Dragons, a wizard, and a flash

Flash angle can really affect the mood of a shot.

It is quite amazing how light can affect the way something looks.  The quintessential evil photo is done by illuminating the subject from in front, below the camera lens.  Photographs with flash from the side give a subject greater depth and intrigue.  Fill lighting, which can be done with secondary flash units or reflectors, allow details to emerge which otherwise would be lost in deep shadows.

The main source of light in the above shots was an off camera flash which was tethered (connected via a cable) to a camera to allow regular TTL (through the lens) operation.  Essentially it means that you have to point the flash at the subject from whatever angle you want to illuminate it from on the one hand, and shoot it with the camera on the other (both figuratively and literally).  The left image was photographed with the flash held below the camera and slightly to the right.  The right image was photographed with the flash further to the right and elevated.

It is quite amazing how light and shadow can affect an image.  You can take a child's cute toy doll and turn it into Chuckie with lighting alone.  If you happen to have a flash which does not have wireless capability, you can pick up a fairly inexpensive cord allowing you to tether it to the camera.  You can buy brand name stuff or third party equipment from a variety of suppliers.  I have bought stuff from Vello before and found it works well.

One of the best ways to learn about the wonders of flash is to play with it and see what neat kinds of things you can do.  Add a few simple refelcters for secondary light and you will be amazed at what you can achieve.

http://www.vellogear.com/           search for off camera TTL flash cable

shutter speed and moving water

Millstone creek, Nanaimo

You are no doubt familiar with the quintessential photograph of blurred water running through its course, which in contrast is in clear focus.  The question which is often posed is, "How did they do that?"  The answer comes down to shutter speed.

The two photos above were both shot with a camera mounted on top of a tripod.  A tripod was necessary due to the slow shutter speed used on each picture.  The one on the right was already modestly slow, being only 1/6th of a second.  It shows some blurring of the water but nothing like the image on the left.  It was photographed at a full 15 seconds.

The difference is stunning; things that are not moving have not been affected at all - part  of the reason for the tripod.  The water shows a vast difference.  Longer shutter speeds produce greater degrees of blur.  It is possible to go too long, as eventually all distinction would be lost in the moving water.  The length of time chosen and the resulting effects are based upon a great many things.  How close the camera is to the water, how fast the water is moving, and how much water there is are all factors.  I often find that 5 seconds is long enough; I wanted this one to be longer to really show the impact of slow shutter speeds.

There is another thing going on which won't be noticed unless you really understand the nature of light and the camera.  There is no way that a 15 second shutter speed is possible during a normal day.  There is just too much light present.  The aperture for the right image was f/11 and for the left was f/16.  ISO was unchanged.  There is only 1 stop difference in aperture, but about 6 1/2 stops difference between shutter speeds.  How is this done?

The answer is a neutral density filter.  A N.D. filter is a darkened filter which allows the photographer to use slower shutter speeds than otherwise possible.  The one used was a variable neutral density filter, whose values can be changed from 1 stop to 10 stops.  The result was to allow the camera to shoot at a very much reduced shutter speed.  These are especially handy on bright days when you just can't get the speed down.