Photography Tips (4)

SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY

Simple tips on the basics of photography by Trevor James @ www.trevorjamesphotography.com

Last week we spoke about the use of natural light, and its use in many different setting and circumstances such as direct sunlight, cloudy and overcast days, mixed lighting where in open spaces there are other forms of light as well as natural, and ways of overcoming the issues we all have with the finished image on print, such as the use of Auto White Balance (AWB) manipulations and Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB), and the like. This week I want to chat about the use of artificial light and in particular flash light.

FLASHLIGHT

I guess that in truth there are two type of flashlight in question here: we have the typical built-in flash that we have on most cameras (compact and some DSLR types) and external flashlight.

Cameras with built-in flash

These are very useful gadgets to have when taking snapshots or when there is not enough light and none can be added from other forms in any other way. My thoughts are that this should be considered as a last resort most of the time due to the shadows that it often produces on the image as it hits the subject at an awkward angle from the camera. Some cameras are fortunate enough to come with a 'flash exposure compensation' mode built in, enabling some reduction of balance of flash light relative to the natural light (usually called fill-flash). This is used to lighten some shadowed areas within the proximity of mostly portraiture subjects within close range, or as a catchlight to stop motion.

External flash

A flash light mounted onto a camera can be used in pretty much the same way as above but, also allows you to change the direction of the flash light to allow bouncing of light and thus soften both the light falling onto the subject but letting it fall from another angle (off a wall at the sides or bouncing down from above, such as a ceiling). The range is still pretty restrictive, but hey, we are not wanting to shoot into infinity to pick up subjects in the distance as when taking landscape photography. Most uses of a flash with a camera will be for the more closer work such as with macro photography or still life and portraiture.

If your camera has exposure compensation this can be used to get the best form of balance between the use of existing light and light coming from the flash. The closer you are to the subject the more important is the use of exposure compensation.

Some of the issues to be aware of when using any kind of flash light are listed and briefly explained below

• Red Eye - caused by light from the flash reflected back from the subject's retina to the camera. This can be avoided either make full use of the camera's 'red eye reduction' button if your camera has one, or, the best strategy yet is to shoot so that the angle between the flash and the lens to the subject's eyes is greater than five degrees - or simply to get the subject to look slightly away from the camera. Another option is to set the camera for use so that a flash is not needed. You are more likely to get red eye when shooting in a dark environment because naturally the subject's pupils will be wider.

• Motion Trails - This usually occurs when the camera flash or the external flash is out of sync with the camera. Quite possibly all modern DSLR cameras today have the fx sync mode setting automatically set in the camera, allowing the shutter of the camera to become synchronised with the flash (usually set somewhere between 1/60 - 1/250 sec.). However, I am not suggesting that this finished image with motion trails is a bad image taken as some would argue that it adds to the photograph and have purposely set out to take this kind of shot, it's just that sometimes if the camera and the flash are not synchronised you will inevitably get this effect even though you tried not to.

• Flare Spots - Any reflective surface like gloss paint or glass that is straight on to the camera when a flash is being used will record as a 'flare spot'. Inevitably, the nearer parts of any scene will receive more light than the furthest areas, and this can often destroy the sense of 'depth of field' (discussed in next week's photography tips).

There are other ailments when using a flash, but I am not here to bog you down with all the things I know or don't know, just simply to help you guys out there taking photos to perhaps think about the image you are taking and the one you want to have on print, and take it with more thought.

Flash pictures usually have some kind of uniformity with them, in as much as that they tend to all look fairly much the same. Don't let this become a hinderance and put you off flash photography. most, if not all, of the issues discussed above can be either avoided or minimised by just given a little more consideration to the existing light available, the angle of artificial light, the distance of the subject from the camera, the angle of the subject to the camera, as well as the patience of the photographer to really want to achieve the best he can possible achieve.

Next week we will be looking at 'Depth of Field'

ENJOY

Images courtesy of Google images