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#1
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening
the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave |
#2
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
David wrote:
I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. That should only work if you press the AE or green button to get a meter reading, otherwise there is nothing to tell the camera how to expose or flash unit how to fire. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). This sounds like it would only be true if your accessory flashgun is attached and turned on or the camera's pop-up flash is in the up/on position, otherwise there would be no reason for the flash to fire in the first place. When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Flash (assuming that it's only used for fill) may not match the colour balance of the main lighting, ie: the main ambient lighting is tungsten (which is redish/yellowish) and the flash (white/bluish) create two areas of different colour temperature in your image that can't be balanced out by the camera's WB setting or in your editing program. There are at least two possible ways around this: 1)Use your flash to be the primary lighting for the pictures, setting your camera's WB to "flash" and overwhelm the ambient lighting with the flash. 2)Put a colour correction filter over the flashgun so that the light coming out of it matches the ambient lighting and then using a WB to match. Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave |
#3
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
David wrote:
I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? WB is an issue but apart from that, ambient light just looks more natural for lighting things beyond the range of the flash and avoiding shadows. See if your camera has the ability to turn down the flash so that the ambient light can be the primary light and flash provides fill. That will look best (WB aside). Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. |
#4
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
In article ,
"David" wrote: I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave The flash power can be used to decide how much of the background is visible. For example, when I took photos of a friend's wedding I used an aperture of F1.4 with no flash. The background was blurred yet it was still overwhelmed with clutter and distractions. The pro photographer used a high power flash at close range so that the background was completely black. If the background is very beautiful, meter the exposure from the background and use fill flash to make the foreground just as bright. For example, taking photos of people with a sunset in the background. |
#5
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
"Kevin McMurtrie" wrote in message ... In article , "David" wrote: I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave The flash power can be used to decide how much of the background is visible. For example, when I took photos of a friend's wedding I used an aperture of F1.4 with no flash. The background was blurred yet it was still overwhelmed with clutter and distractions. The pro photographer used a high power flash at close range so that the background was completely black. If the background is very beautiful, meter the exposure from the background and use fill flash to make the foreground just as bright. For example, taking photos of people with a sunset in the background. Doesn't metering look at the amount of light in the scene to determine the shutter/aperture or in the case of manual mode the amount of flash required to expose the scene correctly? You said meter from the background- what if the background is brighter than the foreground, wouldn't metering the background cause the foreground to be overexposed? |
#6
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
"Paul Furman" wrote in message . net... David wrote: I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? WB is an issue but apart from that, ambient light just looks more natural for lighting things beyond the range of the flash and avoiding shadows. See if your camera has the ability to turn down the flash so that the ambient light can be the primary light and flash provides fill. That will look best (WB aside). I think my camera (EOS350D) provides fill flash in Tv and Av modes and primary lighting in M mode- if anyone knows for sure please verify or correct me. I have been using the manual mode b/c indoors the lighting is so dim that my flash (430EX) usually overpowers the tungsten in the first place and even with the flash, when I'm shooting in Av mode I usually end up kicking the ISO up to 1600 and the shutter speed is still so slow that I need a tripod and pictures of living things end up blurred. Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. |
#7
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
"Kevin McMurtrie" wrote in message ... In article , "David" wrote: I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave The flash power can be used to decide how much of the background is visible. For example, when I took photos of a friend's wedding I used an aperture of F1.4 with no flash. The background was blurred yet it was still overwhelmed with clutter and distractions. The pro photographer used a high power flash at close range so that the background was completely black. If the background is very beautiful, meter the exposure from the background and use fill flash to make the foreground just as bright. For example, taking photos of people with a sunset in the background. Also, I thought the higher powered flash simply allowed for flash coverage at greater distances... I can hardly tell a difference between using my camera's built in flash and the external flash (EOS350D/430EX) aside from the fact that the external flash can be used for bounce and I use a diffuser with it. I would guess a fast shutter speed would be best for obtaining a dark background but I'm not sure what aperture would be preferable in that case? |
#8
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
Have a read through here. Fantastic article is you are using Canon.
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ "David" wrote in message . .. I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave |
#9
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
In article ,
"David" wrote: "Kevin McMurtrie" wrote in message ... In article , "David" wrote: I often shoot indoors in the evening using aperture-priority mode, opening the aperture until the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. I realize a tripod or faster lens can help out here. A few weeks ago I learned that I can use Manual mode to choose any shutter speed and aperture opening and the flash seems to compensate to shoot a picture that is properly exposed. Someone told me that in aperture-priority mode the flash is used for fill but in manual mode it is used for primary lighting (not in those exact words but that's what I remember, please re-explain using the correct nomenclature if you can). When using flash white balance wouldn't one desire that the flash light the scene? Why/when would ambient lighting be preferred over flash? Pointers to sites/books that might help me understand better would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave The flash power can be used to decide how much of the background is visible. For example, when I took photos of a friend's wedding I used an aperture of F1.4 with no flash. The background was blurred yet it was still overwhelmed with clutter and distractions. The pro photographer used a high power flash at close range so that the background was completely black. If the background is very beautiful, meter the exposure from the background and use fill flash to make the foreground just as bright. For example, taking photos of people with a sunset in the background. Also, I thought the higher powered flash simply allowed for flash coverage at greater distances... I can hardly tell a difference between using my camera's built in flash and the external flash (EOS350D/430EX) aside from the fact that the external flash can be used for bounce and I use a diffuser with it. I would guess a fast shutter speed would be best for obtaining a dark background but I'm not sure what aperture would be preferable in that case? Darken the background by diffusing your flash and getting close. You'll need to manually set a high flash power in some way. By default the camera will mix ambient and flash light. |
#10
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Flash vs. Ambient light...
"Gino" wrote in message ... Have a read through here. Fantastic article is you are using Canon. http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ Thank you for the link, this is a great resource. I am confused on switching between Av, Tv, and M modes though for the following reasons... The paper states "Canon EOS cameras always default to fill flash mode when the camera is in Tv, Av and M modes," (http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-f...tml#fillflash). I just took two pictures under my desk (rather dark) with the 350D and 430EX. The first was in M mode 1/125 s, f/5.6, ISO 100. The shot looks to be exposed properly. The second was in Av mode f/5.6, ISO 100. The camera chose a shutter speed of 15 s. The shot is a bit brighter than the previous. From the sound of the flash recharging I could tell that neither used the flash at full power. Why did the camera choose 15 s in Av mode when in M mode 1/125 s was sufficient. It seems to me that the M mode shot was not operating in "fill flash" mode like the website stated. I am still working on getting through this part but the answer didn't immediately jump out at me http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-f...html#confusion. I wish that the exif data contained two more pieces of information: 1. If the flash was operating as "fill flash" or "regular flash." 2. What flash power level was used. |
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