You ever get the "where's the flash?"

[NickTrop]

...question, when you're shooting your Yashica Electro? I got that at least three or four times over the last year since using my GSN. People are so used to slow lenses with flash... it's assumed indoors or at night. One person swore the pics I took and natural room light without a flash weren't going to "come out", and was semi-amazed that they were fine when I showed her the prints.

Anyone else ever get this?

 

[Pherdinand]

Moreover, people instantaneously admit that the non-flash pics (the ones that DO come out as they shuld, i e properly exposed and without motion blur) look much better than flashed ones. They cannot express why but if i ask around it, turns out that wjhat they see is, the non-flashed image has depth while the flashed one is flat.
Which is natural, since most flashes are on the camera so the light comes from the front, AND, they have very limited range so only closeby things are properly exposed.

 

[Keith]

Flash photos always have that "rabbit caught in the headlights" look to me!

😀

 

[Photog9001]

actually, i'm looking for the damn flash, can't seem to remember where i put it.

 

[NickTrop]

Honestly, flash photos are awful, as Pherdinand points out. Yeah, necessary sometimes but I avoid it at all costs. In addition to the deer caught in a headlight look, and flat look, I think those harsh shadows and blown-out foreground objects are the worst. I actually prefer the color cast on color prints taken w/o the flash to the aforementioned vices of flash pics.

 

[ijohnnyz]

I've had this ask many times. I've also had many people walk behind me, after I took the picture, and look over my shoulder for a LCD screen on the camera back. And to there confusion, I tell them it's film, not digital.

 

[Trius]

I really don't like flash websites, either.

But I do have a bunch of flashguns, all operable, though some only on AC. I've never tried flash on an RF except for the XA. Works OK, but I never really fiddled with it to see how good it could be.

 

[DMG]

flash when done properly can be very nice and subtle, I'm not a flasher 😱 but I respect people who can accentuate a shot by using it. Funnily enough I got the "let's see the picture then" the other week from a friend, they were disappointed when I told them it was film...don't know why

 

[RObert Budding]

Flash photos always have that "rabbit caught in the headlights" look to me!

😀

Actually, that would just indicate that the photographer does not know how to use flash. Done properly, flash can look perfectly natural and pleasing. You just need to move it off of the camera to give it direction and modify as needed. A small soft box or umbrella can work wonders.

 

[Pherdinand]

You just can't "do it properly" woth today's built-in flashes in small PS digicams.
Even the raised flash of some better cameras like SLR's are producing so-so results.

A big flash unit with swivel head, and bouncing off the ceiling, that works well, indeed.

 

[NickTrop]

Yes... some sort of bounce or diffuser works well. Also, daylight fill flash! Nice effect, and these leaf shutters are perfect for it. Great effect, try if if you haven't already. So, I take it back. Flash is okay sometimes but I opt for natural light candids where I can.

Speaking of which, I got some back today from a roll of Kodak UC Professional (nice film, a little pricey...). No flash on any of them, taken indoor mostly mixed light... high "keeper ratio", no flash.

 

[Trius]

There are usually tricks you can do with a built in flash as long as the camera/flash combo isn't totally automated.

 

[bsdunek]

Time - January, 1958. Sitting in an unheated stadium watching the Ice Show, which was part of the Winter Festival at Michigan Tech. Had my Retina Reflex S with the f1.9 lens, using Tri-X which I was pushing to 800.

The guy next to me kept telling me what an idiot I was because I was not using flash. Stadium was was pretty dark with spotlights on the subjects.

My photos came out fine. Saw him in the local camera shop a week or so later. getting his prints. There weren't any prints, as the film was just clear.

HA! 😎

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I like using the TTL flash meter in my M6TTL cameras. All I do is dial down one or two stops, drag the shutter and there you go, a photo that's decently exposed and doesn't look like taken with a flash because both, foreground and background are fairly well exposed. Try that with a super-automatic SLR. And sometimes even the manual ones: my Minolta 370S only used flash at 1/60.

With the silly digital p&s there's an easier fix: a white kleenex over the flash. I've helped people taking pictures around me by telling them to put a kleenex over the flash. When they've done it and can see the results on the screen they usually react by saying "how did you know that?"

I love it... 🙂

 

[BillBingham2]

I agree with some of the writers here, on camera flash, well, it's sub-optimal. But I would not give up on flash. I love RF for flash, used it for lots of weddings and event photography. The shots with flash stand out in my mind so I can see if I got expressions I wanted. Kind of like an LCD on the back of a digital camera.

I am in the process of breathing life back into a Vivitar 292 to use off camera (with a remote sensor on camera). I used 283 for years, but they are just a bit big for me today (getting old and picky I am).

I took a class at ICP (uptown) years ago that taught flash. A great short class with lots of hands on (polaroid instant slide film) was way cool for it. I loved the B&W slide stuff.

Get your flashes off camera, hold them in your left hand, focus and shot with your right (wind the flim with your right too). My 35 'cron and now my 40/1.4 CV have a tab that was just made for focusing with a ring finger.

Flash is no different from existing light, only brighter. It's a matter of painting the shadows, tweaking the size of the reflector (bounce perhaps) and thinking that makes flash photography work.

My father used to open up his flashes from work and put in a thin translusant film to cut down on the harshness of the light. Did wonders for his shots too (just like the kleenex idea from above).

B2 (;->

 

[tomtodeath]

yes, and also, "whoa! is that a camera?" (he meant to say, "..is that an SLR?" but said it wrong.

 

[smileyguy]

My response is slightly OT considering this is in the Yashica forum (I have a Konica Auto S3) but still on the topic of flash.

I took my wee RF to a gallery where my camera club was having a show and I wanted to get pics of my pics on the wall (first time... ). I took a couple of pics in the gallery--reasonable light, 800asa film--not a big deal. But at least two of my fellow club members spoke up right away saying, "Your flash didn't go off!" I don't even have a flash on the thing! I don't even have a flash! Pictures turned out just fine, too. Such sweeeeeet revenge.

 

[Superbus_]

The main reason I bought my yashica electro 35 gsn is the opportunity to avoid using flash and I'm happy with the results.

 

[drewbarb]

I took my wee RF to a gallery where my camera club was having a show and I wanted to get pics of my pics on the wall (first time... ). I took a couple of pics in the gallery--reasonable light, 800asa film--not a big deal. But at least two of my fellow club members spoke up right away saying, "Your flash didn't go off!" I don't even have a flash on the thing! I don't even have a flash! Pictures turned out just fine, too. Such sweeeeeet revenge.

I'm always amused when someone assumes one of the RF windows is a flash, and tells me it didn't go off. This happens almost every event I shoot.

The ideas here about diffusing and reflecting flash, and getting the flash off the camera, are really right on. And I'm glad someone else made the point about how nice it is to shoot flash with an RF, and be able to see it fire, and have the flashed moment frozen in your mind for a second. This really helps me evalute the shot, and know if I need to shoot another frame. Now, if I have to shoot a flash shot with an SLR, I don't even look through the camera, but rather directly at the subject, so I don't get the mirror black out and miss the moment. No more asking the subjects if my flash fired, or wondering what I got on film I learned this when I started using RF's, and I've found that all my flash shots are much better now that I use all these tricks, no matter what camera I'm using. But it's still most likely to be a rangefinder!

And another thing! Why does everyone complain about the slow 1/50th of a second flash sync of the Leica? I almost always drag the shutter when I shot flash to pick up the maximum amount of ambient. If I need the flash, I'm probably not shooting faster than 1/30th of a second anyway!