I have failed at flash photography

[table1349]

Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part I.
Some of the actual unit controls may have changed the general principals have not.

 

[map101]

View attachment 118608 Here is what is happening with IMG_5653. Your photo of the two women was shot at the darker line, the 10 foot distance. Look at the older woman's left hand: see how her fingers are curved in slightly--yet are 2 full EV darker, and in shadow? The problem is that with the flash coming in from almost directly above, her hand falls into shadow. This back-of-an-envelope diagram I made for you shows what happens when the bounce point does not throw at least some frontal light rays onto the subject.

THe bounce point on the ceiling needs to be about half-way in between the camera, and the subject. Now: this is the technique and learning part of bounce flash. If you are using straight ceiling bounce, it is better to have the bounce point closer to the camera, rather than right at the mid-point. At 10 feet camera to subject distance, it is VERY easy for the bounce light that rains down to fall very much "straight down", causing eye bags, shadows under the bustline, and very unflattering light which is coming in at a very straight angle.

Moving back to 20 feet makes it easier to aim the bounced point on the ceiling, and also to get a slightly more frontal approach as the light rains down, and strikes the people a bit more frontally, providing more fill-in light, more frontal light, more-even light, better light. The real trick is to learn where to aim the flash head, to get the desired lighting effect, in different types of rooms, with different ceiling heights.

The flash instruction manuals of yesteryear told us to bounce at Maximum Tele-zoom on the flash head; automatic zoom head adjustment can screw up large-room bounce flash horribly. The real secret is to get the bounce point on the ceiling set **properly**, for the exact shooting scenario. Set the flash zoom head manually, for the situation, as-needed. Bottom line: being too close is the worst thing you can do if you have no secondary, straight-ahead flash light rays from a bounce card, a white plastic spoon, or even YOUR FINGERS of the left hand cupped over the flash a bit, to direct 15-20% of the light straight ahead, for fill light.

If you look at the shot of the two women, you can see that the MAN behind them, the fellow with the black-framed glasses on, has GOOD bounce flash lighting on him! This is evidence that the camera-to-subject distance and the exact angle of the flash head was not right for the women, but was quite nice for a slightly longer distance.

Derrel thanks a lot for those detailed replies. This is really helpful. I need to study this more and practice. You are absolutely correct that the flash is hitting the subjects right on their head. I was too close to the subjects. Also as you rightly said ceiling was way too high. But one problem is that in events you have limited space at times. But in that case I suppose I will use Rogue Flashbender. One more question what would be a good way to practice this without actually going to an event. Meaning how to replicate this setup at home and practice where ceiling is not too high.

 

[map101]

Thanks everyone. Let me read all comments in detail and will respond. This has been very helpful so far.

 

[Derrel]

I would definitely look into the Syl Arena flash guidebook, and also look into some of the info links KmH referred to you.

Practicing at home, try different bounce settings: wall bounce, corner bounce, wall-to-ceiling junction bounce, as well as backwards bouncing.

Set up a shot, preferably with a person in it, put the camera on a tripod in a horizontal camera orientation, and then shoot a series of test shots, with the flash's head set at 45 degrees, to bounce light directly BEHIND you, then to the left, then front-left, then directly straight ahead to the front, then to the front right, and then to the right. By keeping the camera on a tripod, and the head set to 45 degrees angle, you will have some test shots to compare things.

Repeat this with the flash at a 60 degree angle. Also, do some 90-degree tests, where the flash shoots straight up.

In a smaller room, be aware that the flash zoom head being set to 24 or 28mm might work wonderfully--but in a big room, it will most likely not have enough flash power unless the ISO value is elevated to the 400-500-640-or even the 800 ISO range.

Neil V's "Tangents" web pages have some valuable lessons on them. Keep in mind Denis Reggie's famous "foofing" method, that of bouncing flash in HUGE rooms, using ISO values of 2,000 to 6,400 ISO and wide f/stops, like f/2.8. Foofing became possible back when Canon developed very good High ISO cameras a little under 10 years ago.

Unless you have a palace-like home, practicing at home will not adequately simulate banquet room type locations, but you WILL learn how the aim of the bounce, off wall, ceiling, wall/ceiling juncture, or corner, can affect the kind of light you get. The Syl Arena and Neil V lessons will show you that there is more than just the ceiling to bounce off of. And I will tell you: think about going directly to ISO 500 or 640 for bounce flash with a 5D series camera in bigger rooms with a flash unit like the Canon 600.

