Black and White

This image was the result of having a quick go at the Strobist 'Film Noir' assignment. I had also quickly made a DIY cereal box snoot for the job. The shot was taken with an SB800 at camera left on 1/128th power, camera settings were 1/200th second, f8, ISO 100. The ambient light was very low. I need to experiment a bit more with some different light modifiers.
The black and white conversion was done in Photoshop with the Channel Mixer palette. All you need to do is tick the monochrome check box and then play with the red, blue and green sliders. The accepted wisdom seems to be that keeping the total of the values for these colours at 100 achieves best results.

Crosslight in Full Sun

This aim of this exercise is to use flash balanced with ambient light to create an interesting image in a situation when the light is essentially awful for 'available light' photography. The process I used was as follows. Set the camera to manual with shutter speed on the maximum sync speed. Set an aperture of around f8 and set ISO to 100 or 200. Take a test shot and chimp the histogram. Adjust the aperture to achieve the background effect you want, make it really dark if you want, there is no correct exposure. Position the subject with the sun over his shoulder at 45 degrees. Set up your flash directly opposite the sun. Maybe half power. Try it out. Adjust flash power or flash distance to suit.

Twilight Balance

The idea of this exercise from Strobist is to practice controlling the ambient versus flash component of an image. Twilight or dawn are the best times to do this as you do not require huge flash power to achieve a result in the face of strong sunlight. The potential backgrounds available can also be more interesting with sunset or sunrise colours. There are plenty of people out there who still advise the use of a meter to achieve the sought after balance between flash and ambient. I currently like the cheaper iterative approach made available by digital cameras and their LCD screens.

So, this is the process I use. Set the camera to manual mode, shutter speed at the maximum sync speed, 1/200th in my case. Estimate an aperture, maybe f5.6, I'm normally starting with ISO200 too. Take a shot of the proposed background, chimp the result and it's histogram. Adjust the aperture if required and chimp again. Persuade my ever willing six year old that it won't take that long really darling (chocolate works well here!). Set my SB800 to remote, dial in manual flash at say 1/8th power in my camera menu. Take a shot. Chimp it. Adjust flash power if necessary. OK, the background will be getting darker so either enjoy this change or slow the shutter to compensate. This will not affect flash exposure. If it is necessary to open the aperture by a stop then the flash power will need to be reduced by a stop too. So far I have only been trying to do this in the garden. The next step is to jump in the car and go up the hill a bit for a better backdrop, we're lucky to be in sight of the New Zealand alps. That may incur a higher chocolate cost for the model.

Heading the Ball (Auto FP)

The other day I decided to experiment with Nikon's Auto FP high speed flash sync. This system allows you to exceed the camera's normal flash sync speed. This can be very useful in the case of fast action requiring flash.
This shot is no masterpiece but it includes action and the nightmare lighting conditions of mottled afternoon sun. I wanted to see if I could stop the action and provide some fill flash. This was taken at 1/500th sec, f5.6, ISO200. The camera was in manual and the flash was on the camera and set for TTL. This means you can set the ambient exposure with a test shot with no flash then turn on the flash and let the TTL system have a go at exposing the subject correctly. Over at http://www.strobist.com/ they would be frowning on this as they advocate manual flash wherever possible. Actually I have experimented with manual flash with Auto FP and it works but you have to be a little bit careful as you move from below to above the normal maximum sync speed of your camera. Why?
First, we should look at why Auto FP is needed? Without a system like Auto FP, trying to take a shot above your camera's sync speed could result in a partially dark frame. In other words a nice photo of part of the back of your shutter. This is because at high shutter speeds there is effectively a slit moving across the film or sensor. Flash at full power is only on for about 1/1000th second, this means that you get a burst of light at some point during the time it takes the slit (shutter) to move across the frame. The maximum sync speed of your camera is therefore the fastest shutter speed at which the entire film frame or sensor is exposed at the same time. The flash must occur at this time. Enter Auto FP!!
Auto FP is a system whereby the camera instructs the flash to remain on for the time it takes for the shutter slit moves across the frame. It appears to work rather well. There is of course a downside, isn't there always! The range, or effective power of the flash is reduced by about two stops.
This is why I have found it slightly tricky when moving over the maximum sync shutter speed with the flash in manual. All of a sudden I have to bump the flash power by a couple of stops for the correct subject exposure.
Having said all of the above, the system seems to be very useful even if it is never a replacement for a faster maximum flash sync speed. I intend to experiment more with this in the near future.

Magical Book

This technique was featured on the The Strobist blog a good few months ago but I just had to try it. I know it's copied but isn't that what part of all this is about. The basic idea is copied but everyone's rendition of it is different. I'm reasonably happy with my results from this first attempt but there are a couple of things I may change on the next attempt. A little bit more ambient on the back of the book might work well as would a bit more depth of field. I had to open up the aperture to f4.5 to get the ambient up to this level. Shutter speed was 1/60th second. Increasing the ISO would gain me some depth of field by allowing me to stop the lens down by the same number of stops. The flash was on minimum power of 1/128th with a sheet of white paper wrapped around it to diffuse it. If I want to close down the aperture to achieve more depth of field while keeping the same ISO I will have to provide more light on the back of the book. Doing this under higher ambient light conditions will raise the background light which I don't really want. It may be necessary to use a second strobe through an umbrella in front of the subject on very low power and a reasonable distance away.

