Fill Flash like David Alan Harvey

Keith said:
If a mod happens to stumble across this thread ... could you please move it to the 'Off Topic' forum!

:angel:
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Are you kidding with this or no? I'm not sure how to take it--I realize dead-pan sarcasm does not translate well on blogs, and that may be the culprit in this case.

However, if this remark is serious, allow me to retort.

This is the 'technique' section. The question I asked meets the 'technique' and 'how to shoot it' criteria of the thread.

I use a rangefinder, as does David Alan Harvey (who could be termed a street photographer in some respects), and it happens to be his 'technique' with said rangefinder that we are discussing. Hence, this is a rangefinder technique.

The fact that it involves flash is of no consequence--it is simply a 'technique.'

Also, any technical issues that are being discussed all fall in line with employing a certain 'technique'---(the question about the flash trigger voltage falls in line with this because neither I, nor anyone else, want to fry the innards on their camera trying to pull off said 'technique')

Therefore, I feel this thread has never once gone off-topic, and falls in line with the prescribed rules of the thread content.

Therefore, if you can't contribute to the discussion, quit trolling the tread.
 
wilonstott said:
Are you kidding with this or no? I'm not sure how to take it--I realize dead-pan sarcasm does not translate well on blogs, and that may be the culprit in this case.

However, if this remark is serious, allow me to retort.

This is the 'technique' section. The question I asked meets the 'technique' and 'how to shoot it' criteria of the thread.

I use a rangefinder, as does David Alan Harvey (who could be termed a street photographer in some respects), and it happens to be his 'technique' with said rangefinder that we are discussing. Hence, this is a rangefinder technique.

The fact that it involves flash is of no consequence--it is simply a 'technique.'

Also, any technical issues that are being discussed all fall in line with employing a certain 'technique'---(the question about the flash trigger voltage falls in line with this because neither I, nor anyone else, want to fry the innards on their camera trying to pull off said 'technique')

Therefore, I feel this thread has never once gone off-topic, and falls in line with the prescribed rules of the thread content.

Therefore, if you can't contribute to the discussion, quit trolling the tread.
Click to expand...


Well ... you certainly bit! :D (it was meant as dead pan humour sorry)

On a more serious note this thread has actually been very interesting because my knowledge of using a flash is very limited and was helped considerably by a book on OM Olympus I have ... thirty pages on flash usage!

Some of the information here has been very useful and filled in the gaps that the Oly book left out.
 
Wil O., I use the 1/4 CTO gel. But you have to be careful with gels. You can easily mix color temperatures (daylight and gel light). With film I really don't like them much. With DSLR; they are so sensitive to color temperature that studio guys use them a lot.

You will find that even with a diffuser you are going to have shadows. It is very hard to not get them when using single flash. As you said the best way is to have the flash so weak it is hardly noticed, but that is not the way DAH did it.

Trigger voltages here:

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html
 
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Using flash effectively in photography is just like anything else in terms of technique. You can spend a lot of time on the internet, reading, pouring over the details, critically analyzing a you tube video all you want, that won't solve the equation though.

What will solve it is practice, practice, practice. Firstly, flash is light, it is just like ambient, but it is of a short duration, so it has potential for both positive and negative effects. People tend to use too much of it, use it in very boring ways and like a lot of photography out there, the feel of the light, the wrap of it is just plain lousy in many photos. This is something that can not be measured, technically equated, it has to be felt, instinctively and that happens over time.

I have been shooting 10-20 rolls of Kodachrome a day here in New Orleans, a lot with flash. Sometimes direct, often not. Often gelled, deep reds, blues, amber, even green to mix it up. I bounce it off of walls, people, mirrors, even my t-shirt. I have used the "Beer" light, the napkin, paper towels, paper cups, anything and everything you can imagine.

I will often use anything I can to make the light a more natural looking part of a scene...I hate flash when it is obvious in terms of color, the washed out look or snap shot-ish.

If you want to do better work with flash, learn to be a master at light, then it will come naturally.
 
Fill flash is mostly hit or miss, especially with slide film. I own several bare bulb strobes , but I rather use a silver/white reflector or foamcore if possible .
 
I think Pablito's advice is very good. A DSLR is your friend when learning how to balance flash with ambient light. Instant feedback and low cost per image.
 
Thanks a lot guys. I'm going to try some of these things over the holidays--when my extended family is essentially held hostage by themselves--and see what comes out. I'll try some slide film as well (I just found out my university processes slide film on Tuesday afternoons for 4 DOLLARS A ROLL, done WHILE YOU WAIT---sorry but I had to tell someone, and that someone needed to understand what a big deal it is--like I'm sure you guys do).
In response to a few things about digital--oddly enough I don't own a digital camera with a hot shoe. I suppose I could borrow someone's, but that involves effort (effort bad.).

Anyway--I'd love to see some more examples of fill flash use--with explanation of technique.
Thanks guys.
 
I don't know if you have used Fuji color packfilm for Polaroid, it drops off in the shadows fast, is but I rigged up an electronic flash with it. It has a fixed aperture for outdoors of f8.8 so I used f5.6 auto on my strobe. I was a little too much to the left and the flash should have been f 4 but still I like the picture:

3838478188_2983ed4016.jpg


This is Elitechrome using the auto setting I don't remember but there was a two stop difference:

4752731317_7cb3662c4b.jpg


As you can see the kid has the shadow side to his face facing the camera (Topcon Unirex-leaf shutter SLR). I used Kodak Gold 100. This time I used a Vivitar 5000 Macro ring flash to really fill (again 2 stops):

4607028445_0af412a24e.jpg
 
These days, it is easy to find/buy cheap Vivitar flashes at local camera stores.

They are almost a dime a dozen. You can pick up a Vivitar 283 (probably the best higher-power strobe ever made and still current) for next to nothing and the smaller bounce style Vivitars 2800's, 550 FD (probably the best mid-power strobe ever made) models are a few dollars.

So you can either get spares or set up a small studio arrangement using cheap light slaves easily.
 
If you're looking to preserve the natural appearance of the ambient light, then you need to be shooting a very low power setting for fill. A lot of the examples I've seen are not fill at all - they are just full on lit with flash, up to the metered level of the ambient light. Your fill should probably be 4 or 5 stops under ambient if you want the scene to look natural. For me the key is the shadow areas. I think the point of the on-camera fill in the example you cited is to give just a hint of life to the eyes - even if there is little effect of extremely low-powered fill on the shadow areas (which is what you want I think) you will still see the flash reflected in the eyes of the subject, if they are looking at the camera.
 
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