tripod, turn the flash off and set the white balance to tungsten.

[Not4you]

here is a post I put onto a photography forum a while ago when I had rented a flash for my Canon XTi. I am not an expert but it may be helpful and has some examples that support what has been posted above.

After each event when I race my car, a group of us will go onto our club forum and post our WILs - "What I Learned" - from that day on the track. I thought I'd adapt that for this forum and post my WILs for the first time using a flash that I had rented ...

1) they are quite easy to figure out, even for a novice like me
2) the improvement in quality over not having one is unbelievable
3) I really need to buy one now!!

I was asked to shoot my brothers family portrait but was concerned that I couldn't pull off the quality without adding flash. I rented a 580EX II to put onto my XTi. The light in the room was from the right side through a large window and it was cloudy outside. I had my camera on a tripod and was using a remote shutter switch. Here are the test pics that I did while the kids were getting ready ...

Flash straight forward,


Flash to the left bounced off of a set of glass doors,


Flash bounced off of the white ceiling 45 degrees forward, but still no success, worry is setting in,


Finally bounced off of the white ceiling 90 degrees with the catchlight panel up and it worked great!


So the resulting image of the family as shot,


And the final image after some post processing,



It was my first attempt at this and I was pretty impressed with the whole deal, the trial & error, the posing and shooting and the post processing. I'm sure most on here can do this in their sleep but I thought I'd post anyway.

Thanks for looking.

[C Reed]

Photography is my bread and butter (espicly with really big lights and beautiful people) but I'm going to way in here for the SLR guys.

1 Get you flash Off Axis (move it so its not directly above or next to the lense) I use pocket wizzards for this, but if you don't want to spend alot to learn you have a few choices, cheapest you can buy a ITTL cable (my Nikon one was about $70 for longer pro model) it conects to the hot shoe on top of your camera, and then you can slide any hot shoe flash into it. switch the camera to auto focus, and play around holding the flash in your left hand, or use the M3 screw on the bottom of the wire to put your flash on a tripod (but weigh it down with something)

or you can buy a 2nd flash (come one you know you want to) and set it to opitcal slave, so its triggered by the flash on top of your camera. I used this alot shooting on the go portraits for the frist magazie I worked for, perfect rembrant lighting with the 2nd flash in my left hand.

If you want to get into lighting photos with a small flashes and on the cheap check out the Lighting 101 on www.strobist.com (this could have saved my intern a year of photo school)

I can talk more about this, or anwser spefic questions to the best of my ability, if ya'all want.

[TxPhoto09]

P&S users might want to also consider draping one or two layers of tissue such as Kleenex in front of the flash. The idea is to diffuse the light so you don't get specular highlights reflected off the subject. We used to use white handkerchiefs in the old days, but I suspect P&S flashes aren't powerful enough for that.