SerialCoder
Why we like off camera...
I’ve been into photography for most of my adult life. I was reared by a shutterbug, I majored in it in college, I shot professionally and now it’s my anti-drug (so to speak). I’ve been kicking around flickr for about a year and it occurred to me that many of my hobbyist counterparts may not understand the big deal with off-camera flash and why people go to through so much trouble messing with it. I thought a quick and dirty comparison of the same exact (almost) scene might help to illustrate.
In this comparison, the top image was shot on program mode (1/60 @ 2.8) with the flip-up on-camera flash of the Canon XT. The bottom was shot on Manual (1/60 @ f 2.2) Essentially the only difference is the light source and a small change in the exposure. The off camera setup was bounced off of a wall about 7 feet from the subjects front right side. The power of the flash was set low.
Technical crap aside, the important part is how the image “feels” I would say that the image shot with off camera “feels” natural. The reality as far as I can tell is that it is fact much closer to real. We are just not use to your snapshots looking very real. This reality has to do with the shadows. We never really see people with a light source that beams from our vantage point. We see the light from the lamps and windows that bounce and play with our subjects to create ever changing shadows. This is eliminated with the on-camera flash leaving us with a representation far from the reality of “natural” light. If we go with room light, most of the time we are left short. This is why the color balanced flash moved away from the camera makes for a nice treat.
Another Tip: If you want to save the planet, your psyche, and improve your images, change all of the light bulbs in your house to daylight balanced CFL’s. (make sure the fine print says 5000K or 6500K all the rest are crap) They provide a very nice (almost natural) color balanced scene that most cameras will not cast with the dreaded tungsten yellow death. Google it if you have the time. Cheers!
Why we like off camera...
I’ve been into photography for most of my adult life. I was reared by a shutterbug, I majored in it in college, I shot professionally and now it’s my anti-drug (so to speak). I’ve been kicking around flickr for about a year and it occurred to me that many of my hobbyist counterparts may not understand the big deal with off-camera flash and why people go to through so much trouble messing with it. I thought a quick and dirty comparison of the same exact (almost) scene might help to illustrate.
In this comparison, the top image was shot on program mode (1/60 @ 2.8) with the flip-up on-camera flash of the Canon XT. The bottom was shot on Manual (1/60 @ f 2.2) Essentially the only difference is the light source and a small change in the exposure. The off camera setup was bounced off of a wall about 7 feet from the subjects front right side. The power of the flash was set low.
Technical crap aside, the important part is how the image “feels” I would say that the image shot with off camera “feels” natural. The reality as far as I can tell is that it is fact much closer to real. We are just not use to your snapshots looking very real. This reality has to do with the shadows. We never really see people with a light source that beams from our vantage point. We see the light from the lamps and windows that bounce and play with our subjects to create ever changing shadows. This is eliminated with the on-camera flash leaving us with a representation far from the reality of “natural” light. If we go with room light, most of the time we are left short. This is why the color balanced flash moved away from the camera makes for a nice treat.
Another Tip: If you want to save the planet, your psyche, and improve your images, change all of the light bulbs in your house to daylight balanced CFL’s. (make sure the fine print says 5000K or 6500K all the rest are crap) They provide a very nice (almost natural) color balanced scene that most cameras will not cast with the dreaded tungsten yellow death. Google it if you have the time. Cheers!