Bare flash ideas

[devildogx2]

Hello,
I'm at a point where I can now get my flash off camera but do not have modifiers to soften it yet.

I'm trying to get a grasp on the ratios and falloff and need to practice hopefully to get better. Right now I'm doing trial and error and will practice to help it sink in.

I have two questions.
1. Are there situations where bare flash is your preferred method? Like on what types of shots do you think bare flash really shines? I'd just like to focus my practice on the types of shots where it's ideal as opposed to trying to fight the hardness of the light.

2. Also I'm limited to manual flash. I'm just wondering if there are any favorite books that focus mainly on manual flash- off camera. I read Niel van Niekerk's On-Camera Flash book which I enjoyed but his focus was mainly TTL. I'm reading my way through Strobist, but got a little confused at one point, and feel something is missing in my understanding as I move on.

[Rentham]

You can still use the basic concepts in Niel's book. Bounce your flash into anything and everything. You may have to crank your ISO a bit, but you'll still get directional light from a larger source.

[Doug Sundseth]

I like bare flash (or small modifiers) when I'm looking for a gritty feel. When I'm taking a photo of my 70-yo uncle who was a rodeo cowboy and large-animal vet for decades, I want to reveal the character of his face, so I'll at least consider bare flash.

I also like bare flash when I'm pushing the distance that my flash will work. Most modifiers eat 1-2 stops of light, so I can sometimes get as much as twice the range if I don't use a modifier. Since at long distances even modified lights tend to act like point sources, there's not much downside.

Similarly, if I'm shooting directly toward the sun, there are times when I want as much power as I can get. In that case, I'll usually hold the flash head as close to my lens as I can to minimize shadows.

Strobist is the source I would recommend, especially the Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 series linked in the sidebar. The other articles at Strobist largely build on those series.

HTH

[inkista]

Bare, direct flash and hard light are always good when you want hard shadows. If you want to reveal the texture of something, and do sharp-edged lighting, like noir. Noir pretty much started because of low-budget gangster movies where they simply didn't have the budget to use multiple lights and big diffusers, but had to light lean and mean.

And bare flash, with bouncing, doesn't necessarily mean hard light. Neil van Niekerk, btw, also has a book on off-camera lighting, but CLS-lovin' Joe McNally might serve your purposes better. Hot Shoe Diaries and The Moment It Clicks are pretty popular tomes.

And I'd highly recommend looking at the Strobist Preliminaries video on Youtube.

[devildogx2]

Originally Posted by Rentham

You can still use the basic concepts in Niel's book. Bounce your flash into anything and everything. You may have to crank your ISO a bit, but you'll still get directional light from a larger source.

Thanks Rentham. I had been bouncing, but now that can get it off camera I see that it will free me to move around and frame the subject differently.
I hope I didn't give the impression that I didn't get anything from Neil's book. In fact my first post here was a photo where I bounced into gray concrete. I would have never thought to try that if I hadn't read his book. My subject was underexposed, but that was my fault, not the technique of bouncing.

[devildogx2]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

I like bare flash (or small modifiers) when I'm looking for a gritty feel. When I'm taking a photo of my 70-yo uncle who was a rodeo cowboy and large-animal vet for decades, I want to reveal the character of his face, so I'll at least consider bare flash....

I also like bare flash when I'm pushing the distance that my flash will work. ..

Similarly, if I'm shooting directly toward the sun,...

Strobist is the source I would recommend, especially the Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 series linked in the sidebar. The other articles at Strobist largely build on those series.

HTH

Thanks Doug for the ideas. That makes sense about the gritty feel.
I'm guessing the minimizing shadows when shooting into the sun is so it doesn't look strange because of the different direction. I'll have to remember that.

I will continue on with Strobist and maybe with practice it will sink in.
Thanks.

[devildogx2]

Originally Posted by inkista

... If you want to reveal the texture of something, and do sharp-edged lighting, like noir. ...but had to light lean and mean.

And bare flash, with bouncing, doesn't necessarily mean hard light. Neil van Niekerk, btw, also has a book on off-camera lighting, but CLS-lovin' Joe McNally might serve your purposes better. Hot Shoe Diaries and The Moment It Clicks are pretty popular tomes.

Thanks Inkista. I have seen that video a couple times before linked though Strobist. When I get my first umbrella, I'll be checking out that video again to make sure I'm not the moron who mounts it all wrong.

My current setup doesn't allow me to do CLS, but I like McNally's humor. I have seen all of these books you mention at my local bookstore including Neil van Niekerk's new one, so I'll thumb through them all, to see which to buy first. I just wondered if there was a book totally focused on manual flash that might be a good first step. I like to study up with a good book in bed and on my lunch hour, so I'll pick one of these up.

Thanks everyone for the help. I'll be exploring the possibilities.

[inkista]

Yeah, too bad Hobby doesn't have a book out. I think the best resources for manual flash would probably be DVDs. Hobby's Lighting in Layers, Zack Arais's One Light, or (the great granddaddy of them all) the Dean Collins videos. Trouble is, they're a bit pricier than a book.

I will say, I learned more about using lights off-camera, Strobist, all-manual style, by simply taking an afternoon workshop with Kyle Cassidy than I did in about two years of reading web articles. Maybe finding a class/workshop will help.

[devildogx2]

Yeah those DVDs are a bit high for my budget, but I'm sure they are worth every penny and more. I hadn't heard of Dean Collins before so thanks for that link.

There's a Studio Lighting class this fall by a successful stock photographer in my area. I think I'll take that.
Thanks again.

[inkista]

I found out about Dean Collins on the Strobist blog. I forget how hard it is for someone who's new to the site to digest all those entries. I was lucky: I started reading the Strobist shortly after it started.