A few flash questions ....

[magpieant]

'scuse me if these have been covered but ....

1. I was taking some photos today of people, fairly close up (2-2.5m away). Lighting was late afternoon, indoors. I used my flash (SB600) with a stofen omnibounce on. It was set at TTL.

Having not used my flash much yet, I found that in several shots, skin tones were blown right out - not quite lost - but pretty bad overexposure.

Any ideas on how I can correct this please?


Secondly, someone also told me that if using flash in these indoor conditions (it was a big school hall), if shooting something quite far away, I should reduce the power by about 2/3's. Is this correct, and if so, why ??

Flash is new to me and something I need to get my head around. Therefore, any advice or pointers to good guides are gratefully accepted.

Cheers, and goodnight!!!

Anth

 

[theMusicMan]

Could be a few things;

Did you bounce the flash or did you use it facing directly onto the subjects...? It might be due to this... if you wanted to use direct flash, perhaps try reducing the flash power by a stop or two, or even using the exposure compensation dial to drop a stop. It's easier to remedy an image that is slightly underexposed than overexposed. If you want to bounce the flash off the ceiling then maybe you could up the power slightly, and still use with your stofen diffuser.

Was the subject(s) at an equal distance from the camera...? i.e. was the shot of several people who were each at different distances from the camera and thus would have been exposed differently...?

Any chance of seeing the shot...?

As for your second question re taking shots in a large hall... not sure of the original question, but if you take direct shots of many people in a large room or hall, if you think about the logic - the distance between the camera and the subjects is possibly greater thus casting more of a shadow on surrounding walls/objects etc. If you bounce the flash, and lower the power i.e. use the flash in fill-in mode, as long as there's enough ambient light to put to good use, then this will give you a nice natural looking light.

How's that?

 

[pxl8]

if you think about the logic - the distance between the camera and the subjects is possibly greater thus casting more of a shadow on surrounding walls/objects etc.

Wouldn't the shadow be smaller the further away the flash is from the subject because the arc of occlusion is smaller?

 

[theMusicMan]

Ahh, pxl8, I meant due to the spread of the subjects!

 

[magpieant]

That's cracking thanks.

Unfortunately I can't post the shot as it was taken at work, of children in a primary school, and the photos are only to be used by school unless we state otherwise.

Not worth falling out with the boss about ....

Your help is however very much appreciated and yes - your statement about the large hall does make sense!!!!

Cheers.

Anth

 

[theMusicMan]

pxl8 is also correct though, but I was referring to the overall angle of the entire subjects being greater if you are further away from them.

 

[W.Smith]

The Stofen diffuses the light and distributes it to the front, up, to the left, to the right, and even behind the photographer. But since the subject of the photo is in front of the camera, 80% of all the light projected up, to the the left, to the right, and even behind the photographer, is wasted.
A simple diffusing white card, fixed to the upright flashgun with an elastic band, actually uses all the output of the flashgun and projects it onto the subject. Much more effective and efficient use of a flashgun/diffusor combo, imo.
A lot cheaper too!

Have fun!