How to use flash creatively

Lead: For the flash, are we still only used to compensate for the lack of light? In fact, flash has many uses. Here I will tell you how to use flash creatively. Let's have a look!

What is his name? The wizard of Christchurch? He is as punctual as a clock. He wore a wizard's costume and carried his 1.8-meter-high wooden ladder. Rain or shine, he will appear in the city square of Christchurch, New Zealand at 2 pm every day. In the next 45 minutes, he will tell people various stories. If you listen carefully, you will find that many of his views are still very insightful. When I saw him in the winter of 20 10, I couldn't help but want to photograph his wise face. I was about 20 feet (6 meters) away from him when shooting.

The clouds were thick that day, so I chose to use a flash, and an amber film was added to the lamp cap, which added some warmth to the photo. Because I shoot with a camera, I have to turn the aperture to the maximum so that I can shoot with the fastest shutter speed. I used a 70-300mm lens when shooting. The focal length is set to 250mm and the aperture value is set to f/5.6. Because the clouds in the sky are thick, I don't have to worry that the shutter speed will exceed the flash synchronization speed. Under the setting of 250mm, ISO200 and f/5.6, the camera's exposure meter recommended me to use the shutter speed of1160s.

Next, I set the focal length of the flash to a maximum of 200mm and the aperture value of the flash to f/5.6. The distance meter shows that I need to shoot at a distance of 4 1 foot (12.5 meters) from him. I'm too close. The distance between me and him is only about 20 feet (6 meters). But the distance meter of the flash doesn't know that I added amber film and soft box to the flash, which will reduce the output of the flash by about 2 steps. This means that I need to choose a distance equivalent to reducing the output power of the second gear. So I lowered the aperture value of the second flash and found that the shooting distance of 20 feet (6. 1 m) was just below the aperture value of f/1. So even if the aperture value of the camera is f/5.6, the distance is f/ 1 1, because the soft box and color film cause exposure loss of about 2 steps.

70-300mm lens, 250mm focal length, ISO200, f/5.6,1160s.

70-300mm lens, 250mm focal length, ISO200, f/5.6, 1/250s, Nikon SB-900 flash.

Finally, I wanted to expose less ambient light, so I chose the shutter speed of1/250 s. When the guide paused his vivid speech, I took the last photo, which made me very satisfied. Then, I turned off the flash, adjusted the shutter speed to1160s required for proper exposure in natural light, and took another photo. Comparing the two photos, I feel that the one taken with the flash is better because it increases the warmth and the light of the eyes.

Radio trigger

As you think, it is really a good way to get off the plane. If you have multiple flashlights, you can put them anywhere in the shooting scene to simulate all kinds of light. Using multiple flashlights, all of which are triggered wirelessly, will provide you with more creative shooting. Wireless flash memory has infinite potential. Let's see how it works.

The off-board flash can not only connect the flash with the camera through the connecting cable, but also trigger the flash wirelessly. There are many devices that can trigger off-plane flash, including synchronous extension cord and light slave trigger. An optical trigger. Do you see it? The light from other flashlights will then trigger flashlights, wireless remote controls and special equipment installed on them. Now many new flashlights have built-in wireless triggers, which can trigger all compatible flashlights.

The advantages of wireless flash are: (1) There is no connecting wire between the camera and flash (or multiple flash); (2) The flashlight (or flashlights) can be far away from the camera; (3) Using the TTL function of the camera, the output power of each flash can be adjusted on the camera. To use TTL function, you need a master light or trigger and several slave flashes. If you use Canon's special system, you can install the master light on the camera's hot shoes and turn the switch to the master state, so that the master light can trigger other slave lights. Nikon system works in a similar way, using the main light on the hot shoe to trigger the slave light. Now some new cameras can also use the top flash as the main light to trigger the slave light, and there will be corresponding control options in their settings menu.

In order to identify the signal from the master light, each slave flash has a specific ID, which is convenient for the photographer to adjust the output power of each flash one by one on the camera. No matter where the flash is placed, it can be set from the camera. In addition, if you have a flash installed on your hot shoes, or use an overhead flash as the main light, then the main light can be set to only trigger other flashes and not emit light.

The city square in Christchurch, New Zealand, is full of all kinds of people most of the day, and there are more people on weekends. The gentleman was riding a unicycle while playing, and three red balls passed in front of me. This attracted me, and then I started talking to him. After a while, I asked him if he could take a picture of him. Apparently, he agreed.

