I put my own $.02 into the "to flash or not to flash" discussion. To my
eyes, flash at its best disappears as a contrived light source and maybe
even looks sort of like real light, or perhaps, as in Chuck's examples, the
result is subtle and skillful enough that one just focuses on the subject
and does not think about the light source. I really appreciate and admire
that kind of work. It is truly a craft. Kudos to those of you who have
mastered it.
Once in a while, usually in the winter, I like to get my flashes out and
play with them. This year someone posted one of their photos, or a link to
someone else's, of an object (can't remember what it was) against a blurred
background of Christmas lights. I thought it was gorgeous. So I put a
couple of my wife's orchids on a table in front of our Christmas tree to
see what it might take to get a similar result. Because of differences in
background objects, distance between subject and background, focal length,
and so forth, I completely failed. But I still had some fun with the front
lighting. I used a cord to get my Vivitar 4600 off the camera and
experimented bouncing the main light at various angles to the ceiling.
Meanwhile, I had another Vivitar with a bare bulb head as a slave, and I
moved this around at various distances and angles ahead and to the side of
the subject.
I probably shot a dozen or so variations each of three different
settings/subjects. The current discussion of flash sent me back to have
another look with fresh eyes at the ones I thought were the most successful:
http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=11470
Thoughts? I would appreciate your criticism. The thing that is
frustrating for me is that there was so much experimentation involved that
I have no basis for repeatability at this point. I would just have to go
at it again. Plus, the bare bulb is a bit unpredictable and very dependent
on the room, distance, height. So many factors!
Joel W.
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|