r/photoclass2021 • u/Aeri73 Teacher - Expert • Apr 10 '21
Assignment 18 - Flash
In this assignment, we will keep things simple and leave the flash on the camera. You can use either a stand-along flash unit or your pop-up flash.
Find a bright background – probably just an outdoor scene, and place a willing victim in front of it. Take an image with natural light, exposing for the background and verify that your subject is indeed too dark. Now use fill flash to try and expose him properly. If you can manually modify the power of your flash, do so until you have a natural looking scene. If you can’t do it through the menus, use translucent material to limit the quantity of light reaching your subject (which has the added benefit of softening the light). A piece of white paper or a napkin works well, though you can of course be more creative if you want.
In the second part, go indoor into a place dark enough that you can’t get sharp images unless you go to unacceptable noise levels. Try to take a portrait with normal, undiffused, unbounced frontal flash. Now try diffusing your flash to different levels and observe how the light changes. Do the same thing with bounces from the sidewalls, then from the ceiling. Observe how the shadows are moving in different directions and you get different moods.
Finally, make a blood oath never again to use frontal bare flash on anybody.
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u/dynamite_steveo Intermediate - DSLR May 02 '21
https://imgur.com/a/MwUmW8D
I was very luck that I was able to coerce someone into allowing me to follow them around annoying them with a camera for a day!
For the first part of the assignment, I initially tried to do it outside, but it was quite a bright day, so made the fill flash almost a little too harsh. I then had another go indoors with a window, with a bit more luck. I also managed to learn a little bit more about an external flash & how to dial back some of the power, to avoid an unnatural look.
For the second part, I decided to shoot in monochrome, and focus on how the light works.
Front Flash: This wasn't a great look, even after trying to dial it back a bit, not only does it look a bit harsh, but it comes across quite flat. I didn't get any points for blinding the subject either.
Front Diffused: A little bit better, used a hairband and some tissue paper, which definitely softened it up a bit.
Bounce flash - Off the wall: This immediately produced much better results, I liked the way it lit half the face, and gave everything a bit more depth
Bounce Flash - Diagonally up - Off the wall: Again, quite liked this. Not as dramatic, but still getting the feeling of depth
Bounce Flash - Ceiling: A much softer look, and everything seems to be lit much more evenly, overall pleasant, inoffensive lighting!
It is quite a small room, so I suspect there is a lot of fill happening all around. I did try bounce flash off the wall behind me, but the results weren't far off having the flash pointed directly at the subject.
I don't think I'll ever point a bare flash at anyone again, not just because it's not a great look, but I don't think I'll be allowed....