Follow the Light

The other night we had an event shoot in a classic dimly lit banquet hall.  This is always an issue, even for the most experienced or well equipment photographer.  Obviously, a flash is needed to accomplish any type of properly exposed photos. Well, I’m not going to talk as much about the full-sized flashes. Reason being mine took a poop during the event. It was misfiring and not responding to changes from the camera. What is one to do? Well, if you’re rich, you’ll have a spare flash and life will go on. I currently do not have the luxury. I was forced to use the on-camera flash. As many people know this isn’t always the most flattering of options. The on-camera flash is usually very harsh and direct light. There are ways around this, and here are a few tricks. The first thing you should try and get is a diffusion dome for the flash itself. This mounts to the top of your camera, just in front of the flash.  This will majorly reduce the harsh light emitted from your flash. These cool tech-toys can be purchased at your local photo supply store or online. If you don’t mind a little wait, buying from a seller in China on eBay is a cost effective way to pick one of these up.

So now let’s say you don’t have a fancy little gadget like that… Well, here is an in-camera way to get a night-n-day difference.  Go into your camera flash setting and see your options. You should have a few choices depending on your brand.  Auto, Fill, Wireless, and something called Sync or maybe Rear, again depending on your make & model. Well, select the Rear/Sync option and shoot away. This is a really cool trick that I originally read about in Scott Kelby’s ‘The Digital Photography Book’.  Excellent books by the way for beginners, novices and professionals. Super tips! Rear/Sync allows the camera to expose for the background first and then flash. This allows the photo to light the rear of the photo and expose correctly for the foreground. View the photo below to see what I’m saying.

Before After

I hope these tips will help you out while you’re on your shoot. The beauty of art is there is NO wrong way to accomplish something, so be sure to TRY EVERYTHING to get the shot. Good luck and happy shooting.

Comments

[Anthony Rossneri]

Tony, excellent advice ... beginner's question - how do you reduce the reflection in shiny object caused by the flash. You know what I mean ... you get these bright white spots somewhere in the photo that you just can't seem to avoid ... do the techniques you listed in your post also address that issue?

[Tony Ramirez]

Hey Anthony,

Thanks for your reply as always. Let me answer your question. Actually, one of the techniques will work. The Rear/Sync won't work. The flash will still be harsh on a shiny object. So, the answer is the diffusion. The will spread the light reducing its flare on the shining object. If you don't have one of these tech-toys, another budget trick to diffuse the light is go buy some cheap butcher's or wax paper. The cheaper the better, because it will be thinner. Cut out a good sized rectangle and hold it in front of your flash, about an inch away, and start firing. This will create a very nice soft light. Pull the "diffusion" farther away from the flash and you will get different effects with the light. Again, there is NO wrong way. So try it out and see what you get. Happy shooting.