Obsessed with Available Light

[teo]

I've never done a photo with flash.
I've instead bought a casual flash (just because was 3€, a Vivitar) to experiment with looong exposures and handhold (colored) and manually operated multiple flashing of a scene... (as seen in http://www.thenocturnes.com)

at least, it's what I'm gonna try to do...

 

[c.poulton]

I never use flash - never have and probably never will. As the poll states - if it's light enough for me to see it's light enough for my camera......

I am still saving up for that Noctilux though!

 

[MinorTones]

For RF stuff, my personal work I never really use one. I just use a faster film. As a photojournalist I have to use one for most indoor shots due to shooting with longer glass. I switch lenses a lot. I just bounce it off the ceiling with a little fill card added in. I think of it as a neccesary evil.

That big flash of light is disruptive for the first few shots, but after that people ignore it and me so I can get all the candids I need. I just keep my mouth shut, go to work and pretend nobody can see me

-Mitch

 

[MinorTones]

Here is a little for instance. Even though it isn't RF I wouldn't have gotten this shot without a flash bounced off the ceiling because I was using a long lens and any ISO above 800 with a Nikon D1-H is a big no no. It was taken during an interview with this guy.

If I was using my M6 though I would not have been using a flash, but then again I would have taken a different picture maybe. RF is a different way of photographing and seeing for me.

My point is flash is good(for some things), it isn't scary and its not all for noobies.

-Mitch

 

[VinceC]

I got to be very capable with flash in my photojournalism days. I think it's an extremely useful tool to learn how to use. You can then choose not to use it 99 percent of the time, while knowing that when one of those 1 percent moments takes place, you can handle flash comfortably and as unobtrusively as possible. I nearly always carry a small bounce-flash and cord in my bag, even though I hardly ever take them out and use them. (Bouncing is also good manners because it prevents you from blinding anyone).

 

[Leica Geek]

I use flash once in a while, but only with my G2. I has to be pretty dark for me to use flash. I don't really enjoy the way it looks.

 

[VinceC]

MinorTones,
That's a great use of flash.

 

[BillRogers]

Many wedding photogs use too much flash. OTOH, flash, used correctly, lightens the shadows in eye sockets and adds catchlights to the eyes. It's essential to get the flash off camera as much as possible. Remote flash units also can provide backlighting.

Anyone who shoots a wedding without flash is doing it to please himself or herself, not the bride and groom. And that's bad business.

 

[davidbivins]

I only use flash for an over-the-top obvious effect: shutter drag kind of stuff or garish Polaroids. I don't understand how to use a flash well, but I know how to stop down to f22 and take a one-second shot while firing a flash with my other hand, manually.

Honus - c'mon. I know you can go down to 1/15.
Your reply cracked me up. Last night I walked the dog in a snow shower and I was desperate to keep playing with a new Leica III that had arrived the day before. So I took it out in the snow with the Jupiter 3 lens that came with it and shot Tri-X at 1600iso, f1.5, 1/15 and 1/30.

 

[nikon_sam]

I used to HATE having to use a flash, But had to get over that and really learn to use one...Mostly for church and the kid's high school stuff...
BUT for my B&W shooting "Available Light" is the best...

It's funning that some Studio Photographers don't know how to shoot in Natural Light...

 

[lubitel]

I love shooting in available light. The only part that sucks about it is people saying: "your flash didnt go off!"

 

[drewbarb]

I'm suprised at this. With so many good photographers here, it strikes me as weird that so few of you use flash. With a couple of notable exceptions in this thread, you all seem to be (pretty virulently!) anti-flash. I can only assume you are thinking of on-camera automatic flash and flat, over-lit, and all around bad pictures. This is a shame. Any good photographer will tell you that flash units can and should be very useful tools. Light is the essence of what we do, and understanding and controling light, rather than merely observing it, is the key to good photography- even with rangefinder cameras. Not just for light with which to make the exposure, but for a million different creative uses, I always have at least a small flash and a longish sync cord in my bag, along with some white cards and maybe a plastic diffuser. For jobs, I'll have two or three, along with a radio tansmitter and reciever, and some reflectors, and various other light shaping tools.

I assume tht with all your available light shooting, you are aware of shadows and other areas with less light. I will also assume that at least a few of you use these areas on purpose, hopefully in creative ways. Using flash should be no less intentional or creative. I answered the poll "As needed" and while I occasionally use fill flash, I will just as often put them behind subjects to create separation, hold them off camera to get angled light, aim that at specific points for accents or to bring out features, etc. etc. You guys should get creative, and start using all the tools available to you. If photography is writing with light, you should put some ink in your pens!

 

[varjag]

Thing is, there are certain styles that discourage using flash. Inobtrusive, bystander street photography is one of them and is central in the work of many people here.

I voted for "only in extreme situations". Looking though my frames done with flash, more often than not I just want I did without it back then.

 

[sf]

I NEVER use flashes or any kind of artificial lighting.

Well. I did ONCE, but that was in a studio.

With the RF645, I have never once used a flash. And I never will.

 

[charjohncarter]

Nothing in the poll fit me. I rarely use flash and then only with an outdoor portrait.

 

[Eric T]

I prefer not to use flash but I know there are times when I would benefit from it. I need to spend time learning the proper and appropriate use of flash. If I mastered it, I would use it more often - perhaps 5% of the time.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I use flash a lot of the time, but then I pretty much suck as a photographer:

Wayne

 

[Nokton48]

When it is appropriate.

When it is appropriate.

I rarely use flash with my rangefinder cameras. When I do, I use a Vivitar 283, mounted on a Stroboframe bracket. That is, not often.

That said, I use flash quite often. I have portable units from 50/100WS, all the way up to a Broncolor Hazylight connected to a 6000WS power pack.

 

[jlw]

I never use a flash on a camera, but I use studio flash a lot. I didn't know how to vote that preference, so I didn't vote.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I loathe using flash. I loathe those P&S indoors going off making me blind, too.

I only use flash when I necessarily, imperatively, must.

My flash has stayed in its case for the past four months; which is too long, because I must fire it once in a while, at least once a month, to keep it in shape.