While I certainly don’t consider myself qualified to give out photography ‘tips’ – this is something that is on my mind lately. Like anyone else, I love to shoot with natural – available light 100% of the time. The colors are more accurate and everything just ‘looks’ better in the final image. Sometimes however, regardless of ISO, shutter speed or max aperture that the lens will open up to – you still have to use flash at times – it is just unavoidable. So, if we can all agree on that, then the question is; how can we make the images lit up with that harsh flash look…. Well, not so harsh?
Living in a house with two girls, I am rarely ‘allowed’ to take photos of either of them. I do have one ‘model’ who doesn’t complain too often. She is a girl, but doesn’t worry too much about her hair or make up.
Mi Mi is our little Pomeranian, we got her from a family that couldn’t keep her after hurricane Katrina. She wasted no time fitting in with the rest of our dogs (Mendy has three Chihuahuas and just loves them – she is a true Chihuahua freak!
So, the “mems” (as we call her) was hanging out on the sofa and I saw a good chance to try out some flash photography on her. The camera is the Canon 5D, with a 50mm f=1.8 lens (yes, the cheap one) 1/64 shutter speed. Manual exposure. ISO 125.
Now, I could have bumped the ISO way up – say to 3200 and used no flash – the problem (of course) is that there would have been some noise – especially with a black sofa – and the other problem is that there would have been no ‘catch lights’ in her eyes. Just like with people, the catch lights give ‘life’ to the person’s eyes. Being a pooch, I couldn’t direct the flash right at her. She would have probably had those tell-tale green reflections that animals get with usual flash photography. I was using my EX flash pointed up and actually behind me. I want to say that I was using one of Gary Fong’s light spheres, but upon closer inspection of the reflection in my little puppy’s eyes, I don’t see it. I do see that there was a little dim lamp on in the room and that I could stand to loose a few pounds! I can also see from the EXIF data that this image was taken at 8:53 PM, so there was no window light – it was pretty dark in there.
Now that I look at her – she does look a little annoyed with me!
Living in a house with two girls, I am rarely ‘allowed’ to take photos of either of them. I do have one ‘model’ who doesn’t complain too often. She is a girl, but doesn’t worry too much about her hair or make up.
Mi Mi is our little Pomeranian, we got her from a family that couldn’t keep her after hurricane Katrina. She wasted no time fitting in with the rest of our dogs (Mendy has three Chihuahuas and just loves them – she is a true Chihuahua freak!
So, the “mems” (as we call her) was hanging out on the sofa and I saw a good chance to try out some flash photography on her. The camera is the Canon 5D, with a 50mm f=1.8 lens (yes, the cheap one) 1/64 shutter speed. Manual exposure. ISO 125.
Now, I could have bumped the ISO way up – say to 3200 and used no flash – the problem (of course) is that there would have been some noise – especially with a black sofa – and the other problem is that there would have been no ‘catch lights’ in her eyes. Just like with people, the catch lights give ‘life’ to the person’s eyes. Being a pooch, I couldn’t direct the flash right at her. She would have probably had those tell-tale green reflections that animals get with usual flash photography. I was using my EX flash pointed up and actually behind me. I want to say that I was using one of Gary Fong’s light spheres, but upon closer inspection of the reflection in my little puppy’s eyes, I don’t see it. I do see that there was a little dim lamp on in the room and that I could stand to loose a few pounds! I can also see from the EXIF data that this image was taken at 8:53 PM, so there was no window light – it was pretty dark in there.
Now that I look at her – she does look a little annoyed with me!
In this one she just looks kind of tired, I don’t know why – she can sleep whenever she wants…… ah, a dog’s life!
This is my favorite – this is the Mi Mi that we know and love!
Here is a 100% crop of her eyes from the first image:
You can see that the catch lights are actually the circle of light on the ceiling and the small yellow reflection is the table top lamp – it’s got a dimmer switch and was on kind of dim. You can also see me in a white shirt – see what I mean – look at that gut!!!! Time to hit the bike!
