Balancing flash with the sun

Oh my...it's been a while hasn't it? I'm back and I tell you it wasn't the lack of photographic effort...since these were taken back in August. The blog just became the lowest priority on the list for a while.

This time we are going to balance some added light with the sun. Once again we'll walk through each step and photo building up to our end result.

Yes, this was a R&R trip...a little bed and breakfast out in Amish country Ohio. Man was it relaxing there. Drug the camera along though and wanted to at least get a few photos to remember the trip. Took a ton but felt this quick series would be a good example of walking through this.

Found this nice little bridge over a fake stream. Started by getting the composition down.



Bridge, B&B in the background and beautiful Amy. Had the sun behind the B&B and the other side was a road...and well the bridge was here. So we'll let the sun be light number one and we'll add light number 2. Really though I didn't need a lot of light more of a spotlight on Amy to make her pop from the strong highlights from the house. Let the camera's matrix meter the scene for me at f8/160th.

I decided to use a snooted flash to direct the light to her head and shoulders area only. I really didn't want to pop too much and risk lighting up the fence and her shirt since they were pretty light.

Let's start by dialing in the sun. First...my 7D only had a 1/160th sync speed...so...I can't crank that up any. So let's stop down the lens to f14.



There we go. At least we have some control now. Let's add the flash in. To be honest, not sure what power level I started with but really it doesn't matter. I'm at f14 so probably at least going to go 1/4 power. I am zoomed and snooted so that buys me some power.



Now we're talking. How about a little bit more?



Ok, let's go full power



Great...I know I can work with these settings and I have enough power in my flash. Let's build the whole exposure now. Let's drop down to f10 and gain sun power and flash power at the same time! Here I want to lighten up the background. I could have lowered my shutter speed and left my flash exposure alone. It would have stayed the same regardless of the shutter speed...right....Riigghhhttt? However, I opened up my aperture because not only will that buy me some more background light but I will also be able to turn the flash power down. No reason to stress the poor batteries, plus I'll gain recycle time.



There we go. The whole image is brighter, sun and flash. Let's readjust the flash.



Bingo! Exactly what I was going for. See how the snooted light only hits her face? I'm not bringing up the exposure of her white shirt. This worked out nicely. The sun is actually providing some fill on her face and making what is generally a really hard light...seem soft. The sun is so bright it's bouncing all over the place. If you look at the very fist picture in this series you'll see her face already was very flatly lit. All we did was add a little punch!

So now what? Listen, the light's setup...the scene is dialed in, change up a few things. First let's try a different pose.



If I remember right I had to drop the snoot just a bit for this one above. This to me looks more relaxed.

Now let's zoom in.



Whoa..what happened to the sun? Damn clouds...can't control those now can we. I included this so you could see what that flash looks like without the harsh light of the sun. Here is another zoomed out.



Whole different mood now and boy does that light make her pop out in the frame. I like the sun in there...really adds to the photo for me. We'll wait for it to come back but in the mean time...keep snapping!



Even in this situation when the sun is going in and out keep trying different things and different poses.

Then the sun pops back outta the clouds and bang...a big smile!



Now there is my favorite. It really reminds me of being there and how relaxing and fun it was! Big smile on Amy's face which is now perfectly lit. The sun lighting her hair and rimming her body. She is now more prominent than the hot spot on the roof of the house. We got it! Also in the top left of this frame you can see part of the snoot. Luckily I got one with it in there since it gives a good idea of exactly where the light was.

Still going to play though....let's try a different mood. Open up to f8. Drop the power on the flash a bit. If you remember, this is where the camera wanted the exposure to be initially, f8 at 160th.



This has a whole different mood to me. Love the posture and look.



Last one...and that's a wrap. Easier than maybe you thought? Doesn't have to be difficult...at all. Just need to think through things. Figure out what you want and then make it happen! I'm happy with my memories that I get to keep. I've provided you with out of the camera JPGs. No editing at all.

Hope you enjoyed the ride.

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Falcon Eyes light modifier kit

David Hobby doesn't tweet very often on twitter (@strobist) but when he does it's usually something good. Clearly he has done his twitter homework on good twitetiquet. A few weeks ago he tweeted a link to this Wired post about a six-in-one lighting kit made by Falcon Eyes in Hong Kong. I'm not a huge fan of fancy light mods AT ALL. However this kit really piqued my interest. I have all of my home made light modifiers for my small flashes and honestly they all work perfectly fine. In fact I use them a lot. I'll be honest there were 2 parts in this kit that I was interested in but I found out I liked the whole kit...well almost.

The kit itself was $88 at the time of this writing and additional mounts for more flashes were just shy of $20.