Specular Background

The image on the left is my attempt at the latest Strobist assignment. The idea is to photograph a subject with a shoot through umbrella and strobe. The background should be semi reflective. This will enable you to set the shadow side of the subject against the reflection off the background. It is a nice effect.

My attempt here took quite a bit of experimentation to get the angles working. I've seen other examples with the reflection completely surrounding the head which look neat. I've haven't managed to achieve that yet.

Cooking Light

The first 'proper' assignment posted on Strobist is called Cooking Light. It basically requests an image of a kitchen object for a catalogue or restaurant wall. The idea is to use the techniques covered so far. I spent a good couple of hours messing around with kitchen utensils to try to find something suitable. The application of decent light to most of the items in the kitchen highlighted nicely how scratched they are. Glasses were particularly disappointing. You'd think we loaded our dishwashers with sand in New Zealand. I finally settled on a close up shot of our Campagnolo corkscrew, if you happen to be a cyclist you will appreciate that Campagnolo make the best road cycling componentry available. Anyway that is definitely off the subject. I was a bit worried that I had gone for an easy subject but in the end I'm reasonably happy with it. There are nice highlights on the screw and the rim surrounding it. The timber of the table on which it rests matches the tones in the bronze material and the subject to background lighting is balanced. The nearest arm is out of focus and this maybe does not work. There are some amazing examples posted by other Strobist readers in response to this assignment.

Specular Highlights

The next exploration of aspects of lighting on http://www.strobist.com/ is concerned with the control of specular highlights. That sounds flash doesn't it (no pun intended). This is just the technical term for the usually blown out bright spot on a subject that is the direct reflection of the light source.

The first example image demonstrates this phenomenon rather crudely. The flash umbrella used as the light source is clearly visible in three three spoons. This shows how different apparent light sizes could be used to create a slightly different effect. the other feature of this image is the usually undesirable reflection of the photographer and camera. The on camera flash is visible even though it was set to not trigger. The reason for this is that I am using the Nikon CLS system to trigger the off camera flash. The on camera flash cannot emit the infra red signal without a tiny amount of visible light. Normally this would not supply any discernible light to the scene. The case of a direct reflection is an exception.

The second image is better in one respect. Altering the camera to subject angle has eliminated the photographer's reflection. the spoon shape is quite tricky for managing reflections, with a flat subject it would be easier to visualise when the specular highlight will appear in the image. The third spoon image shows the spoons positioned so that the top spoon has no specular highlight, the second a tiny and the third some more. That ugly photographer is back though! Also of note in this image is the white bar which is a reflection of the edge of the plate on which the spoons are resting. The possibilities are limitless, the challenge is taking control of the variables.

The last two images in this post are not included to illustrate anything about specular highlights

but they do quite nicely show the usefulness of a tiny amount of on camera flash to fill in a shadow side of a subject. This coffee pot is a potential nightmare of unwanted reflections. The first shot is taken with just a large translucent umbrella to the right. There is a fairly deep shadow on the left of the pot. A small amount of on camera light has reduced this. The final result is an evenly lit coffee pot with definition between the many different surfaces. The rim and spout are catching the light nicely to show the subject shape.

I must be honest, this is not the sort of photography I normally enjoy but I feel that I am learning so much by playing with these inanimate objects. A human subject would not tolerate this amount of experimentation.

Apparent Light Size

The third assignment from the Strobist site is an exploration of 'Apparent Light Size'. This follows on nicely from 'Angle' and 'Distance'. There is a general misunderstanding that the hardness or softness of light is a function of the source. Light from an umbrella or softbox will be soft, light from a bare flash or the sun will be hard. Strobist very nicely points out that the reality is that the softness or hardness is actually a function of the apparent size of the source relative to the subject. The bigger the relative source, the softer the light.
The exercise required that we photograph a piece of fruit while keeping the camera to subject position constant and the light to subject angle constant. Light size and distance was varied.
The first image was taken with a bare flash 300mm from the apple at 70 degrees to the camera and slightly above. This is the smallest apparent light size in the examples. The shadow is clearly defined and the light would definitely be described as hard. The highlight from the flash can be seen on the apple.

The second image was taken with the strobe 600mm away. I have failed slightly by not keeping the vertical angle to the subject constant. This has resulted in a lengthening of the shadow. It is however possible to see that the shadow to light transition area (penumbra) is shorter. The shadow edge is sharper. With the increase in distance the apparent light size is even smaller.
Image three has the flash even further away at 1500mm. Again the shadow is lengthened due to decreased vertical angle but this is not the point of this exercise. The apparent light size here is the smallest in all of these examples and yields the sharpest penumbra. The shadow is not as dark but this is because I opened the camera aperture rather than increase the flash power to keep the exposure correct. The ambient light has therefore lightened the shadow slightly.

