Wk7 Task - Venturing Off Campus with the Monoblocks

The purpose of this task was to get us used to borrowing the monoblocks from friendly old dave to take off campus. I intended to do a few outdoor shots with them but the day was super windy so I decided to stay inside to avoid breaking the lights on my first loan.

Pretty much all of my shots were underexposed and required a boost in Lightroom. I really should have paid a bit more attention to the histogram instead of going off the image on the back of the camera. Rookie mistake number 6001. 

Overall it was good fun but definitely need more lighting practice as it took me so long to get the lighting half decent for each shot. Thanks must also go out to Tash for putting up with my experiments for 2 hours. 

Location Workshop Task 2 - 2 Outta 4 Shots

a) Create a portrait using one monobloc as the main light source.

For this one we tried to be a little creative and use one of the lifts on campus. After discovering that the powerpoint in the lift was busted we resorted to sandbagging the doors open and running an extension lead in (shssssh don't tell anyone).

f9 @200 ISO100

f9 @200 ISO100

f9 @200 ISO100

b) Create a portrait using two monoblocks. One as the main source and one as the fill.

For this portrait we moved into a tight balcony above the squash courts on campus. It looked good when shooting but didn't really get the shot I was looking for. We only got a few shots off before having to pack up. Think with a bit more time and experimentation it could turn out ok.

f13 @200 ISO100

f11 @200 ISO100

Portrait @ Dusk

Possibly under exposed. Hard with Phills dark clothes and the dark background. 

I like this shot better but not sure Belinda will consider it balanced.
Edited in LR to bring out some of the background lights and a bit more detail in his clothes. 

New Speedlight Kit

So after playing around in the studio and location classes with flash I decided to splash out on some cheap kit to experiment with. I purchased a 2.8m light stand with shoot through umbrella and also a 60cm softbox.

So far so good. The shoot through could use a little more diffusing but overall not bad for the price. Heres a few shots of the only willing subject I could find this afternoon. The garage obviously isnt the best location for the shots but it will have to do for now. I've had to touch up the exposure in a couple of the shots as I wasn't quite getting the spread of light I wanted. Hopefully a little more experimentation and possibly a reflector will help.

Task - Balancing Flash with Daylight

The 'Goldilocks' task. This task involved making 3 portraits using the sun and a single speed light as light sources.

Correct exposure on background with no flash.  f10 @ 200sec ISO 100

 The first portrait has a flash to daylight ratio which is too even and the flash overpowers the sunlight making the subject over exposed.

Over exposed. f10 @ 200sec ISO 100 +  flash @ 1/1

 The second shot the ratio is too uneven and the subject is under exposed.

Under exposed. f10 @ 200sec ISO 100 +  flash @ 1/64

 The 3rd shot the ratio is 'just right' (or slightly better in my case :)

Just right. f10 @ 200sec ISO 100 +  flash @ 1/8

The 2nd part of the task was to move indoors and backlight the subject with a view outside, then balance the exposure on the subject using the speed light. The process is definitely a little fiddly and something that will take some practice to get right.

A little unbalanced. f5 @ 200sec ISO 100 +  flash @ ??

I then played around a little with off camera speedlight in the corridor . As I still have no radio triggers I just turned the popup flash compensation on my camera to 0 and used it as the trigger for my SB600. As this method needs line of sight from camera to speedlight there were a few miss fires in the process which you wouldn't want in a normal shoot.

f8 @ 200 sec flash below right.

f2.8 @160sec flash bounced up off left wall

Example of bounce flash

The below image is an example of bounce flash. The photographer has bounced the flash somewhere behind and above them to the left. The indirect light is softer and gives a more appealing balance between the light and dark areas.

Photo borrowed from http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/4-bouncing-flash/

Bounce Flash Task

This task involved using an on camera speedlight to light a subject indoors.

The speedlight was used in the following ways:

Directly pointed at the subject - This method produced a pretty flat even light with some harsh shadows. The result was pretty unpleasing to the eye.

Direct Flash

Bounced off the ceiling - This method produced one of the more appealing portraits from the set of 5. The flash light combined with the ambient light created nice definitions on the subjects face with subtle shadows. The direct bounce did cause a little more exposure on the subjects forehead area but it wasn't too bad.

Flash Off Ceiling

Bounced off a coloured wall - This method produced a pretty nasty colour cast over the entire subject. Not recommended.

Flash Off Coloured Wall

Bounced off a white wall - Similarish results to the ceiling method, although the shadows on the face on the opposite side to the flash bounce had some pretty horrible shadows in the eye socket and cheek area. We were still very close to the red wall in this shot and you can still see some colour cast as a result.

Flash Off White Wall

Adjusted to give what I think is a nice exposure - For this shot I angled the flash upwards and backwards to  to the left to bounce off a spot where the wall and ceiling were meeting. There was ambient light coming in through a set of doors to the subjects left and I wanted to try and add some soft fill light to the subject. The result borders on being quite flat but I don't mind it.

Flash Adjusted To Give Nice Exposure

How Flash Works

How does electronic flash work?

• A flash unit consists of a tube filled with xenon gas, with electrodes on either end and a metal trigger plate at the middle of the tube.This is connected to a circuit including a small battery as the power supply.
• Low electrical current from the battery is converted to a high voltage current  (couple hundred volts) by using transformers in the circuit (two inductors of coiled wire with varying number of loops).
• High voltage current is stored in two capacitors (large and small). 
• When flash is fired, the energy in the small capacitor is applied as a high voltage pulse to the metal trigger plate in the middle of the xenon tube which causes the gas in the tube to ionize (negative electrons are freed from atoms).
• Ionization makes the gas conductive, and the big capacitor starts to discharge through the xenon gas.
• Negative electrons are attracted to the positively charged terminal. As they speed towards the terminal they collide with xenon atoms which become energised and produce light.
• When the large capacitor is empty (or is cut off in the case of manual power settings lower than full) the xenon gas stops conducting electricity and the light dies off.

Describe/define ‘electronic flash synchronisation’
Electronic flash synchronisation refers to the synchronisation of the flash to the shutter to ensure that the entire frame gets exposed to the light and the shutter does not block any part of the frame 
during the flash burst. As the flash burst is very short the cameras shutter speed needs to be long enough to include a moment where the whole frame is exposed. This is also known as the camea's synchronisation speed. 

Identify your camera’s synchronisation speed

Up to 1/250 sec. 
Flash synchronization up to 1/320s (FP) adjustable with Built-in Speedlight or optional Speedlight (will reduce GN)