Flash techniques

It is difficult to predict what the lighting is going to be like in the environment that I plan to shoot in; natural lighting is very unreliable and can change every minute depending on the time of day, month and year. If the location is inside then it could be difficult to know how bright/dim the lights will be and the colour/kelvin that they will emit. It is therefore safest to take a flash on location with you, just to ensure that the lighting can be corrected if necessary. In one class with Andrew, we experimented with different types of lighting and flash that can be used on location if needed, as see the affects that each type gives so that we can ensure if flash lighting will be suitable for the style of work we are going for. 

Taken using ring flash

Ring flash:

For this setup, we used the studio backdrop to create a plain white background, which shows the affects of the shadow that this type of flash creates - an outlined shadow of the shape of the subject. We didn't use any studio lights, such as flash heads, for this exercise, only the tungsten ceiling lights and the ring flash. The ring flash is designed to fit circularly around the lens on the camera, and gives a very even light over the subject, with minimal shadows. This type of flash is often used for fashion and macro photography.

Taken using fill-in flash on -1 stop setting

Using a flashgun:

Flash guns are often used on top of the camera on the hot shoe, however, that can also be used off-camera axis to create different effects. They often have a tilting and rotating flash head which enables you to direct the light at your desired angle. Flashguns range in their output, and their output is indicated by the guide number of flash gun - the larger the guide number, the more powerful the flash output. The main 'rule' when working out which aperture to use with your flash gun is: guide number / distance (in meters) = f stop. This tells you the maximum aperture that is achievable (to create a correctly exposed image) with your given flashgun and distance away from subject. 

Fill-in flash:

A fill-in flash is often created by using a flashgun, placed on top of the camera on the hot shoe. It is often used in wedding photography to fill in the shadows created by ambient light, so that detail in the face/subject is much clearer and shadows are less-harsh. A light-meter reading is taken from the ambient light over the subject, and then the power coming from the flashgun can be lowered so that there is less light coming from the flashgun than there is from the ambient lighting. In the picture above, we setup the studio with tungsten lights to create a similar lighting affect to sunlight; harsh shadows were created by the light which we filled in using the flashgun on a -3, -2 and -1 stop(s) setting, which gave out less light than the 'sun' (tungsten light). 

1-1 flash: 

When a flashgun is used along with ambient light, the settings can be adjusted to make the flash less/equally/more powerful than the ambient light; 1-1 flash is when the flashgun is equally as powerful as the ambient light. A light-meter reading is taken from the ambient light, and then the flash gun is set so that it is on the same f/stop as the ambient light. This makes colours appear more vibrant and bold and photographers such as Martin Parr use this affect.

Taken using day-to-night flash on +2 stops setting

Day-to-night flash:

To create day-to-night flash, a light meter reading must be taken of the ambient light over the subject. The flashgun is then adjusted so that it is more powerful than the ambient light and overpowers the light to create lighting that appears to look like nighttime. In the picture above, we went outside on an overcast cloudy day and setup the flashgun so that it was +2 stops more powerful than the natural daylight. E.g. ambient light = f/8, so stopped up +2 stops to f/16 on flashgun and camera (for metz 45 flashgun)

Taken using strobe flash for 1 second on 5 Hz

Strobe flash:

For this setup we used the studio space and turned off all of the lights so that the room was completely black with no light. We then used a Canon Speedlite 580ex II flashgun, and set the mode to 'Multi', a fraction then appeared on the screen of the flashgun and we then changed it to 1/32 and pressed 'Set' - this meant that the power of the flash (guide number) will now be firing at 1/32 of it's full potential. We then changed the Hz to 5 - this meant that the flash would fire 5 times to every 1 second. We then set our camera's shutterspeed to 1 second, so that the flash would only fire 5x, and took a photograph with our subjects moving about to show the strobe affect. 

Taken using flash blur

Flash blur:

To create flash blur, firstly a light meter reading must be taken of the ambient light, in the image above for example the reading was f/8 and 1/4 shutter speed. The camera is then set to these settings and the flash is set to -1 stop, f/5.6. When the photograph is taken any movement will be recorded as a blur by the slow shutter speed, however, a frozen image will also appear as the flash has captured it too. 

This flash exercise has given me an insight into the different kind of flash styles and effects that I can create on location. Although the flash blur and strobe flash give great affects, I feel they may be slightly unnecessary for this project, and I feel something such as fill-in flash may be more appropriate for the conditions that I may be in if it is needed.