Weekly Workshop 3 – Flash with Zane

Last week I gave flash photography a go in my practice session with Zane (thanks to his mom Caitlin for opening up their house to me). I’ve never been a huge proponent of flash photography because it always seemed that to get really good results (i.e. not looking like you actually are using a flash), you needed to use off camera flash and that required additional setup and equipment. Lighting equipment has definitely gone down in price and in footprint size but it still requires extra time and it requires the subject set up in generally one place and face generally in the same direction. Especially with children, I like to follow them around and capture them in action. At this point I feel like setting up a lighting system would hinder the “natural” feel of my work. So I’ve always stuck with natural light.

But last week I listened to the Camera Dojo Podcast and heard the interview with Neil van Niekerk.  Neil talked about how he can get a natural light feel with an on-camera flash by bouncing the light off a wall/ceiling and by using a black piece of foam to keep the flash light from going directly to the subject.  I knew about bouncing the light but the black foam thingie was a game changer for me.  I love the idea of combining the benefits of off camera flash with the freedom of natural light.

I meet Zane and Caitlin in their NOPA/Western Addition home in San Francisco and gave Niel’s technique a try.  I have say that I was very please with the results.  Having the the flash option freed me up to shoot Zane from many different angles.  Their house gets beautiful reflective light from the buildings across the street.  Without the flash I would position Zane facing the windows so I could keep the light on his face and crazy big blue eyes.  Those shots would turn out fine but I would have serious exposure problems anytime he turned around.  The shots of him reading in the chair (with his back to the windows) wouldn’t have worked at all with out the flash.

And the black thingie addition was amazing.  I using black construction paper and a hair tie and it worked great.  Rotating the paper as I rotated the flash and the camera took some work but I was happy with the results and I would improve with more practice.  But without too much trouble, I could bounce the light of their their walls with out blowing out his face.

I liked how bouncing the light off the wall or ceiling made for a natural feel but then I could create something more dramatic by bouncing it off the floor.  Also, but changing the flash output I could darken the rest of the room and highlight just Zane.

And definitely follow Niel’s advice about fast lenses.  My 50 1.8 worked great all the time but my variable aperture 24-70 didn’t work one I got above 2.8 or so.  I would also say that a battery grip would be a good addition so that you can better stabilize the camera while shooting in portrait rather than landscape.  My sb900 sticks out quite a ways in portrait mode and that reduces my ability to get a clean shot.

Overall, I think Niel’s suggestion is very effective.  I can shoot natural light when ever I want and then with no fush I turn on the flash when ever the lighting requires it.  Looking forward to try this out at my next family shoot and next wedding.

Thanks to Zane, Caitlin, Kerry from Camera Dojo and Niel.

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Blog link:  http://jchandlerphotography.com/1522

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