 

[map101]

1. Get this book: Amazon.com: Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites (2nd Edition) (9780134007915): Syl Arena: Books

You don't have to get it from Amazon. I bought it on iBooks. But get the book and READ the book.

I'll second Derrel's recommendation:

2. Lose the Gary Fong thing. I tried one and quickly realized the impracticality of it. Get a Rogue Flashbender. Get the LARGE size.

When you bounce a flash, the ceiling needs to be "white" (if it's colored then that color will put a color cast into your light) and it needs to be relatively LOW. If the ceiling is too high then you won't get much of a return. There are more ways to take a shot with flash then bouncing off a ceiling. If using the Gary Fong lightsphere (don't) the cap should be removed so that it allows the full volume of light to reach the ceiling. Only put the cap on in a room with a very low ceiling.

The lightsphere allows flash to head in all directions and that's just a waste of light. I use the Rogue Flashbender (I have two of them) and while most light goes up to the ceiling, anything that would have traveled backward will hit the white surface and reflect forward -- filling in those shadow areas. I can bend the modifier to control the light. I might bend it so everything reflects off the surface and almost nothing can hit the ceiling.

It really helps to know the "inverse square" law. It sounds complicated but the concept is simple. As the distance from the light source increases, the light gets dimmer. Technically what's really happening is the photons of light are spreading out and that means that within any given unit area (say... a square inch) fewer photos will land in that same square inch if that surface is farther away.

Think of this like the sprayer nozzle on your garden hose. If you stand 1 foot from the hose and point it at your face, you're going to get a face-full of water. If you stand 20' away and the water spray nozzle is adjusted to fan out... you'll just get a few drops of water hitting your face. The SAME CONCEPT works with light.

This means if you have both "close" and "far" subjects in the same scene ten the "close" subjects will be brighter than the "far" subjects. This is

For this reason... on the Canon 5D II... go into your menu, navigate to the custom functions tab (orange camera tab), pick the top row ("C.Fn I: Exposure"), navigate to setting number 7 named "Flash sync. speed in Av mode" and set it to value "1: 1/200-1/60sec. auto" (the default was mode "0: Auto").

I find shooting in Av mode to be the most useful when using E-TTL flash. Here's why.

There's no way one flash can light up an entire scene evenly. So really what you want is a shot that uses ambient light for the overall room glow... but then uses flash to make sure your subjects aren't too dark. That means you're really taking TWO exposures in one shot.

The flash is momentary... it might be lit for the tiniest little fraction of a second... and then goes dark. But the shutter remains open and it CONTINUES to collect more light from the room (that light being created by other light sources -- not your flash). This helps create set the mood of the room in your shot.

If the Av mode flash is set to "auto" then it can use any shutter speed it wants (including something dreadfully slow that might result in a blurred shot.) There's also the mode that forces it to use 1/200th (the max flash sync speed on the 5D II) but that's too fast to collect much light in a room lit for ambiance. My favorite choice is the "1/200-1/60sec" range which means the shutter must not be faster than the max-flash sync (1/200th) but must not be SLOWER than 1/60th (below which you may have camera motion.) You can now use a low-ish aperture (something appropriate for your depth of field needs but large enough to capture ambient light) and get a pleasant result.

The flash itself is going to be subject to that inverse-square law. Remember... that is a law of physics. It's like gravity. You don't violate that law. There is no technology, we're not waiting for someone to make a better flash, etc. etc. it is what it is and we learn to work with it. If you're thinking "if only I could get the right flash, flash modifier, settings, etc." then you're going to be waiting a very long time -- because it's not about technology, it's a law of physics. You get better exposures through learning how the law works and learning to work within its limits. That's why I suggest you get the Syl Arena "Speedliter's Handbook".

Edit: BTW, I didn't finish this... the attached thumbnail is an image taken at a Maui "town party" of some of my friends I was visiting. This is taken at outdoors and at night.

There is no bounce surface so the 600EX-RT is mounted on camera (5D III) and pointed directly at my subjects. But I'm in Av mode at ISO 3200 and using an aperture of f/4. The camera chose to use 1/60th (no surprise to me... it wants as much light as it can get - but remember that I've restricted it to the range of 1/200th to 1/60th.)

This is just an example of the result... lit but not over-exposed subjects in the foreground, but enough atmosphere in the background from the ambient lighting that you get the feel of the party atmosphere.

