Whoa it’s been a while. I’ve had to get the duster out and clean through a little, not to mention pull down a few cobwebs and extract the tumbleweeds, but here I am, with a new blog post. I could give you a million and one reasons why I’ve not posted many blog articles recently but in reality, I know you’re not fussed so I’ll just shut-up and get on with it! I was out shooting Orchids the other week when I met a couple who were very interested in what I was shooting. Long story short they invited me back to see the Bee Orchids and Fly orchid they had on their land. Having been shooting orchids all morning I had been experimenting with flash. Fortunately II had taken a small softbox with me - a PhotoFlex LiteDome XTC - while I find it too small a ‘box for really great portraits, it’s a very good size for macro lighting where you want to achieve nice soft light. The question is, why would you use flash? Well, contrary to popular belief, flash is incredibly useful in bright sunlight. In fact, I’d suggest if you get serious about it, you’re more likely to use flash during the day than you are at night. Here’s an example of a Pyramidal Orchid. The first shot has no flash, the second shot has flash. (Mouseover the image to see the second shot)

Now, you could say that the colours of the flower head have gone a bit in the second shot - they’re not quite as rich. However, with natural light only you’d have had precious little choice - to brighten the flower head the whole image would have got brighter and you have need to either up the ISO, open the aperture or keep the shutter open for longer - all of which would have been undesirable in this instance.... higher ISO = image noise, wider aperture = shallower depth of field and therefore less sharpness across flower head, longer shutter speed = much higher chance of the flower stem moving in the breeze. So the options were limited to flash, or.... flash!

In both shots, nothing has changed - the camera was set to manual with the shutter speed and aperture dialed in to capture the ambient light as I wanted. All I did was hold the softbox over the flower head and set flash exposure compensation (the flash was in ETTL) to -2/3rd stop to keep the light gentle. OK, so that’s some basic flash. Here’s a challenge question for you: Which of these two images was photographed using flash? (Mouseover to see the second image)

Sorry, it's an unfair question really - the answer is they both were. In both cases everything was the same with the exception of one variable. The shutter speed. In the first image the shutter speed was 1/80th sec in the second image it was 1/160th sec. What this has done is simply record one stop less ambient light making the background darker and helping the subject pop from it a little better. Essentially we have adjusted the flash:ambient ratio in the favour of the flash.

Now, from a ‘true-to-life’ perspective, the first shot looks more natural and for most uses this would be the better choice. But now we have a handle on using flash creatively we are into the realms of (and I hate to suggest this is art but I can’t think of a better word!) art. Modifying what the image looks like by adjusting your camera settings. Which you prefer is a matter of personal taste and will depend on the end use of your image.

I love reflectors. I love flash too, but sometimes the simplicity of a reflector is a much better option. And so it was just last weekend. I met up with a friend and a friendly model and off we went for a couple of hours photography just to have a play around really. We didn't have a goal in mind, we just thought it was a nice day and we should take some pictures!

Having shot quite a few images using flash (and yes, using the PocketWizard Flex and Mini units) I then had a go with a reflector - in this case, a California Sunbounce with silver/gold sheet. The sunbouncers are very lightweight and although they don't pack as conveniently as disc reflectors, they do have a very flat surface to bounce light from - and they are very reflective. 

Anyway, these two shots - taken more for their comparison value of showing with and without a reflector - show exactly what you can achieve without expensive flash setups. The model (Laura) was placed with her back to the sun to provide some backlighting to the hair, and a reflector was held in front of her to pump some light back into the face - the difference is quite marked - there was no change in exposure, just the reflector added. Had I opened up the exposure to get better lighting on her face, the background would have been completely blown. Essentially, the reflector has been used as a balanced fill flash. 

So, before you go out buying lots of flash guns, first pick up a reflector and learn to use it properly. Once you get a flashgun, you'll be glad you did - and even then the reflector won't be obsolete as you can still use it to bounce flash from for softer results.

Well, one of the most popular quizzes we've had turned up a real mix of answers! It seems that indeed, flash is one of the least well understood techniques.

At least here we can set you straight on one point....

The question was: When shooting with flash, which setting would you change to make the background darker?

The answer was: Shutter Speed.

Here's why. With a flash exposure, the flash duration is very short. This means that the flash has to put out all its light in a short period of time and get through whatever size aperture you have set - smaller apertures mean more power is needed from the flash, larger apertures mean less power needed from the flash. But what about shutter speed? 

Well, since the subject is being lit by the flash and that is controlled by aperture, the shutter speed is left to control how much ambient light is let in. Even with a fast shutter speed like 1/200sec, the flash duration (and therefore flash lighting the subject) is much shorter than this. For this reason, varying the shutter speed length will not affect the light on the subject (unless the shutter speed becomes long, in which case you will have more ambient light on your subject) but will affect how much ambient light is recorded in the background. 

So, to answer the question, shutter speed would be used to darken the background and you'd do it by using a faster shutter speed capturing less ambient light. This is where high speed sync flash can be useful as it allows you to use higher than the max sync speed to darken the background further.