More On-Camera Fill Part 1

Photo #1: 1/500, F 11.0, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Exposure Compensation -1 stop

Party School: The Adult School has a large non-native speaking population. As such, learning English can sometimes include lesson in American culture, as it was on this Friday before Valentine's Day. The school was heading into a three-day President's Day weekend, and the general feel was just a bit festive. 

Since I really wasn't out to "win a Pulitzer", I decided to just shoot some fun shots that would test the ability of N-TTL speedlights to effectively lighten the shadows. The camera was a Nikon D70 with a 2.8 24mm Nikkor prime and my SB-30 mounted in the hotshoe. Because the SB-30 hadn't been neutered, I would be forced to limit my shutter speed to 1/500 of a second or slower. Despite this, I set my the body to Aperture Priority, which would allow me some freedom if I moved out of the direct sunlight and into the shade. But for all intents and purposes, I was shooting in the manual mode, since the shots never went below 1/500 when I shot in the sunlight. The speedlight was not set to F11, but rather to F 5.6 to minimize any overexposure caused by the fill light overlapping the areas illuminated by direct sunlight. Photo #1 is typical of the photos made with this setup.

Photo #2: 1/500, F 11.0, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Exposure Compensation -1 stop

Photo #2 is an interesting variation on adding detail to the shadows. My subject’s lower torso is actually in the shade of the building behind me. The supplementary flash added detail to both his  face and his jacket so nicely that you might not have noticed it. 

Photo #3: 1/800, F10, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Exposure Compensation -1 stop

Changing It Up: The 1/500 of a second top synchronization speed was starting to bother me, so I changed to a Nikon SB-26 I had just "neutralized" so I could sync at all speeds. I also attached an SD-8 6-AA supplementary battery pack. While the increase in weight and bulk were obvious, this new combination gave me three advantages over the on-camera SB-30. The new combination positioned the flash tube higher above the lens axis for marginally better lighting, increased my available power, and decreased flash recycle time. Photo #3 shows the advantage of switching to a neutered flash. The record shutter setting was 1/800 of a second with no blown highlights, the byproduct of the minus 1 stop exposure compensation.

Photo #4: 1/500, F 10.0, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Exposure Compensation -1 stop

Foreshortening And Wide Angle Lenses: Assuming that you can work comfortably at such close shooting distances, you're bound to experience two consequences: foreshortening and light fall-off. Foreshortening is when objects closer to the camera appear disproportionally large, and somewhat brighter. In Photo #4, you can see that the left hand appears much larger than the right one. Also, the skin of one's open palm is more reflective than the back of the hand, resulting in a combination that makes the hand appear much larger than it is. Burning the hand in post production can reduce the visual impact.

Photo #5: 1/250, F10, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Exposure Compensation -1 stop

Paper Plate: Working in a free-style manner, I was free to experiment a bit. I remember that in the past, resourceful photographers would use a white paper plate as a reflector to improve the quality of the lighting. This worked well with an older flash whose head could be tipped skyward. All you had to do was just hold the plate at a 45 degree angle to the head, a relatively simple task. This raised the light ever higher over the lens axis, giving the best lighting yet.

Photo #6: 1/200, F 10.0, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Exposure Compensation -1 stop

As you can see from the "glare" that outlines these two dancers (Photo #6), the sunlight is obviously coming from behind. The longer exposure in these last two photos (remember we're in Aperture Priority) allowed more detail in the classrooms in the background, making the two photos much more believable. The "ghosts" problem wasn't adequately addressed by the factory lens hood. However, when using a film formatted (FX) lens on a APS-sized sensor equipped camera, there are going to be some gaps in the protection provided by the hood. I once modified a Hasselblad adjustable bellows lens hood to work on a Sigma 24mm F 1.8 lens, and may be forced to return to that solution because it actually worked.

On-camera speedlight fill is a useful techniques when photographing outdoors. It is almost a requirement for event photographers who must provide photographs that are both salable to the subjects and reproducible in the society pages of the local newspapers. I'll talk more about light modifiers for on-camera flash in a future posting. In the mean time, here's one on the Gary Fong Light Sphere.