flash, another rff poll

[Silver]

First wedding I ever shot I was using a hassy rig with a vivitar 283 converted to a bare bullb parabolic reflector. I hit a guy square in the face candid, and he gave me gried for blinding him and he laid into me. Was one of the coolest shots I got all night though...so I thought.

Leica with flash? I got some nice shots of a black and white english setter on a hardwood floor once. Also shot a high school prom or two, but never leica. That's for the light already there so I say never...yet. I did just buy a vivitar 2800.

 

[laptoprob]

If and only if I want to use flash I will be doing it with the CLE. It has the brilliant flash system which I know from the similar SLR's. Sounds silly to trust a computer system on lighting but it really works.
Drawback is the flash is almost bigger than the tiny CLE, but it is powerful and full-featured.

But mostly I prefer available light to capture more atmosphere. That is a big advantage with rangefinder photography. A flash makes the camera very present, people tend to notice the photog too much. In other words, it is harder to blend in and make photos almost unnoticed.

In daylight a little fill-in flash can work miracles too.

cheers, Rob.

 

[franceluxemburg]

Yes, i use flash.
I set the outputpower at the minimum level to catch as much as the available light as possible.

J-B

 

[RayPA]

I use it only for family photos, record keeping type stuff. I use it almost every time I use my Minilux. It's one of the few things I have control over on a p&s. BTW, I chose the last option.


🙂

 

[allthumbs]

I always liked HCB's comment that use of flash was akin to arriving at the opera with a handgun.

Is that a good or a bad thing to do?

do you flash?

Only if I'm really, really drunk and there is nothing available that would be more reflective than my bare skin.

On the other hand, if you're talking about small flash units that are typically mounted on-camera, I avoid as much as possible. So much so that I wouldn't even know how to use one if I had to. So I guess the answer works out to "never". They give a distinctive look to a photograph, which in general I do not want, although someday I may want precisely that look, which means I should probably learn how to use one...

Thanks for the question.

 

[oftheherd]

Well, I voted sure it's a part of photography. The three choices don't exactely fit for me. I do like available light photography where flash would ruin the "look" of the photo. But of course other times flash is what is going to get you a photo you want. Either because it's too dark otherwise, or because fill is needed. I don't try to use flash all the time either. Just when I think it is needed.

Interesting question though.

 

[oftheherd]

Some operas deserve a handgun.

I use a Flash now and then. Usually bounced off a wall or cieling.

A long time ago I photgraphed a friends truck at night. I painted it with light using a cheap flash set for its lowest power.

Too bad it was an slr shot. I didn't know about rangefinders then.

I haven't painted with light in years. I once had to photograph the inside of a burned out church where part of the roof had been burned through or was vented. I went at night, using a tripod, 18mm lens from the balcony, and painted using flash bulbs rather that the 285 or Sunpak 522 I had. Bulbs seem to give a more even and less harsh light. I shot two or three frames to insure I got it right. Lucky because in one I still managed to catch a ghost of myself. I still keep flash bulbs and some tilt-a-mites in case I ever feel the need to do something like that again.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

are you guys trying to 'class' up my poll with all this opera talk?

😉

I think it was Mark Twain that was asked what he thought of the first opera that he attended and he said, "I haven't heard anything like that since the Orphanage burnt down".

No need for a handgun at an opera. My definition of opera: Death by music.

I do use flash off camera and in multiples of up to 5 at a time.

Wayne

 

[danielnorton]

flash

flash

More than half of my shoots (especially now in the winter) are lit studio shots, so it's part of my work for sure. I got into rangefinders to shoot available light, but I love to look the RF glass gives me and the feel in my hand of the camera, so I started using RFs for pretty much all my 35mm work.

Now if we are talking on camera flash, I don't use that very much, and when I know I will need to I use my Hexar AF, that flash system works great for me.

 

[yossarian]

Hey, the opera stuff is classic. Reminds me of Pauline Kael's review of "A Night at the
Opera": "The Marx Bros, doing to 'Il Trovatore what SHOULD be done to 'Il Trovatore'".