He has long hair and a beard, which must be what I said? Sunset portrait of Hawaii beach? A candidate for. You should be familiar with portraits taken on the beach with the bright backlight at sunset as the background. Even though I wasn't at the seaside, I knew I could reproduce the same environmental exposure with a flash. Please look at the picture on the left. When I was composing, I filled the viewfinder with that man's face. When shooting, hold the camera, set the aperture value to f/8, and then aim at the person's face to measure light. The shutter speed obtained is1125 s.

70-300mm lens, f/8,1125s, ISO200.

When I took the second photo, I used the same exposure value, but with a flash. Please pay attention to what is behind him. Sunset? Strong backlight, and his shiny hair. How is this done? I first set the aperture value of the flash to f/8, and found that at full power output, the flash should be 0/2 feet (3.66 meters) away from the subject/kloc. But what I need now is not the right exposure. I want to overexpose the flash. The photos taken in this way will deceive people's eyes and think that there is a sunset behind the subject. I know that if I put the flash 3 feet (0.9 1 m) away from the back of the subject, it will cause obvious overexposure. I installed a pocket guide trigger on the camera hot shoe and a trigger on the camera hot shoe, so that I can trigger the flash remotely. Then, I asked one of my students to hold a flashlight 3 feet (0.9 1 m) behind the subject. So a portrait of the sunset with a backlight is produced.

70-300mm lens, F/8,1125s, ISO200, Nikon SB-900 flash.

If you don't want to use the expensive portable flash as the main light to trigger other flashes, or your camera doesn't support the wireless flash function, you can also use a special infrared trigger device, which is made by Canon and Nikon. It should be noted that if your camera already has a flash that can be used as the main light, then you don't need these infrared triggers. Infrared trigger is only a low-cost option of wireless flash, so you can creatively use expensive flash on the plane.

Using infrared triggers also has disadvantages, one of which is that they may not work stably in strong outdoor sunlight, mainly because sunlight will interfere with infrared signals. In addition, when used outdoors, the trigger must be in the slave lamp? Sight? Range, so they can receive infrared signals. Therefore, when using infrared wireless flash, the flash cannot be hidden behind the subject. There is no such problem when shooting indoors, because the infrared signal can be reflected from the wall to the slave lamp. In addition, the infrared trigger is limited by the distance between the trigger and the slave lamp. Therefore, before buying these devices, you must study them. Many professional photographers prefer to use radio instead of infrared when using wireless flash, because radio signals do not need to be transmitted in a straight line and there is no distance limit.

There are many manufacturers of radio triggers, such as Pocket Wizard, Quantum, RadioPopper and MicroSync. One thing to note is that you need to study these devices in depth. Some trigger devices can't synchronize fast enough in high-speed synchronization, which means that the shutter of the camera is closed before the flash is fully fired.

Wireless flash memory technology has now become a trend. When shooting outdoor scenes, many famous professional photographers leave heavy shed lights in their studios and switch to lighter wireless flash systems. Portable flash can be easily used as main light and supplementary light, and it can work well even outdoors. When shooting, you can put the main light aside, let its light surround the subject, and shape the subject's face by producing highlights and shadows. Other flashlights can be used to fill light, reduce contrast and fill shadow areas. If you have enough flashlights, you can also add light, edge light and background light to better express the subject.

This is another example of creating a sunset backlight effect. I put this photo in the book so that you can see how I arranged it when shooting. In this covered parking lot, the exposure meter of the camera shows that exposure value should be F/8,1125s. My good friend Robert LaFollette, also a photographer, agreed to be my voice-activated lampstand, standing about 1 m behind the model, holding a flashlight. Amber film is installed on the flash to provide a warm color like sunset.

I set the camera and flash to manual mode, and the output power of flash is set to 1/2. The range finder of the flash lamp should show an aperture value of f/ 16. But here I'm not going to use the f/ 16 aperture value recommended by the distance table, but f/8. If you shoot with f/8 aperture value, the flash exposure will be overexposed by 2 pieces, but I have my reasons here.

First, I need to expose the model's face correctly. I set the aperture value to f/8, pointed the camera at her face to measure light, and got the shutter speed of1125 s. When I pressed the shutter button, the flash shot behind the model's head. At this time, I recorded a correct exposure of natural light reflection on her face. However, I also recorded the flash exposure from her hair (overexposed by 2 pieces). The reason why I want this overexposure is that I want the effect that the sun sets behind the model. It's that simple! Now that you know, take your lover or children to take pictures.

70-300mm lens, F/8,1125s, Nikon SB-900 flash.