I did adjust in Lightroom but the adjustments are minor. I used the "adjustment brush" tool to apply just a tiny exposure reduction and brushed that on her shoulder (the lilac colored area) because it was just a tiny bit brighter. I also very gently hit their faces to reduce some shine. This were pretty subtle (the straight-out-of-the-camera vs. this image are not radically different.)

Thanks for your reply. Very detailed. Couple of questions.
1. Understood that with flash we have 2 sources of light. But didn't understand why using Av would help. Coz if camera chooses shutter of 1/200th of a sec then you won't get much ambient light. That would defeat the purpose of ambient light. Instead why not control shutter and aperture with manual mode?

2. In the pic you attached, curious where was your flash head was pointing? Good shot btw.

 

[map101]

I would definitely look into the Syl Arena flash guidebook, and also look into some of the info links KmH referred to you.

Practicing at home, try different bounce settings: wall bounce, corner bounce, wall-to-ceiling junction bounce, as well as backwards bouncing.

Set up a shot, preferably with a person in it, put the camera on a tripod in a horizontal camera orientation, and then shoot a series of test shots, with the flash's head set at 45 degrees, to bounce light directly BEHIND you, then to the left, then front-left, then directly straight ahead to the front, then to the front right, and then to the right. By keeping the camera on a tripod, and the head set to 45 degrees angle, you will have some test shots to compare things.

Repeat this with the flash at a 60 degree angle. Also, do some 90-degree tests, where the flash shoots straight up.

In a smaller room, be aware that the flash zoom head being set to 24 or 28mm might work wonderfully--but in a big room, it will most likely not have enough flash power unless the ISO value is elevated to the 400-500-640-or even the 800 ISO range.

Neil V's "Tangents" web pages have some valuable lessons on them. Keep in mind Denis Reggie's famous "foofing" method, that of bouncing flash in HUGE rooms, using ISO values of 2,000 to 6,400 ISO and wide f/stops, like f/2.8. Foofing became possible back when Canon developed very good High ISO cameras a little under 10 years ago.

Unless you have a palace-like home, practicing at home will not adequately simulate banquet room type locations, but you WILL learn how the aim of the bounce, off wall, ceiling, wall/ceiling juncture, or corner, can affect the kind of light you get. The Syl Arena and Neil V lessons will show you that there is more than just the ceiling to bounce off of. And I will tell you: think about going directly to ISO 500 or 640 for bounce flash with a 5D series camera in bigger rooms with a flash unit like the Canon 600.

You are correct that most times my 24-70 is kept at a wide angle as I'm trying to capture more things in my frame. Secondly somehow I have this understanding that at 24mm I have less camera shake and lens is sharper. Is that true?

So my question is that did you mean that on 24mm the flash power won't be as strong if I zoomed in at say 70mm, keeping other aspects constant? Am I better off to move back, zoom in and then take the shot? And isn't it true that once the flash is facing anywhere other than straight then flash doesn't take into account zoom factor? Coz I've noticed the zoom disappears from flash screen when you face the head upwards.

Also, at times I used to increase flash exposure manually if I felt image was too dark. But that didn't help because I was shooting flash straight upward towards the roof. That made matters worse as head or top part of subject was even brighter. Which now I understand from your explanations why it was happening.

I'm going to buy the book and start learning.

Thanks

 

[fmw]

I would definitely look into the Syl Arena flash guidebook, and also look into some of the info links KmH referred to you.

Practicing at home, try different bounce settings: wall bounce, corner bounce, wall-to-ceiling junction bounce, as well as backwards bouncing.

Set up a shot, preferably with a person in it, put the camera on a tripod in a horizontal camera orientation, and then shoot a series of test shots, with the flash's head set at 45 degrees, to bounce light directly BEHIND you, then to the left, then front-left, then directly straight ahead to the front, then to the front right, and then to the right. By keeping the camera on a tripod, and the head set to 45 degrees angle, you will have some test shots to compare things.

Repeat this with the flash at a 60 degree angle. Also, do some 90-degree tests, where the flash shoots straight up.

In a smaller room, be aware that the flash zoom head being set to 24 or 28mm might work wonderfully--but in a big room, it will most likely not have enough flash power unless the ISO value is elevated to the 400-500-640-or even the 800 ISO range.

Neil V's "Tangents" web pages have some valuable lessons on them. Keep in mind Denis Reggie's famous "foofing" method, that of bouncing flash in HUGE rooms, using ISO values of 2,000 to 6,400 ISO and wide f/stops, like f/2.8. Foofing became possible back when Canon developed very good High ISO cameras a little under 10 years ago.