The second three images are taken using a white translucent umbrella. The flash is shot through the umbrella. The first image is again the closest at 300mm. Comparing this with the bare flash is very instructive. The apparent light size here is the biggest of all the examples. There is still a shadow but it is minimal and the real difference is the very gradual change from light to shadow. Also of significant note in this image is the hardly noticeable highlight. It is hardly noticeable because it is so large. The other very significant point here is the less well defined transition from light to shadow on the body of the apple itself. Clearly, in the case of portrait photography this is desirable. There is enough of a difference to create the impression of three dimensions without harsh shadows cast by facial features.

The final two images show the increasing shadow due to vertical angle change again (not the point of this exercise!). They also show the light to shadow transition becoming slightly harsher again.

Even though we have a 115cm diameter light source, as it gets further away it's apparent size is reducing even though it is still big compared to the bare flash.

The most extreme example of apparent light size from a photographers point of view is the sun. It is also the most commonly used light source! The sun is the biggest light source a photographer will ever use but paradoxically it normally supplies some of the hardest light. The reason for this is the 93 million miles that lies between the source and the subject. It can of course supply very soft light but this will be because of cloud or fog or some other atmospheric effect. This is in effect adding a very large umbrella or softbox.

Light Relief

There is no Strobist assignment as such this week so I will take the opportunity to blabber on about something else. I've added a Favourite Links section in the right hand column. If anyone is looking for some light relief, check out What The Duck. Here is an example:









Some of these are so 'spot on' you can't fail to be amused by them. I can't help myself, so here's another:









The Online Photographer which is also linked is an excellent blog on various photographic topics. The Nikonians forums are superb resource for all issues related to Nikon equipment. Should you feel the urge to follow the biggest cycle race on the planet over the next three weeks then http://www.cyclingnews.com/ is arguably the best website for doing this.

Black Background

The second exercise in the Lighting 102 course at http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ is concerned with the ratio of flash to subject distance and flash to background distance. Control of this ratio allows the relative darkness of the background to be fully controlled. All of these images were shot at ISO200 with a shutter speed of 1/200th second. The subject is 1.5m from the background and the flash is at approximately 45 degrees to the right. The starting aperture was f5.6 with 1/8 power on a Nikon SB800 speedlight. As the flash to subject distance was decreased the power and aperture were reduced as required to achieve a good exposure.

The first image was taken with the flash 5m from the subject. Clearly enough light is hitting the background to make it appear similarly exposed.
The flash is now 2.5m from the subject and the background is getting darker. This happens because the fall off of light intensity is proportional to the inverse of the square of the distance.
The background of the third image is getting quite dark (flash 1m away from subject). Notice how the nose shadow is also darker. This will be because in the earlier images enough light was being reflected back from a wall to the left to soften the shadow. The 'Depth of Field' of the light is now so shallow that this no longer happens.

Now we're talking! The background is now really dark (flash 45cm away from subject) and the fifth image (below) which is taken with the flash 30cm away from the subject is nearly black.


I couldn't quite achieve black so I think I need my light even closer or my subject a bit further from the background. The ambient contribution is non existent at these settings (ISO200, 1/200th, f11) so any light is from the flash. This exercise has been a real eye opener for me as I have often wondered how to control this aspect of flash photography. The 20 minutes spent doing this exercise has taught me so much. Blasting away with TTL flash systems can be handy at times but this stuff is much more fun.
However, for the next exercise I will probably be using an inanimate object. Triggering the self timer and dashing round to get in the shot is likely to end in a knocked over lightstand.

Hard Light

The first Strobist exercise was posted last week and comprises a brief exploration of the shadows created by hard light from an off camera strobe at various angles to the subject.
The first image here shows the subject with camera directly in front with the strobe at 45 degrees to the right. The shadow on the wall is very nasty. The subject has been left close to the wall to emphasise this. The speedlight is actually a fair bit higher than the subject which can be seen by the downward slope of the shadow.

The second image shows the effect of the camera at 45 degrees to the left of the subject with the speedlight remaining at 45 degrees right. The wall shadow is equally harsh.

The third and final image shows the camera position at the same position as the speedlight at 45 degrees right. This is equivalent to on camera flash except that the speedlight is higher than the camera. Illumination of the face is more even which is not necessarily a good thing as the image will often look too flat. This is the main problem with on camera flash. The harsh shadow is still visible on the wall.

Land of the Long White Cloud

Hello from New Zealand or Aotearoa in Maori (the land of the long white cloud). This is my first post in a blog and I initially intend to use it to track my progress on the Lighting 102 course currently running at http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/.

Strobist is an excellent blog which focuses on the techniques of off camera lighting. The first assignment is coming this week and I will report here with progress.

Although I have been interested in photography for 20 years, the digital revolution has re awakened my enthusiasm. The ease with which the whole darkroom process can be reproduced in the living room has captured my imagination. Other aspects of my new path of learning in photography will be also be discussed here.