Using flash to darken your background

If you have been following along so far you have learned about the exposure triangle (Understanding exposure - exposure triangle) and how it controls timing and depth of field. Now were going to completely confuse you and throw in a fourth element; flash.

In a previous post we learned how to use fill light in high contrast scenes. When using flash for fill we are simply taking our existing exposure and adding light to the dark areas. The nice thing about using flash is that we can control the way the camera captures ambient light just by using the power of the flash unit to compensate our exposure.

One simple technique to illustrate this is the "invisible black background" technique as illustrated in the photo at right. The results are very dramatic. and the interesting thing is that this was all done in broad daylight out in the open.

Photography is a series of problem solving steps

As a beginning student in photography there are so many things to learn and it seems like you need to learn them all at once. On top of that you need to grasp an already difficult concept; light. So what is the beginner to do?

I teach all my students to take learning photography as a series of problem solving steps. Rather than getting hung up and bogged down by all the technical stuff I tell them to slow things down and analyze the problem first. The wonderful thing about digital photography is that you have the ability to preview the results right on your camera. A luxury I never had in the film days. That alone is a great learning tool.

The other great thing about this is you get to see the results right away and you begin to learn how a camera interprets certain scenarios. Here's how it works...

Snapshot

5 must know tips about your camera

In a previous post I discussed 5 tips for responsible workshop attendees. In that article I touched on some simple common sense rules workshop participants should adhere to in order to make their learning experience better. Today I am going to expand on that article and talk about five things you need to know before attending a workshop. Specifically, five thing you need to know about your camera before attending a workshop.

Using fill light in high contrast scenes

This past weekend Mid-CT Photography Meetup Group held their second annual "Capture the Wind" event at Hammonasset Beach in Madison, CT. It was a wonderful event and posed a variety of challenges to our photographers. I did a short mini-workshop on using reflectors and flash to fill in the shadowed area caused by the strong sun light. Here are a few of the tips discussed at the workshop.

The first thought most beginners think of in this type of situation is that they don't need to use flash. After all, it is a bright day and there's plenty of light. Unfortunately this is the wrong type of thinking and nothing could be further from the truth.

The main problem with a bright sunny day at a beach is the high contrast light creating harsh shadows. When you have strong directional light coming in from one side you will get strong oppositional shadows on the other. Not a very flattering look for anyone. To balance out the contrast you need to add light to the shadowed side. Two simple techniques are the low budget reflector and the higher budget speedlight. There are pros and cons to each and I'll cover some of them here.