1 S 9 P 2 E GUIDPEA GEC EIAL OF Photographic ONLXPAFER Y N £ D 9.9ED 9 Lighting ROBERT HARRINGTON THE EXPANDED GUIDE > TECHNIQUES PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 22 1166//1111//22001122 1144::2233 Photographic Lighting THE EXPANDED GUIDE Robert Harrington PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 33 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144 First published 2013 by Ammonite Press an imprint of AE Publications Ltd 166 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1XU, United Kingdom Text © AE Publications Ltd, 2013 Illustrative photography © Robert Harrrington, 2013 (except where indicated) Copyright © in the work AE Publications Ltd, 2013 All rights reserved The right of Robert Harrrington to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, sections 77 and 78. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner. This book is sold subject to the condition that all designs are copyright and are not for commercial reproduction without the permission of the designer and copyright owner. The publishers and author can accept no legal responsibility for any consequences arising from the application of information, advice or instructions given in this publication. A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Series Editor: Richard Wiles Design: Richard Dewing Associates Typeset in Frutiger (Page 2) Color reproduction by GMC Reprographics Camera: Nikon D3, 50mm lens ISO 200, 1/160 sec. at f/9.0 Flash: Nikon SB910 at ½ power, Large Rogue Flashbender CONTENTS Chapter 1 The basics 6 Chapter 2 On-camera fl ash 28 Chapter 3 Off-camera fl ash 50 Chapter 4 Using off-camera fl ash 70 Chapter 5 The home studio 98 Chapter 6 Putting it into practice 126 Chapter 7 One speedlight, 13 looks 148 Chapter 8 Postprocessing 166 Glossary 186 Useful web sites 189 Index 190 PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 55 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144 PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 66 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144 CHAPTER 1 THE BASICS PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 77 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144 The basics of fl ash One of the most overused yet misunderstood pieces of photographic equipment is the fl ash. Here’s a guide to the fundamentals. Flash (noun): a brief, sudden burst of light The biggest advantage of the fl ash that’s either Note built into your camera or an external unit such Small point-and-shoot cameras are as a Nikon SB910 or a Canon 600 X-RT is the incredibly adept at getting great direct ability to add light to your images, but the fl ash shots as they are specifi cally designed biggest disadvantage is the complex nature of for this type of photography. fl ash that puts many off to using it to its full potential. Understanding the nomenclature, the buttons, and dials on the fl ash itself, and the menus inside, is akin to trying to learn a foreign language in only a week: it’s impossible. What in the world is FEC? What does TTL mean and how do we use it effectively? What is high-speed synchronization? How are we as photographers, most of us non-engineering- types, going to understand the complexities of inside is just as confusing as the fl ash itself. these systems and put them to effective use in When you purchase your fl ash, you usually the fi eld? Picking up a manual full of technical follow something called the “Guide Number.” jargon is a daunting task, considering what is But what is a guide number? Is it related to ICON IDENTIFIER Some of the symbols used with fl ash: you’ll need to recognize these and know exactly what they refer to: Auto fl ash bracketing (the same Flash on or fl ash ready symbol is also used for autoexposure bracketing) Red-eye reduction mode (uses REAR prefl ash to minimize red-eye). +- Flash compensation control SLOW Rear curtain synchronization Flash off (overrides the automatic fl ash) Slow curtain synchronization 8 Photographic Lighting PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 88 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144 subject distance responding to fl ash output, great image. Along with computer software, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, or is it just even the worst image we’ve ever taken can be a number that gives us a total fl ash power turned into art, worthy of a gallery or the wall rating? That’s the problem. As modern-day of your home. But we really need the lessons photographers used to picking up a camera of the past to understand the current trends and having it do all the work for us, some of in fl ash photography, so we can fully begin to the foundations that are used to build a good understand the fl ash on or off our cameras. technical understanding of photography have Let’s jump right in here and look at the basics gone to the wayside. How are we to understand of fl ash. Let's try to understand the concepts what a “Guide Number” is if we’ve never had and numbers that cloud our thoughts, and see to deal with the concept? how we can get great images without spending The automation of photography is one of an excessive amount of time in software: you the greatest gifts in photography. Now, anyone may fi nd that you're trying to fi x images you can pick up any kind of camera and capture a could have captured properly in the fi rst place. WIDE-ANGLE LENS Nikon D200, 12–24mm lens, A wide-angle lens was used here capture foreground and background ISO 100, 13 sec. at f/13 simultaneously. The image foreground was brightened by using on camera Nikon SB800 with Nikon SC29 fl ash attached to my camera by a fl ash cord. I set my exposure and used the fl ash cord attached TTL selection on my fl ash to get it near the ground and light the snowy rocks separately from the rest of the exposure. The Expanded Guide 9 PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 99 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144 Guide numbers is, of course, if you are working with the fl ash First, let’s look at “guide numbers.” In the old at full power. If you halve the power, then the days, in those photos where you see a press distance, just like stopping the aperture down, photographer holding an ancient Grafl ex camera halves to about 14ft (4.25m). These calculations with a bulb fl ash on the side, the photographer are all based on using your fl ash with a bare had to fi gure out subject-to-camera distance head. The numbers will be affected by a great in order to set a shutter speed and aperture to many variables, including putting a diffuser over capture an image his editor would accept for the the fl ash head, using an umbrella, or a softbox. next edition of the paper. So think about what is This does get easier. On the back of some going through the photographer’s head. In the fl ashes, there should be a Guide Number or GN amount of time it took to read this passage, the setting. This takes the guesswork out of guide photographer fi gured it all out, set his camera numbers, if you want to use them. On the back and took a shot, replaced his fl ash bulb and fi lm, of a Nikon SB910, for instance, the GN setting and got ready for another shot: Whew! gives you all the information you need. Set to As modern-day photographers, we need not an ISO of 200, it’s base ISO setting, and the GN concern ourselves with fi guring all of that out— setting gives you the perfect fl ash output and or do we? Understanding how guide numbers subject distance. If I set my camera to Program work will give us a greater understanding of Automatic, letting the camera choose everything, how our fl ashes work and in what situations. with a 50mm lens I get an ISO of 200, shutter To fi nd the right guide number for your fl ash speed of 1/60 sec., and an aperture of f/5. At situation, you need only to look at simple math: these settings the fl ash will automatically tell me that my optimal camera-to-subject distance Guide Number = Distance x Aperture Working in Program Automatic, where the Initial guide number calculations are camera and fl ash combination chooses based on an ISO of 100. As in all things in everything for me, Guide Numbers will select the optimal fl ash output as long as I maintain photography, if you change the aperture, my distance of 6.6ft (2m). distance, or ISO up or down the guide number will change reciprocally. But you need to fi nd this initial starting point to fi gure that out. So if your subject distance is, say, 10ft (3m) and your aperture is f/5.6, then the guide number on your fl ash should be 56ft (17m) with your fl ash on full power, using all the power accessible to you. If you stop your aperture down, say, to f/8, then your distance halves to 28ft (8.5m). This 10 Photographic Lighting PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC LLIIGGHHTTIINNGG CCHH 11 000011--002277..iinndddd 1100 1144//1111//22001122 1122::1144