I took some photos of the whole kit and then used each modifier to take a photo of the kit to give a general example of what each does. I've been wanting to do a post about light modifiers and there is no question I will be using at least 5 pieces of this kit for that. Mainly because they are very straight forward and simple...I like that. There are a few things that I think could use some tweaking.

First is the shot of the whole kit.



What we see is the following:

1. Small softbox
2. Small beauty dish
3. Grid
4. Snoot with 2 add on grids
5. Bare bulb
6. Barn Doors

The part that mounts all of these to your flash is hidden inside the softbox. The one drawback is that each of the modifiers mounts to a piece that attaches to the flash head itself. So you can only use one of these modifiers at a time. They do however sell separately more mounts for the flash head. There are eight different versions of this part to fit different flash heads. You pick the one for your flash at the time of ordering.

So here is the main part that mounts on the flash.



It uses rubber around the part that slides over your flash head. Even though it was a snug fit I was able to fit it around my SB with velcro wrapped around it. It is a small reflector in and of itself and each of the six modifiers mount to this piece via the small little clamps that you see.

These could be problem #1. However they have somewhat addressed this and include four extra of these and they are replaceable...so that's a very good first step. Here is a closeup of the plastic clamp.



I'm going to do something a bit different here and show you the photo taken with each modifier. You can easily go here or here and see good photos of each piece.

First of the modifiers is the small softbox.



Here is a shot taken with the small softbox. In addition they include different colored diffusers, which to me is somewhat odd. Not sure why they decided to include something to change the color of the light...but only for the soft box. It would have been much better to give you a gel holder in the main piece that would allow you to use gels with all of the modifiers. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of these tiny softboxes that have become so popular lately. I think they are born out of convenience. There are a lot of products that will give you this type of light. This box is constructed with four small pieces of fiberglass rod which slide into the main mount. Then the soft fabric that makes up the box is stretched over the mount and the fiberglass rods. The diffusers simple wrap around the outside of the front of the box. They include a small velcro case to hold all of the softbox parts in.

Next we look at the beauty dish. This is about a cereal bowl sized dish.



This simply clips onto the the plastic clips on the front of the main mount. There is the dish part and a smaller flat piece of metal that is held on by a small arm. I took a couple detail photos of this.

Here is the front of the dish. You can also see some texture on the dish itself.



Now here is a shot from behind the dish.



You can see how the small arm holds the center part.

Next we move on to the grid.



You can see we have narrowed the light beam quite a bit and it shows in the photo above.

Next the snoot. Also note this does not collapse. It is a solid piece. Would have been nice if the sections slid into each other. Here is a shot taken with just the snoot itself.



Then the snoot fitted with the larger of the two grids that fit on the end of it.



Then fitted with the smaller of the two grids.



Now the bare bulb. Just a large plastic globe. I think this is my favorite part of this kit.



Shocking how something so simple can put off such nice light...and it is very versatile. I also found that I could use this in conjunction with the fabric of the softbox and a rubber band to mask off parts of the bulb. This should be fun to play with.

Now the barn doors. This is my second favorite. We have all messed around with flags on our strobes but nothing makes it easier than this....and honestly you can do things with these that you'd really have to mess with cardboard or foam flags to replicate. In addition it would be very easy to add some velcro to the outside of these and add larger flags. I think this piece is pretty versatile.



So the two pieces I was most interested in I do like. The bulb and the barn doors. Sometimes messing around with a velcro flag can be a pain to get it exactly where you want it. These simple doors make that process very easy and you can modify from there. What I like about the bulb is that it is BIG. Now that is not so great for portability, but it makes it a very interesting light source. I'm looking forward to playing around with the kit.



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What's in my bag post

So here it is, the obligatory what's in my bag post.


The bag:
Lowepro Mini Trekker - Have had this bag for a LONG time and honestly...I keep finding ways to fit stuff in it. Plus it has a flip down pouch to carry a tripod. I'm afraid getting a bag any bigger would not be good for my back. The amount of weight I can carry in this bag is astonishing.

Camera and Lenses:
Konica Minolta 7D - yep...still love it and haven't a reason to change...yet.
Sony 70-200/2.8
Tokina 28-70/2.8 ATX II Pro
Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX
Minolta 50/1.7
Sony 18-70 kit lens

I have other lenses...but these are the ones that usually travel in the bag.

