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Re: [OM] John Hermanson intro for the OM newbies

Subject: Re: [OM] John Hermanson intro for the OM newbies
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:49:50 -0500
> I think he meant that direct flash was ugly, which it is, except when used
> for fill-light. When I shoot events I always bounce it off the ceiling if
> possible. You shoot that kind of stuff far more than I do so I imagine you
> use bounce flash when possible too.

I'm using an Ultabounce (lumaquest's version of the Omnibounce) or the
FlashBender as my modifiers of choice.

The Ultra/Omni-bounce is a "throw light in every direction" modifier,
so I get some direct as well as bounce light. My flash is usually
pointed up 45 degrees so the bounce is substiantly ceiling. This works
really well when you camera-subject distance is far enough and the
ceiling is low enough. If I'm in a typical hotel conference center
room, we have 12-16' ceilings. To make this work right, my
camera-subject distance has to be about the same distance as the
ceiling height. But when working in closer (I like the 1-2 body length
distance), the bounce light has little affect on the subject, but does
help light the background a bit, providing a smoother lighting
roll-off, preventing the "cave-dweller" look.

The Flashbender allows me to shape the pattern a lot. I generally use
it to splash some of the light forward but allow it to throw some of
the light up to the ceiling. Occasionally, I'll shape it to the side
so I get a nice side-lighting that looks like I used two flashes to
accomplish. But that gets into artistic interpretation instead of
standard fare event coverage which is more generic.

The biggest problem with bounce flash is that it is such a
power-hungry affair. We need to really pound out the candlepower,
which chews up your batteries and forces you to wait between shots. I
prefer to work with a direct, but diffuse flash that softens the
shadows a bit without taking a 1-2 stop hit.

One of the nicest modifiers for on-camera lighting is one of those
Lumiquest mini soft boxes. They do a nice job of taking some of the
edge off of the light without killing your flash output power.
Depending on which one you get, they're usually about a 1/2 stop hit.
This allows me to stay in that 1/8 to 1/4 flash power with the subject
in that 1-2 body length distance. The light rolloff at that working
distance makes the typical background drop down 1-2 stops. On the
other hand, bounced light will usually keep the typical background
within 1/2 to 1 stop.

I'm contemplating giving up doing any more weddings. I love the money,
but really can live without the grief. I like event work because I'm
shooting for publication and corporate use. That's a different animal
for sure. I do a ton of event work for religious organizations and
sometimes those events tend to get a bit specialized in shooting
methodology. I'm going almost entirely no-flash for major portions of
that coverage except during specific moments. As much as I like
bounce, I will go raw flash up close (shadows and all), because a
little bit of direct flash is less disturbing to others.

Speaking of, I have this Rogue Grid attachment. When I'm in a
situation where I'm shooting somebody on stage with a telephoto lens
and I've got to keep flash to a minimum, I'll use the grid. This casts
a beam of light to the stage from the flash and since it doesn't
splash everywhere, it is almost invisible to the audience. The last
time I did this, I had the flash radio triggered so it wasn't the
nasty on-camera flash, but had the spot light look to it.

BTW, on a completely related note, the new Canon 5Dmk3 with the radio
trigger flashes has my full and undivided attention. This is a very
expensive system to buy into, but I am drooling over the concept of
having three flashes and one of these cameras.

-- 
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
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