Flash fill-in light

Last meeting David Coblitz showed a DVD entitled "Cowboy Bride" - two photographers using electronic flash units as fill lights during the midday sun. The video showed them using aperture priority mode (AV-Canon, A-Nikon) with the flash unit set for ETTL (exposure through the lens). They demonstrated how to lock the exposure for the blue sky and use the flash close up to match the lighting on the subject. Simply put, hold the exposure for the background lighting, and use the flash to match it on the subject. Simple, yes?

"Not quite so fast," says Shel Sherman and David Coblitz.

From Shel, "To take the picture proceed as follows. Set the camera to Aperture priority, the flash to ETTL, and the F stop to the desired value. Select the sky in the viewfinder and hold the fire [shutter release] button half way down. While holding the [shutter release] button down point the camera to the subject (bride in this case) and press the AE lock button which will cause re-focussing to occur. Press the button fully and the picture will be taken correctly."

As Shel and David found out, at least on the Canon, the factory default settings will not achieve this in AV mode. You need to adjust the custom settings to allow this to work correctly. Look for "AE LOCK/AF" - Now, things will work just fine for you. Your first half shutter release gets the exposure, then you hold the lock button. Your next button push will perform the auto focus.

Depending on your camera, you'll want to pay attention to max sync speed you can get. Normal Canon operations is around 1/250 second, but depending on the flash, you may be able to sync at much higher speeds with reduced power.

From Canon's website: Using Auto Exposure (AE) Lock

If all the button pushing and holding is too much to remember, go manual.

You can use this tip to get fantastic portraits at sunset/sunrise using a flash. Expose for the sunset, but make the flash match that exposure for the subject. Taking pictures around the house and some bright light is in the lightmeter's range? Expose for it, and have the flash adjust accordingly. Someone standing indoors in front of a bright window? Same thing.

It is always smart to practice a technique many times before that day when you'll really need it.

17 May 2010 Meeting Notes

Jim Trotter stepped down as the Chairman/President/Grand Poohba of the Saint Louis Artists Guild Photography Section tonight. The members in attendance elected David Coblitz to head up our group activities.

Many thanks to Jim Trotter for the years of service to the group, including all the work behind the scenes.

Please give your support to David Coblitz, as no one person can possibly run the whole show.

David Groen was re-elected to vice-chair.

And I, Eric Bloemker, will continue to be your chief spammer of emails and blogmeister.

Jerry Anna presented his images from Formula One racing across the country, and gave us all an interesting perspective on how to capture such image while not having a ton of roaring metal crashing into you at over 200 mph.

David Groen showed off his new iPad and some of the features for presenting images. Cameras equiped with Live View can be connected to the iPad for a very large viewfinder.

David Coblitz recommended the Depth of Field App: http://www.apple.com/webapps/calculate/dofmasterdepthoffieldcalculator.html

and Eric Bloemker mentioned an app for determining the field of view/focal length...
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/viewfinder.shtml

and a great lunchtime read:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/tablet.shtml

Finally, we watched a couple of videos that David Coblitz brought along. One on baby photography, including photoshopping. Interestingly, This pro photographer would edit one image to demonstrate how the others could also be editted. Rather than spending a lot of time editing several poses that the client may never select. Also shown was a video of duo of photographers shooting bridal pictures out on the city streets using flash units connected by radio transmitters/receivers: three cameras, two cowboy boots, and one rat trap. An interesting set of bride pics.

On a sad note, Eric's beloved Canon i9900 printer died. The printer leaves behind several Canon BCI-6 ink cartridges which will be given away at the next Artists Guild Photography Section Meeting: 21 June. Vivian Waters is on the schedule for presenting her "ten best" in June!