I will readily admit that I am quite new to the world of flash. Simply because I could not afford one many years ago when I started taking photos, I just got used to doing without. In the mean time, I fell in love with natural light photography and the tones available without that awful flash.
Then, I saw good flash photography. I saw the light. Ha ha. And wow, what amazing things can be done with flash! So, though I still prefer natural light photography, I think it would be silly to ignore the development of my skills in using the flash. So, I am starting small, using what I have, and trying to be creative.
Earlier this month, a Chinese friend of mine called me up and said they were processing some tea (he is a tea producer, by the way), and invited me to come over and see how it was done. I had seen some of their machine production before, but this time, they were roasting by hand, literally.
I abhor straight-on flash. That is the perfect way to kill a decent photograph. So, I played around with boucing the flash a little. My first few shots were all like this one: very red. Then I realized what was going on: I was bouncing the flash with my hand. I do not know if it was the tint of the light going straight through my hand or the fleshy tint of my hand from the light bounding back off the wall. Regardless, I picked up something else to help bounce the light, that is, keep it from flying direct to the subject.
I saw a little blue piece of cardboard destined to become trash…that is, only after it had served its purpose for me. In this second shot, I am boucing the built-in flash on my D100 off the blue cardboard left to a concrete wall (less than a meter), which then bounces back into the giant tea wok (another meter) to produce a very different photograph.
Also, to get that groovy blur, I used the rear-sync flash. Meaning, if I am correct, it fires on the “back side” of the photograph, just before the shutter closes. The beautifully green fresh tea is a great contrast to the dark, iron wok. The color is much better and, in my opinion, facinating in the second shot. What do you think?
The green blur is pretty cool! I’ve felt the same about the in camera flash, but I’ve never thought of redirecting it like that! I just tried a simple shot like that in my room and it actually works really well!
I used to look at that kind of blur and wonder how in the world photographers did that. On many cameras these days, “rear sync” is just a flash mode you can choose; there is nothing too complex to it. Basically, the blur is the photo you would have seen with identical settings but without the flash. Then, the clear photo is where the flash fired just before the shutter closed. I am just trying to learn how to get the most out of it and know how to use it better.
Using bounce flash is a must. You can bounce off the ceiling, walls, and all kinds of objects. You could even use the red that my hand created above for an intentional effect, if you wanted. Bouncing is difficult with a camera’s built-in flash (very easy with an accessory flash), but just as long as you make sure you are close enough (because built-in flashes are pretty weak), you will most likely be pleased with the results.