Welcome back, let's talk about some tools.
Well, here I am with my trusty flash, right here.
which I must confess is almost always on my camera.
camera, also, since the sunlight is clearly coming from the rear left.
in what would otherwise have been a much darker, sort of silhouetted image of me.
attached on a hot shoe, is a fairly small light source.
And it's located quite close to the camera lens.
shadowless because it's placed so close to the lens.
well, the red eye effect could have been a problem here, too.
to alter the quality of flash light in a variety of situations.
All of them quite inexpensive, but quite effective.
Some of them even built right into the flash unit.
like it was on my camera in my hand and in the previous slide.
And a picture of my student, Nick, made with the flash in such a position.
you can see the shadow cast on the right hand side of the screen behind him.
there were no other lights from other sources to soften the tones.
The effect is really quite harsh, flat and unpleasant.
is its capability to tilt upwards and twist from side to side.
then returned to illuminate my subject with a softness and direction from above.
call raccoon eyes, with dark shadows in his eye area.
you will find a little storage slot near the top of the flash.
that can be pulled out to a position like you see in this slide on the left.
like it did in the previous slide.
raccoon animal effect and making a more smooth transition of tones.
but this time there is something different.
Take a look on the left hand side.
here I have deployed the flash units built in diffuser.
that is normally stored in the top section of the unit along with that white card.
to make a more even exposure, especially when a wide angle lens is used.
in the picture on the right.
no matter what the manufacturer.
also makes the light less harsh and contrasty.
put it in place even when I'm not using a wide angle lens.
hard the light in the shadows will be.
the light is actually quite hard.
being even closer to the camera lens, well that's even more of a concern.
but relatively inexpensive, is Vello.
unit on the right, softens and spreads the light beautifully.
I own two of them, just in case I lose one.
For my larger flash units, I use a larger diffuser.
This one is called a light sphere.
It is designed and manufactured by the world famous photographer, Gary Fong.
then gets diffused through a large circular frosted plastic shield.
It creates a beautiful big soft light.
lit from a distinct direction, but soft.
certainly not like the light that we associate with a harsh flash.
is the very appropriately named Speedy Rotating Camera Flash Bracket.
You can see Nick holding it here.
The flash is mounted at the top, connected to the hot shoe of the camera with a cord.
will keep all of its capabilities to function perfectly with the camera.
the flash and create less harsh lighting.
Nick is using that Vello speedy bracket to hold the camera in landscape mode.
with just a quick twist of his wrist, the camera's now in portrait mode.
versus landscape image needs to be changed to and the flash is required.
one of the most common is the use of flash when shooting through glass.
This photograph shows the bird feeder in my backyard.
it's usually visited by quite a few different types of birds each day.
that's a result of reflections from the lighted interior of the house.
Those reflections make the image lower in contrast.
and objects, and structures that you can see on the glass itself.
of a bird at the feeder and add a little accent light on cloudy days.
I started off with my camera set up on my trusty MeFOTO backpacker tripod.
And the flash was at the ready, but I was set up for disaster.
With that set up, all I got was a blown out mess of bright reflection.
the glass, but that created its own problems of focus and lack of lens shade.
the camera and the lens exactly where I wanted to against that flat glass.
even taping it to the glass to create a little tent.
the vantage point and the framing that I wanted.
which I am happy to share with you as the final flash tool in this lesson.
This is called a lenskirt.
babies through the glass of the hospital maternity ward.
this device will save you many headaches.
you move the camera to the side, then place the lenskirt.
four suction cups on to the surface.
be housed in, and go ahead and shoot with your flash, or without it.
And don't worry about reflections, there will be zero.
freeze their action without worries about reflections of yourself or your flash.
You can just concentrate on the action.
that you'll be proud to share with others.