Do you need a special flash to illuminate your friends standing in the bushes by the lake Michigan at dusk? It does look like this, but the fact is that you can easily take this simple photo with a portable flash. When I took this photo, I was about 150 feet (45 meters) away from the subject, but I didn't reach for the flash. In fact, the target pointed a flashlight at himself. The Nikon SB-900 flash in his hand is connected to a small radio trigger, and I launched it through the PocketWizard trigger installed on the camera.

Remember, whether the flash exposure is correct depends entirely on the choice of aperture value, and the choice of correct aperture value depends on the distance between the flash and the subject. The distance between the photographer and the subject is meaningless unless the flash is installed on the camera's hot boots. I estimate that when a friend holds a flashlight in front of him, the distance from the flashlight to his face is about 2 feet (0.6 1 m), which is the distance from the flashlight to the subject. I also want to record the dark blue sky and the surrounding trees, so do I need to consider the depth of field? No, because the distance between the tree and my friend is basically the same, so I use the aperture value of f/8. When I set the aperture value of the flash to f /8, the range finder told me that to illuminate the subject 2 feet away (0.6 1 m), it would take about 1/64 output power.

Then I fixed the camera on a tripod, set the aperture value of the camera to f/8, and let the camera measure light under the dim sky at the top of the tree, and the shutter speed obtained was 1/2s.

Nikon D300S, 12-24mm lens, f/8, 1/2s, Nikon SB-900 flash.

Once with my friend Charlie? During Boland's field trip, we decided to shoot camping scenes with wireless flash. He put the flash in the tent and adjusted the focal length of the flash to the end with the widest coverage angle. This flashlight also has a wide-angle diffuser, which can make the light from the flashlight fill the whole tent. In order to ensure the consistency of each flash, he set the flash to manual mode, and the output power was 1/4. In this way, the aperture value of f/8 can be used. My idea is that every photo should be taken with f/8 aperture value, so that the tent will have consistent flash exposure. At the same time, I also use different shutter speeds to expose the whole scene, so that I can produce bright or dark exposures of mountains, people and bonfires, while tents are always exposed under the same flash. This photo is a good mixture of light and dark, and it also exposes the tent correctly. This photo was taken by Charlie? Shooting in Boland.

Canon 20D, 70-200mm lens, 200mm focal length, ISO200, F/8, 1/4s, Canon 580EXII flash.

I've always liked to shoot with double lights for years. I mainly use two white lightning Ultra 1200 shed flashing lights, each of which is placed in a soft box: one is placed on the floor and points upwards; The other is installed on the lamp holder, pointing downwards. Between them is a white plexiglass glass plate with a side length of 4 feet (1.22m) and a thickness of 1/8 inches (3.2mm). When shooting, I will put all kinds of things on it, including sliced flowers, fruits and vegetables. This is how the picture below was taken. Although I like this shooting arrangement very much, its disadvantage is that it takes up a lot of room space and costs a lot.

One day, I came across something. I glued the white poster board in a medium-sized cardboard box to make a soft box. Put a portable flashlight in the box with the lamp head up. Place a 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) thick white plexiglass glass plate on the top of the box. Then I installed a portable flashlight on the lamp holder above, with the lamp holder down, about 2 feet (0.6 meters) away from the subject. In this way, I can create a smaller version of the shed lamp and soft box as mentioned above. The wireless flash system is the key here, which can make the flash flash synchronously. Because the flash is in the box, it can be triggered by radio, such as the trigger of pocket elf, which is the most suitable.

First, set the two flashlights to the same full power output. At the same time, make sure that the aperture values of the two flashlights are the same. Suggest starting with f/ 16. Remember, the flashlight in the carton will illuminate the subject through 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) plexiglass, so don't add any other filter device to the flashlight in the carton, because that plexiglass is a diffuser. But a diffuser is installed on the other flash. Next, you should choose a normal flash synchronization speed according to actual needs, such as1125s, 1/200s or 1/250s. Then, put a bunch of flowers or other small things on the plexiglass board and shoot them from bottom to top. Finally, check the exposure. Your goal is to shoot the subject floating in the blank space, with good exposure before and after. Many objects may emit light, which is caused by the strong backlight generated when the flash in the box is started. In order to match the output of two flashlights, you may need to reduce the output power of one flashlight. Relatively speaking, the flashing lights outside (installed on the lamp holder) will be easier to adjust.

105mm lens, ISO200, f/ 1 11/25s.

I used the same exposure settings when shooting these three tulips.

105mm lens, ISO200, f/ 1 11/25s.

When I took pictures of the flowers on it, I took apart a bunch of ordinary flowers and put them on a plexiglass board. The aperture value used in shooting is f/ 1 1. The flowers in the photo are just like floating, and the combination of backlight and smooth light forms a strong contrast.