Unless you have a palace-like home, practicing at home will not adequately simulate banquet room type locations, but you WILL learn how the aim of the bounce, off wall, ceiling, wall/ceiling juncture, or corner, can affect the kind of light you get. The Syl Arena and Neil V lessons will show you that there is more than just the ceiling to bounce off of. And I will tell you: think about going directly to ISO 500 or 640 for bounce flash with a 5D series camera in bigger rooms with a flash unit like the Canon 600.

You are correct that most times my 24-70 is kept at a wide angle as I'm trying to capture more things in my frame. Secondly somehow I have this understanding that at 24mm I have less camera shake and lens is sharper. Is that true?

So my question is that did you mean that on 24mm the flash power won't be as strong if I zoomed in at say 70mm, keeping other aspects constant? Am I better off to move back, zoom in and then take the shot? And isn't it true that once the flash is facing anywhere other than straight then flash doesn't take into account zoom factor? Coz I've noticed the zoom disappears from flash screen when you face the head upwards.

Also, at times I used to increase flash exposure manually if I felt image was too dark. But that didn't help because I was shooting flash straight upward towards the roof. That made matters worse as head or top part of subject was even brighter. Which now I understand from your explanations why it was happening.

I'm going to buy the book and start learning.

Thanks

It is important to understand that with flash photography, the exposure time is determined by the flash unit, not the shutter. There should be no camera shake with flash because the exposure time is very quick.

The "flash power" is a function of the subject distance, not the lens you have mounted. If you move away from the subject you will use more "flash power." You may get a better composition by doing so however.

If you are overexposing the top of the subject's head then you are too close and the bounce angle is too high.

 

[mcap1972]

If I can give you one tip that would be to start using manual flash control. When you are using e-ttl it's only the best guess that camera can make. Practice, practice and more practice

 

[map101]

If I can give you one tip that would be to start using manual flash control. When you are using e-ttl it's only the best guess that camera can make. Practice, practice and more practice

I agree. That's what I have to go for.

 

[Stradawhovious]

I made a few of these, and find them infinitely useful... not only as a bounce but also as flags. (which is why the back half is black)

Homemade bounce card

 

[map101]

Wanted to thank everyone who had given tips. Since then I got the speedlite book by Syl Arena, bought Rogue Flashbender and have gotten rid of Garry Fong (not literally but on the verge of it). I must add that results have improved drastically. I will upload some pics for everyone to see.

 

[map101]

Having said that I do need more advice which is what brings me here!

Rogue Flashbender was great for portrait shoots. But, at events, it first of all felt heavy and difficult to manoeuvre as flash kept tilting down with its weight. Secondly, for subjects a bit far off I felt it wasn't that effective. Comments?

So on the event I went back to bouncing flash off the ceiling with a bit of a tilt. Luckily I got low ceiling so it worked great. Only problem is that I needed to be far in order to bounce with flash towards the ceiling with a bit of a tilt 75 degrees I imagine (90 degree being straight up facing the ceiling). However, every time the subject was close to me I was stuck. Didn't know what to do as bouncing flash straight off the ceiling without tilt light would fall awkwardly on the subject and stronger on their head. Wanted to know how to we get around this when subjects are close? Where do we face our flash in this case? Secondly, what if the ceiling is high, which happens to be the case in some event locations? Ideas ...

Thanks in advance

 

[tirediron]

What do you mean, "flash kept tilting down with its weight"? How are you using it? For event work, I just put the Flashbender on my speedlight and connect it with a TTL cable; flash in one hand, camera in the other; no issues with weight and since the flash is fully vertical, it can't bend.

 

[subash jeram]

Good advice Derrel, but what about changing to Nikon? Lol couldn't resist. Keep practicing it's the best n only way, enjoy .

 

[Didereaux]

Some may disagree but I don't like using ETTL. I manually control my flash always. It's what works for me and once you understand how that works it becomes fairly easy.

Can you direct me to some links which touch upon that. As you can see from the pics I am struggling.

Simple really. Set your camera to manual and expose to whatever exposure level you want to the background. (just take 2-3 shots WITHOUT THE FLASH and look at the exposure and adj accordingly) whne the background is the way you want it then turn on the flash and go ahead and use ETTL it will work well most of the time for this...if not simply set the flash to manual and raise or lower the output as necessary. As for learning flash you really can't do any better than Syl Arena look for his books (used) on Amazon.