My answer is "no".

 

[Scarpia]

I use it as a last resort, but if there is no available light, one must provide one's own.
I always liked HCB's comment that use of flash was akin to arriving at the opera with a handgun. That is indeed something I might be accused of doing...

I only bring a handgun to performances of Die Meistersinger. By firing at the right times no one hears the shots and no one notices the casualties on stage.
I only use flash for family snapshots at home. The most frustrating thing that occasionally happens is when I carry a P&S for street shooting because of its pocketability, the auto flash goes off because I have forgotten or failed to turn it off.
Kurt M.

 

[Honu-Hugger]

With the number of firearms and concealed carry permits in Idaho it's no wonder we don't have opera...I just never made the correlation before now.

 

[Scarpia]

Hey, the opera stuff is classic. Reminds me of Pauline Kael's review of "A Night at the
Opera": "The Marx Bros, doing to 'Il Trovatore what SHOULD be done to 'Il Trovatore'".

My answer is "no".

Have met Kitty Carlysle Hart several times as she used to kick off NY State employees United Fund effort 20 years ago or so. She starred in " A Night at the Opera". Last week, now 95 years old she was interviewed by PBS station WNYC.
We should all be so sharp at 95. She is still performing occassionally at upscale cocktail lounges in NYC and is currently doing so.
Kurt M.

 

[sbug]

I chose "never, I am available light or go home" but that's mostly because I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to using flash. I have one but I haven't spent time yet to figure it out.

 

[dostacos]

currently I use my canonet 17 with it's flash when needed.

I will be shooting my oldest son's wedding in July [also have a paid wedding photog to the tune of $3500 😱 ] I will be shooting B&W the pro I believe will be shooting digital

my plan it to work with my Bessa R and 35MM with flash on one body and the 50/1.5MM available light on the other.

so now I need to choose a flash for the Bessa and practice, practice, practice 🙄

 

[RML]

I don't use flash at all. And available light to me regularly means that there's plenty of light, even until deep at night. I just have to find a place that's not completely blacked out and I can take a photo of it. 🙂

 

[jlw]

Sure, I use flash -- but 99% of the time it's in studio settings, where I need to be able to construct the light "environment."

Once in a very great while I'll use off-camera flash to add modeling in a flatly-lit available-light setting, such as a fluorescent-lit office.

Flash on camera? Only in a dire emergency (I think my last such dire emergency happened about five years ago, and the picture came out crummy anyway.) Built-in flash? Ewww...

 

[jonasv]

I will be shooting my oldest son's wedding in July [also have a paid wedding photog to the tune of $3500 😱 ] I will be shooting B&W the pro I believe will be shooting digital

😱

$ 3500 !!!

You should have asked a couple of RFF'ers, I think five or six non-professional photographers together could take at least as many keepers as one pro. Would have saved you a lot of money! 😉

 

[dmr]

Flash may be part of photography, but I don't like it. The light it produces is harsh and it disrupts the goings-on. It attracts too much attention.

My dad's old lightbulb-size flash bulbs always scared the cat and annoyed me. The thing I liked about having that first rangefinder with the fast lens was that I could take indoors, usually, without flash.

And then there's Weegee ...

 

[Chaser]

Many times a flash is required, especially if you're getting paid for the shots; but I don't like using them generally. 😎

I will very rarely use a flash, i have gotten paid for over a year as photoeditor and chief photographer for a small weekly newspaper, and i rare....very rarely use flash. Honestly i have only used a flash for 5 shots in about a year. It is a sort of personal choice. Though i may not be doing real hardcore journalistic work i try to avoid flash because i feel that it gives a false look to a photo that implies that everything happens in ideal light. If a bus crashed on a county road at night the people who expirianced it did not do so by bright daylight balance light. ... but this is different than portraits or a wedding or such where the idea is to give the subject what they want and expect.