New to bouncing the flash! (with pic, please C&C)

schumionbike · Sep 8, 2009

So I finally broke down and bought a new sb-600 not too long ago. So I've been bouncing that flash all over the place lately, what do you think of this shot? Is the lighting okay or is it flat? Straight out of the camera and didn't do any photoshop with it. Shot at 1/25 shutter at a base ISO of 200. C&C would be great, thanks.

Samanax · Sep 8, 2009

What did you bounce the flash off of?

And why did you shoot this at 1/25th?

schumionbike · Sep 8, 2009

I bounced of the ceiling, shot at 1/25th because I was trying to drag the shutter. Thought about going at 1/15 but I was a little worry about camera shake at this was shot at 55mm I think.

Samanax · Sep 8, 2009

schumionbike said:
I bounced of the ceiling, shot at 1/25th because I was trying to drag the shutter.

Oh, okay. You do have a nice balance between ambient and flash in the shot. Were you shooting in manual/manual (camera/flash) or were you using another shooting mode? i-TTL?

schumionbike · Sep 8, 2009

The camera was on manual, but the flash was on i-ttl bl (light fill or something) , I forgot what flash compensation was.

ANDS! · Sep 8, 2009

Bouncing the flash is certainly preferable to just shooting straight on; but as you can see that kind of light is pretty. . .boring.

musicaleCA · Sep 8, 2009

Only boring because there was probably a little too much shutter drag. Kill the ambient, stomp on it's throat, and throw it's carcass into the river with 1/200 and see what happens. Then go up from there as you get used to balancing flash with ambient. In this case I'm doubtful there was a great need to drag the shutter though. Where that's really useful is when you have a background you want to burn in, and use the flash to expose the subject. Here the subject is really being illuminated with mostly flash. Not dragging the shutter might also have gotten rid of that unsightly cord coming out of her hand.

I can tell you bounced this off the ceiling; that's about the most boring place to bounce from. Safe, yes, but produces flat results. Try flagging the flash (put a piece of black foamcore or even your hand between the flash bulb and the subject) and bounce it off a wall to get harder, directional light. It can make things more dramatic and dynamic. As for fill, you'll get a decent ratio from that thing she's on.

However, the image looks underexposed, particularly her skin tones. They're over-saturated. I'm going to guess that the thing she's on is actually whiter than as in the image. You should bump up the EV comp on the flash to compensate. The camera will try to make all that white into a neutral grey, so you need to tell it to put-out more power from the flash to properly illuminate your subject. In this case, I'll bet an extra stop on your flash's EV comp would suffice.

schumionbike · Sep 8, 2009

musicaleCA said:
Only boring because there was probably a little too much shutter drag. Kill the ambient, stomp on it's throat, and throw it's carcass into the river with 1/200 and see what happens. Then go up from there as you get used to balancing flash with ambient. In this case I'm doubtful there was a great need to drag the shutter though. Where that's really useful is when you have a background you want to burn in, and use the flash to expose the subject. Here the subject is really being illuminated with mostly flash. Not dragging the shutter might also have gotten rid of that unsightly cord coming out of her hand.

I can tell you bounced this off the ceiling; that's about the most boring place to bounce from. Safe, yes, but produces flat results. Try flagging the flash (put a piece of black foamcore or even your hand between the flash bulb and the subject) and bounce it off a wall to get harder, directional light. It can make things more dramatic and dynamic. As for fill, you'll get a decent ratio from that thing she's on.

However, the image looks underexposed, particularly her skin tones. They're over-saturated. I'm going to guess that the thing she's on is actually whiter than as in the image. You should bump up the EV comp on the flash to compensate. The camera will try to make all that white into a neutral grey, so you need to tell it to put-out more power from the flash to properly illuminate your subject. In this case, I'll bet an extra stop on your flash's EV comp would suffice.

Man I learn more from that one post than anything else I ever read about lighting. Definitely gonna tried what you suggested next time!!! It'll be fun to play around with!!! Thanks so much!