Learning Lessons the Hard Way......... vol. 37 by Strad

[Stradawhovious]

It amazing how quickly an unfamiliar situation can bring your confidence level to a screeching halt.

This weekend I was asked by my sister to get some photos at my Neice's First Communion. The church photos went fine. Cranked up the ISO to 3200, shooting at f/3.5 made for a few pretty usable pics..... that is until the "professional" church photographer got pissy and decided to take a seat right in front of me blocking any shot I had of the rest of the service. Cest la vie.

The problem came outside of the church. Just about noon, blinding sun, no usable shade to be found. My wonderful sister wanted shots of the recently communed with aunts, uncles, godparents, etc. Etc. She wanted them in front of the church too....... apparently this couldn't wait until we got back to the house where I could have a fighting chance controlling the light. Well, I have been so thoroughly and frequently warned about shooting in that kind of light that I have simply avoided it up to this point. As a result, ALL of the pics were useless due to my lack of understanding of how to deal with the situation. I was a deer in headlights. It was infuriating.

Well, I was able to convince the sister to head back to the house to get the pics, and there they turned out fine.......... but I did come away with a valuable lesson, a situation I have to practice, and a belly full of humble pie.

No real point to this post, just an experience. Thanks for reading.

 

[Village Idiot]

Stick a flash on the camera and point it straight at the subject.

 

[o hey tyler]

Fill the void in your life with some flash, bro. USE THAT BOUNCE CARD.

 

[tirediron]

Fill the void in your life with some flash, bro. USE THAT BOUNCE CARD.

^^ That.

 

[Stradawhovious]

Stick a flash on the camera and point it straight at the subject.

Yep. Did that. Used the bounce card too! Apparently did it wrong. I wasn't handling the ambient light properly. I didn't dial the aperture back far enough to cut the ambient to the point where the flash would be effective. Something in my brain wouldn't let me think about the situation rationally until after the fact. It was a complete brainfart, no real excuse other than lack of experience. I knew how to go about fixing it....... I just wouldn't allow myself to access the information at the time.

Hindsight still remains 20/20.

Dammit.

 

[Derrel]

Why use a bounce card outdoors? All it does is eat up valuable flash and battery power; compared to a group of people, a bounce card is no larger than a bare flash head, in relative terms. For fill-flash in sunlight, a bounce card is almost indistinguishable from a bare flash...how big is a bounce card in relation to a group of five people? What is it, like the size of one man's palm? Or perhaps 1/400 of the area of the group? That will have no softening effect compared against bare flash...a bounce card simply wastes your light outdoors when photographing a group of people.

 

[o hey tyler]

Why use a bounce card outdoors? All it does is eat up valuable flash and battery power; compared to a group of people, a bounce card is no larger than a bare flash head, in relative terms. For fill-flash in sunlight, a bounce card is almost indistinguishable from a bare flash...how big is a bounce card in relation to a group of five people? What is it, like the size of one man's palm? Or perhaps 1/400 of the area of the group? That will have no softening effect compared against bare flash...a bounce card simply wastes your light outdoors when photographing a group of people.

Explain to me how a bounce card wastes battery power outdoors if it helps direct additional light towards where your camera is metering? Maybe if it were on the front of the flash acting as a diffuser, but if it's on the top of the flash, for bounce, it would direct more light and let the flash work less hard.

 

[Stradawhovious]

To be fair, I was using a plastic diffuser (yes, the one outlined in the DIY necromancy thread), pointed at the subject, and not the bounce card, but still, the situations remains the same with me mishandling light.

 

[JWellman]

Sorry you had a bad experience. I wish I could master sunny locations too!

 

[KmH]

Explain to me how a bounce card wastes battery power outdoors if it helps direct additional light towards where your camera is metering? Maybe if it were on the front of the flash acting as a diffuser, but if it's on the top of the flash, for bounce, it would direct more light and let the flash work less hard.

They were outside in front of the church. So, there is nothing overhead to bounce the flash off of, and if you use a bounce card the light from the card is all that you are using for fill.

Point the flash head straight at the group.

 

[Village Idiot]

Why use a bounce card outdoors? All it does is eat up valuable flash and battery power; compared to a group of people, a bounce card is no larger than a bare flash head, in relative terms. For fill-flash in sunlight, a bounce card is almost indistinguishable from a bare flash...how big is a bounce card in relation to a group of five people? What is it, like the size of one man's palm? Or perhaps 1/400 of the area of the group? That will have no softening effect compared against bare flash...a bounce card simply wastes your light outdoors when photographing a group of people.

Explain to me how a bounce card wastes battery power outdoors if it helps direct additional light towards where your camera is metering? Maybe if it were on the front of the flash acting as a diffuser, but if it's on the top of the flash, for bounce, it would direct more light and let the flash work less hard.

Well, I don't think his flash had enough power to effectively bounce off the atmosphere, so he would have had to make due with pointing the flash directly at the people for fill. We're talking several feet vs. 50km

 

[o hey tyler]

Explain to me how a bounce card wastes battery power outdoors if it helps direct additional light towards where your camera is metering? Maybe if it were on the front of the flash acting as a diffuser, but if it's on the top of the flash, for bounce, it would direct more light and let the flash work less hard.

They were outside in front of the church. So, there is nothing overhead to bounce the flash off of, and if you use a bounce card the light from the card is all that you are using for fill.

Point the flash head straight at the group.

I was talking about not angling the flash straight up with a bounce card, I was thinking more of a 35 degree angle or shallower pointed towards the subject with the card to keep more of the light focused in the group's direction. But flash heads only tilt to 45, 60 and 75 degrees, and that's not acute enough. I suppose you could hold the flash head in a certain position, I haven't tried it myself, as I've never used a bounce card in general (until about an hour ago, which I received a bounce card that Stradawhovious made and sent my way).

 

[flameshots]

I'm not sure if this is what Derrel meant but, If you are using a Bounce Card outside with ETTL the flash will fire at full power for every shot. This will significantly reduce the length of battery life. Just guessing that that's what he was talking about.

 

[bazooka]

A bounce card eats some light (a modest amount in most scenarios) making it less powerful than pointing the flash straight at the group, therefore making the flash work harder to output the same quantity of light. I'm not understanding the benefit that you think it might have, Tyler.