Last weekend I was at a local park with my son for Easter Egg Hunt. While I was waiting in the crowd, I noticed two guys with DSLR camera and flash mounted on top. Since I have a habit of taking pictures of other photographers at work, I quickly snapped a picture as shown below. It turned out to be quite interesting.
The photo above was taken using the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8. A zoomed-in view of the above photo showed the interesting ways they decided to use their flash outdoors.
Apparently one of them decided to point the flash straight forward with a Omni Bounce (the white plastic cap) mounted while another one pointed the flash upwards at an angle with the built-in bounce card pulled out.
If you are careful observer, you may also find that one guys is shooting Canon while another is shooting Nikon. Did the brand of camera/flash determine the way they decided to use the flash outdoors?
Probably not.
They were using the flash as if they were trying to do bounce flash. The problem is, there is no reflecting surfaces in open outdoor environment to bounce the light.
The Omni Bounce cap is used to create a so-called Diffused Bare Bulb Effect. Instead of producing light output in a forward cone, the Omni Bounce cap spreads the light in all directions. It works well in a room with cells and walls because the light can be bounced from many directions. In open air, it offers little benefits but wastes the energy because the translucent cap can cut more than a stop of light.
Some flash units, such as Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlight Flash
I am also curious if they are aware of the sync speed limits of their cameras. DSLR cameras have sync speed typically in the range of 1/200 second. In outdoor shooting, this may be challenged because the strong light. They are either forced to shoot very small apertures, use a neutral density filter to cut down the light, or use so-called high speed sync function (explained here). All of these options will severely limit the maximum effective flash distance. Their intended bounce setups can only make it worse.
Keywords: Flash photography, Outdoor Flash
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I wonder what the photos came out like? I am sure they were crap
since you bashed those lames.. What if the setups they where both
running turned out (even if you think they where wrong) to take some
nice shots? To bad we will never know.
love the site..
Really not meant to bash… it is possible their photos came out fine but it doesn’t mean there isn’t anything can be improved in the shooting process.
Handy advice, most people don`t realise how a flash can reduce your
photo restoration and retouching time by eliminating unatractive
shadows on peoples faces.
Great observation.
Just so you know, the low-end but excellent Nikon D40 has a flash sync speed of 1/500.
Michael,
Thanks for pointing it out. It can help with certain fill flash situations but the point is that their bounce setup isn’t really useful in this situation.
Max
Why would you say the high speed sync function will limit the effective distance. I recently learnt to use the mode but haven’t had much success, I must admit.
I have often run into people who use telephoto lenses and spring up their on camera flashes that gets me into a guffaw. These two gentlemen are a little ahead in the game
As I explained in the sync speed post, the high speed sync function works by sending out very fast identical pulses instead of single pulse. The sensor sees the reflected pulses as the shutter slit moves across the sensor. Remember that the sensor does not have chance to completely open to the incoming light all at once above the sync speed limit. But on average, the scene appears to have been illuminated by the flash evenly. When working in this mode, the maximum light output of each pulse is limited, reducing the effective flash distance.
Max
Great explanation, thank you!
Wait until they rotate their cameras. In many cases, they will leave the flash in the same position.
A rotating flash bracket would help with bounce flash.
If those two photographers were close to their subjects within the effective flash output distance, I have no problem with their methods of diffusion. They will have photos that are alive without “dead” eyeless people. A catchlight makes all the difference even outdoors ! I would decrease the flash strength to balance with the ambient light on overcast days and even increase flash strength in bright sunlit conditions to decrease contrast. Balancing flash with ambient light is a best kept secret and an art !