Lighting:
Nikon SB28s with feet(3)
Promaster 7500 flash for KM
43" shoot through double fold
43" convertible double fold
Phottix transmitters (2)
Phottix receivers (4)
hot shoe adapter from KM shoe to standard hotshoe
hot shoe adapter from standard shoe to KM shoe
light meter
couple grids for the flashes
large black thing under the receivers is snoot that wraps around the flash
gels for the flashes

Misc:
usb cords
spare batteries for everything
misc CF cards 8gb sandisk, 4gb sandisk, 1 gb sandisk, 2gb transcend, 512mb promaster
gaffers tape, bungies, etc.
penny

If you are interested in more details on any of the stuff just ask. I'll be glad to post links to items or equipment.

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Mixing flash with ambient - Part 3

I know, I know it's been a while since the last update. Finally I have the next installment of mixing flash with ambient. I wanted a brighter sunny day and to be honest when we left...it was. When I say left...I mean left for the all of 60 second trip down the street to the train tracks. Then some clouds rolled in. Either way I wanted to do an overcast day also so that's what part 3 is all about. We are going to mix in flash on an overcast day. This is a good one since while overcast days give great diffused even lighting. Everyone always complains that the sky stinks and is blown out. Well now you'll see how to fix that problem!

Think about the sky as one huge light source. When you adjust your camera exposure for your subject, say a person, under that light source the source itself is going to be much brighter than what it is illuminating. For example if you have a lamp in your house. To look at the table it is lighting up it looks normal. But if you look directly at the bulb it's quite bright. This is why your sky always gets blown out (or turns all white) during overcast outside photos. It's one HUGE softbox. And when you take a picture of your light source directly...well...it gets all white. Unless you stop down and expose to show that sky. However if you do that...then your subject or the person you were photographing disappears and is now dark. That is what we are going to do today. Back and forth, each exposure...and brace yourself...because I think there are over 30 photos for this one. We will start with the correct ambient exposure with the blown out sky and end with the correct sky exposure with the dark subject. However, we will go everywhere in between. Including a nice balanced exposure of both. Which is exactly what balancing flash with ambient is all about.

The first thing we are going to do is let our camera figure out a nice even ambient exposure on our subject. You can do this many ways with your camera. I suggest this time that you start out in M mode. Set your ISO to 100. Set your shutter to your max sync speed as we talked about earlier. Then let your camera tell you what aperture you need to be at. You can do this by switching to shutter priority...however I think you'll see that you'll get used to your camera and M (manual) mode pretty quick.

Mine gave me a nice f4 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 100.



Notice the sky or lack of a sky. Next I'm going to add a single bare flash just off to my left. I got lucky (you get more and more lucky the more you do this) and got close by setting it to 1/4th power.



Little too hot though. Soooo to easily see by how much I'm not going to walk back and forth to the flash just yet. I'll stop down by 1 stop very easily and quickly on my camera and take another shot. This one I adjusted my f-stop to f5.6



Yep, that's it. So now I can walk over to the flash and drop it down to 1/8th power. Then back in my camera drop back down to f4.



FYI we have balanced flash with ambient already...so let's see what else we can do. I'm going to change 2 things here; f-stop to 5.6 and shutter down to 1/60th. What should we see???



Let's look at each one and see what happened in the photo above. Stopping down my aperture 1 stop will decrease the light I'm getting from my flash by 1 stop. It will also decrease my ambient exposure by 1 stop. Think about just those 2 things. Stopping down or using a smaller aperture will darken the overall photo. Both the flash output and the ambient. With flash and ambient we do have 2 light sources. So by stopping down 1 stop I've darkened the whole photo.

Dropping my shutter 1 stop will not effect my flash exposure(see part 2) but will bring back up the ambient exposure by 1 stop. So shutter does not effect our flash exposure below our sync speed (which we are staying below). It does effect our ambient light though. Cutting that shutter speed in half is 1 stop. So from 1/125 to 1/60th is half (close enough ok...)

Yes re-read that again if you are lost. It's part 3 so we are getting trickier. Part 2 had us just walking that shutter speed around adjusting the ambient. Now we are going to walk around with both our shutter and our aperture. So all I did was lower my flash exposure without effecting my ambient exposure.

Why did I do this? My flash exposure was fine. However I prefer that the flash add just enough light that it doesn't look like a big ol flash was hanging out next to the railroad tracks. The first photo...that's pretty clear. This last one...I've dropped that flash exposure down but kept the same ambient exposure.

Let's see what happens if I only change the aperture. Here is f5.6 1/125th.



Whole photo exposure dropped right. Both the flash exposure and the ambient. So by then dropping my shutter as I did above to 1/60th I got my ambient back to where I started.

So let's look at f4 at 1/125th again



and now let's change again to f5.6 at 1/60th.



Let's darken the background and see what we get. Leave it at f5.6 but take that shutter back to 1/125th.



Let's darken the whole scene by 1 stop. Take that aperture to f8. Remember this will effect my flash and the ambient.



