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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF IMAGES BY THE RUNNERS-UP

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Congratulations to our winners—First Place winner Bruce Sawle, for his image, "Flying Girl." He has won a copy of BLOW-UP from Alien Skin Software. To Second Place winner Ella Manor Rom, for her image, "Untitled 12." She has won a Hoodman Right Angle Viewer. And to Third Place winner Bob Garas, for his image, "Snake Eyes." He has won an M-Rock "Olympic" sling camera bag. Additionally, all winners will receive a copy of 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers. Be sure to take a look at the images by our runners-up in the accompanying gallery.

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1st Place: Flying Girl © Bruce Sawle

Most of us utilize electronic flash at one time or another in our photography, whether we’re using a built-in unit on a compact camera, an external unit attached to the camera’s hot shoe, or even an elaborate studio strobe setup. Electronic flash can produce numerous results besides being the main source of light. You can fill existing light, “paint” an scene with light, stop action, make ghost images, and create any number of special effects. Entire books have been written on this subject, so we’ll explore just a few aspects of flash photography in this article.

Avoiding Redeye
Redeye (and its counterpart in animals—blue or greeneye) can be a problem, especially with compact digital cameras. Redeye occurs when light from the strobe passes through the iris and reflects off the back of the eyeball, which is covered with blood vessels. Thus, the reflection is red. It happens when the angle of the flash to the lens is very small. Some cameras have redeye reduction features, which is produced by pre-flash and a bright spotlight that’s intended to decrease the size of the iris. Sometimes this is not totally effective, however.

You can fix redeye using Photoshop or another image-editing program, but this can be time-consuming and doesn’t always produce natural looking results. The best way to avoid redeye is to move the flash away from the lens. So if you often encounter redeye, stepping up to a digital SLR and a shoe-mounted strobe unit is probably your best bet.


Accessory Flash Units
When you use flash as the main light source, the duration of the burst of light replaces the shutter speed as the primary determinant of exposure time. The duration of flash is measured in thousandths of a second, and ranges from as fast as the camera’s top shutter speed to many times faster. Automatic flash units vary the duration of their light output to accommodate the subject’s distance. They have a built-in sensor that measures the amount of light bouncing back from the subject to the flash when fired. The sensor shuts off the flow of light when the scene has gotten enough exposure.

External flash units have the added advantage of being larger than a camera’s built-in flash, are more powerful, and are positioned farther away from the camera and lens. They also have the ability to tilt and swivel, which allows

2nd Place: Untitled 12 © Ella Manor Rom

you to point the strobe in other directions. Indoors, you can bounce light off a white ceiling or wall, creating a soft, natural looking light on your subject. Accessory flash units that attach to a D-SLR’s hot shoe are more precise, allow for easier control, have more power, and will give you even more options for light quality than built-in flash.  


Fill Flash
On a bright, sunny day or in uneven lighting situations, you may want to utilize a flash unit’s capability to supplement light. If you’re photographing people in the middle of the day, you may encounter a lot of shadows on their faces. Using a strobe fills those shadowed areas with light, and creates a minimal effect on the bright areas of the face. The flash simply brings the exposure level of the shadow area closer to the exposure of the sunlit areas, making it a more balanced exposure.

Using fill flash can give your portraits more life. Even when the lighting is relatively good, using fill flash outdoors can add a little pizzazz to the image. You can brighten up a face, add catch lights to the eyes, and of course, soften shadows. The software is so advanced in today’s digital cameras, that balancing the strobe and sunlight to get a great exposure is totally automatic. This is true even with point-and-shoot cameras that have a built-in flash. As the light grows dimmer at the end of a day, fill flash can be used to illuminate a subject so that it doesn’t become a silhouette. This is very effective against a sunset. Just adjust the exposure for the background so that it retains its color and richness. Using the strobe on its TTL mode will balance the strobe light with the background.


Using Flash to Capture Movement
You can use flash to emphasize slow motion and to freeze action. If you use a slow sync setting on your camera, you’ll get some action in the photo that blurs, while anything that the strobe hits will be frozen. You can then show the excitement of an occasion with blurred motion, but the subject will be strong because it’s lit with and frozen by strobe. You can achieve this by using a Manual setting on your D-SLR and setting a slow shutter speed, or by using Shutter Priority. Using a slow sync mode will allow more of the background light of the scene into the image, increasing the balance of background light and strobe, and resulting in some very dynamic images.

3rd Place: Snake Eyes © Bob Garas

Studio Strobe
There are many lighting techniques and modifiers available to photographers, but the most powerful and flexible light sources are strobe units used in the studio and on location. This is the next step up from using an on-camera accessory flash unit. Usually, studio strobes are designed to have light shapers (soft boxes, umbrellas, reflectors, scrims, etc.) attached to them to modify the light quality.

A large umbrella attached to a strobe light bounces back into the umbrella, which spreads the light. This light source is great for photographing a group of people, especially when more than one light is used. A soft box is a box made of nylon fabric that holds its shape with a series of poles and is attached to the strobe with a speed ring. Soft boxes create a soft, pleasing light (as the name implies), and have a large translucent panel in front of the flash.

Two types of reflectors are available: Circular metal reflectors, which attach to studio strobes and offer more of a hard, specular light source; and fill reflectors, which are used with another light source to fill in where the shadows may be too strong. They are usually made out of fabric, but a piece of white cardboard, a sheet, or even a blank wall can be used. Some reflectors are translucent, allowing soft light to pass through them. You can place a studio strobe behind them, or use them to diffuse sunlight outdoors. These reflectors are known as diffusers, or scrims.

Flash can be used very creatively, and you can have fun experimenting with different types of flash techniques. If your budget doesn’t allow for an elaborate studio lighting setup, you can still create some great lighting solutions with basic equipment.


Take our next Double Exposure Challenge! Look for details on Special Effects in this issue.

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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF IMAGES BY THE RUNNERS-UP

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Let us know if you found this article useful, and tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see in upcoming issues. Send your comments and ideas to Lynne Eodice.