Site Ported Out

Well, the information contained here has been all ported to the main site and put in an easily referenced table at the bottom of the page.

The link to that page is right here and contains a column on beginner information.

If you're e-baying, then I suggest taking a look at, "Light Tent," which is under the Suplimental Equipment - Lighting" column for you.

If you own any type of camera, then you might want to pick your camera from under the "Camera Equipment - Flash" column to find out about using your flash. Read More......

Porting to the main site

Well, what can I say? A blog like this is of a nature that the information contained here is difficult to extract. Anyone wanting information has to trawl through all the posts. I have tried to run a menu system on Shutter Fug, but it is proving difficult to maintain. The information is just getting too large to be effective for people.

As a result, I'm slowly revamping the photography section of my main web site and am transferring the information here ... to there.

It will probably take a couple of months to transfer all the hints and tips to there, so as long as this is the latest post, I'm still doing the transfer so there is likely something here that isn't yet on there ... if you know what I mean.

I'll post again when the transfer is complete; but it is going to take time. Read More......

Mixing flash and ambient

Now that you've read about the relationship between the shutter speed and the flash, you can understand better how the balance of flash and ambient works.

It is a straightforward technique which has been gaining increasing use over the years and massive use recently in many different forms; so much so that some would argue that it is being overdone, but that is another issue for another day. It is nevertheless a very impactful way to create an image and so it is very much worth having as a shooting technique.

The long story short is that the shutter speed is used to control the brightness of the background while the aperture is balanced with the power of the flash. The usual way to execute the technique is to set the camera for the ambient light. You then bring in your subect and use a flash, off camera, to light them.

As you've effectively got a landscape in the background while a person is in the foreground, you don't want to be giving up too much in terms of aperture, so aim for a good aperture and then try and dial the flash power to match it.

Having the flash on the camera is a bit of a negative because it will just throw flat light on the person and it won't be a very dramatic portrait, so you really want to get the flash off the camera and off to one side, above, below, whatever will give you the drama that is suitable for the portrait. Using difusers will enable you to get the light close (to make the most of the power) while still being soft (to make flattering soft shadows of the features)


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The Shutters relation to Flash

This might sound like a long story, but in fact, it isn't. Attention is drawn to the "important" relationship between the shutter speed and your flash pulse because of your sync speed. This actually puts your focus on the shutter speed when you really should be thinking about your aperture and ISO speed, which have far more to do with your flash pulse than you might at first think.

To start the explanation, we'll get the shutter speed out of the way. The standard curtain shutter consists of two curtains. When the shutter opens, the first curtain starts its journey, exposing the surface of the film/sensor as it does so. When the time delay has finished and it is time for the shutter to close, the second curtain starts its own journey, effectively closing the shutter behind it.

Think of two curtains in your living room. One is scrunched up against the left side, and the other is completely covering the window. Open the window by pulling the stretched curtain all the way to the right, and then pull the left curtain all the way over to join it, so that the window is obscured agagin. This is, basically, what happens.



So, now you should get the idea. Although the flash pulse is extremely short in duration, it only has an effect on the frame if the WHOLE frame is exposed at the same time as the flash actually fires.

If the shutter speed is so fast that the second curtain starts its journey before the first curtain has finished its journey, then there will never be a point where the whole surface of the frame is exposed at the same time. This is what shutter speed sync is all about.

Of course, the flash pulse is actually so small and short, that it doesn't matter if the shutter is open for a 1/250th of a second or thirty seconds ... the pulse will have the same effect and the same registration on the scene.

The things that will REALLY matter as far as the flash pulse is concerned, is the ISO ... the higher the ISO, the more impact the light will have ... and the aperture ... the more open the aperture, the brighter the light will seem.

This is important later, because it will allow you to balance the flash pulse against the ambient light, as we'll see later.
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Quick and dirty flash

This is a quick and dirty flash trick to get better light out of your on-camera flash.

Having a good quality and flexible on-camera flash unit is a serious boon for many people as it has a plethora of uses, not only indoors but outdoors as well if you have the courage to use it.

On top of the camera, the TTL abilities of the flash are a perfect match. The quality of light that comes from such a flash, however, are legendary for causing red eye and making the scene look flat and unhealthy. But there are occasions where you have to act fast and get the images as they happen.

The light is easily softened by putting a diffuser cap on the strobe, but this still results in a hot spot. An easy way to get out of this is to angle the flash upwards so that the, "feathered," light is what hits the subject, but the problem with this is the issue of power; so this is circumvented by programming compensation in to the flash to tell it that, whatever the camera requests, pump out one stop higher in light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IhUOX0py30&feature=channel_page
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Introduction to metering

This quick introduction to metering shows you the difference between incident metering (done by holding up a light meter by the subject) and reflective metering, the type done by the camera.

The problem with reflective metering is that the subject has altered the light before the camera sees it; so a dark subject won't properly reflect the light back and the camera will compensate by overexposing. The opposite is also true that in a snow picture, the white snow will reflect so much light back at the camera that it will under expose, turning the crisp, white snow in to a dull and boring grey.

You don't have to use a hand held light meter, however, as there is always the 18% grey card. By placing a card with a known 18% grey tone, where the subejct is, the card will reflect the light back to the camera in a known manner. This allows the on-board meter to get a better handle on the light that is being reflected at it.


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EV Compensation

EV compensation is how you can quickly take control of the automatic decisions that a cameras built in light meter is making. There are situations where other light will fool the camera in to believing that there is more light available than it thinks; such as light streaming through a window in the background of your frame. This will fool the camera in to underexposing and your subjects will end up in shiloette; so you have to use EV +/- to compensate. When you are shooting snow, the same thing happens; the light meter wants to turn the snow to 18% grey. Whey you are shooting someone in a dar, moody environment, the camera will try to brighten the scene up. Whatever the automatic mode you're shooting, this is how you achieve your ultimate in fine exposure control.


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