Ok let's bring Amy's exposure back up a bit. I'm going to do that by upping the power on my flash to 1/8th power now.



Ok Amy is now back and the background (ambient) 1 stop darker. I had to cheat for this though. I could have just raised my shutter speed 1 stop to drop the ambient but keep my flash exposure. That would have done the same thing right? Yes it would have. If my camera had a flash sync speed of 1/250th of a second I could have done exactly that. But I don't...so I didn't. What I did was darken the whole photo by stopping down the aperture 1 stop then upping the power of my flash. Which achieved the same goal.

Uh oh...train is coming but my background is so dark now. Let's open it up just a bit...say 1/2 stop so we can see some of that train. f8 now at 1/80th.



Want to see a bit more of that train? Drop the shutter another 1/2 stop to 1/40th.



Ok we are walking around essentially the same exposure as we had earlier. Just with different settings. Let's drop our shutter once again so this time f8 @ 1/25th.



So we started our ambient exposure at f4 @ 1/125th. Now we are at f8 @ 1/25th. Hey wait...that's the same exposure. Yep. What I've done is bought myself some shutter room. Shutter room you say? At a shutter of 1/25th I can easily take my ambient light down by 2 stops. So now I get my aperture set for this and my flash exposure set for this. Which we have done by going through this process. Now I have all the control I need. My flash exposure is spot on. Now think back to part 2 and we can walk our shutter speed around depending on how much background we want.

Let's do it! I'm going to walk up the shutter one stop at a time. that was 1/25th now I'll take it to 1/50th.



Now 1/100th



Now 1/160th (my max sync) 1/2 stop.



There you go. We started out with a blown out sky and a good ambient exposure on Amy. Now we have a good exposure on Amy and either a blown out sky or a dark sky and everywhere in between. Now you know how to balance the 2 lights, ambient and flash. Let's walk a few more steps to really step it up a notch.

We've got that harsh bare flash light on our beautiful Amy. Let's soften that light up by making it a bit larger. I'll add a shoot through umbrella and pump up the power 1 stop on the flash to 1/4 power. Everything else stays the same. f8 @ 1/160th.



The biggest thing to notice is the harsh shadow under her chin has disappeared. Look back at the other photos....all of them. However the lighting is a bit flat. By flat I mean we are not getting much even in the form of soft shadows to add some depth. I'm going to raise the umbrella up higher than it is and point it a bit down at Amy.



Now you'll notice we have a bit more light on her hair. Things like the wrinkles in her shirt have a bit more dimension.

Now let's talk color....it's flat. Let's face it...that grey/blue sky...hmmmm what to do. We'll take a CTO gel (we talked about this in part 2 also) and add it to the flash. I'm going to slightly turn up the power of the flash once again to account for the light lost through the gel. Here we have orange Amy.



Somewhere in the moving around of things (meaning me moving and changing things and Amy getting bored our light is a bit off. So now I'm going to move it around a bit to get a tad more light on the left side of Amy's face.



There we go. Now let's bring back a bit of that background by dropping our shutter speed. This time to 1/60th.



Ok, so the full CTO orange just isn't cutting it here. Because really Amy isn't this orange. I don't think we are fooling anyone that this is sunset either since nothing else in the photo has a warm glow. So the reason for the CTO gel was so that I could now adjust my white balance. I was set at daylight/flash at 5500k. Now I'm going to adjust that to 4350k. This will cool down the photo. Cooling is blue. The sky will get bluer Amy will come back to being closer to normal color.



Not bad, but I think we can go a bit more. Let's try 3800k.



Yep. That's what I want. Goodbye grey sky...at least we can tell here is some blue in there! Then I got lucky and a train came by...timing is everything.



Ok, ok...setup shots. These ones were basic though. Here is the shot with the umbrella.



This is what the bare flash looked like at the beginning.



Ohhhh that's right. I promised you the opposite end. Great sky...bad Amy exposure.



But doesn't Amy look about 10 times better with some light?



All I did for those 2 shots...first one...wide angle lens I threw on for the setup shot. Then take off my radio trigger from the hot shoe (basically turn off the flash). My exposure is already all set for that nice blue sky. Then to add my light back to Amy all I have to do is turn my flash back on. Don't forget...once you have your exposure dialed in. Try some different angles and poses. Move around and take more photos.

I know...this one was long...with a lot of photos. Hopefully those of you starting out it's just what you need to get out there and follow along and try it out! I literally took you through every photo...step by step. Hopefully you can see the progression.

Not to worry. I will be doing more on mixing flash with ambient. I will also be doing more on light modifiers and color balance. Hopefully sooner...rather than later!

On to mixing flash with ambient - Part 4

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