What’s Your Preference?

amyhoman · #1 (**permalink**) 06-09-2010, 12:13 AM

I think that my outdoor photos are pretty descent with my canon eos, but I can't take a good pic to save my life indoors.My photos always look dark and have an orange tint to them. I know to set my white balance, use natural light from windows as much as possible, etc. So I bought an external flash unit. Unfortunately it is a vivitar and not a canon (budget restraints). Any tips for using indoors? What would be a good setting for me to try. Thanks for any suggestions. Amy

oldwolf · #2 (**permalink**) 06-09-2010, 12:17 AM

Bounce the light off the walls or ceiling.

JAD40 · #3 (**permalink**) 06-10-2010, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldwolf

Bounce the light off the walls or ceiling.

I agree, but also have a black piece of paper on the side of the flash facing your subject. that way your flash doesn't spill onto your subject, and the lighting looks more directional.

OsmosisStudios · #4 (**permalink**) 06-10-2010, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAD40

I agree, but also have a black piece of paper on the side of the flash facing your subject. that way your flash doesn't spill onto your subject, and the lighting looks more directional.

What?

You'd actually want to have a WHITE piece of paper (bounce card) attached the the top of the head (when pointed straight forward). Then tilt the head back to vertical or almost vertical, and bounce of the ceiling. The bouncecards gives a bit of life to the eyes and gets some light under the brow line.

amyhoman · #5 (**permalink**) 06-10-2010, 07:07 PM

Thanks for all the tips. When it rains tommorow I am going to play around in the house again with my flash. Thanks again! Amy

JAD40 · #6 (**permalink**) 06-10-2010, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What?

You'd actually want to have a WHITE piece of paper (bounce card) attached the the top of the head (when pointed straight forward). Then tilt the head back to vertical or almost vertical, and bounce of the ceiling. The bouncecards gives a bit of life to the eyes and gets some light under the brow line.

Yeah I understand that method you are describing. Using a black piece of paper like I explained acts as a gobo so it blocks spill from reaching your subject. That way when you aim your flash to the right or left, the light looks more directional because it is only coming from that direction.

OsmosisStudios · #7 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAD40

Yeah I understand that method you are describing. Using a black piece of paper like I explained acts as a gobo so it blocks spill from reaching your subject. That way when you aim your flash to the right or left, the light looks more directional because it is only coming from that direction.

Except that doing that doesn't give you the catchlight that a bounce card does, and doesn't lighten the shadows under the brow line.

kencaleno · #8 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amyhoman

I think that my outdoor photos are pretty descent with my canon eos, but I can't take a good pic to save my life indoors.My photos always look dark and have an orange tint to them. I know to set my white balance, use natural light from windows as much as possible, etc. So I bought an external flash unit. Unfortunately it is a vivitar and not a canon (budget restraints). Any tips for using indoors? What would be a good setting for me to try. Thanks for any suggestions. Amy

A question,as you say you understand how to set white balance,Why are your images orange?

=One big mistake most people make,under tungsten/incandescent domestic lighting,is to set white balance to tungsten,and then wonder why their images have a blue tint; Reason for this, is that tungsten white balance as a camera pre-set is rated at Studio tungsten, (3400 Kelvin) whereas domestic tungsten is rated between 2500 Kelvin and 3200 Kelvin, (Kelvins are color temperatures) Using auto white balance in this situation will often give a better rendition.

A big advantage, especially when photographing people, is to have the flash off-camera, so wherever you wander to get different angles, your lighting with remain constant. If flash is on camera, you would need to make adjustments each time you move out of the pre-set range of focus. Your flash can be triggered by radio transceivers (Pocket-wizards) or by means of pc cables. Keeping in mind that Shutter-speed controls existing light and Aperture controls the flash effect (In most cases)

You set your camera’s mode to Av (aperture priority) selecting aperture to desired depth of field. Take note of these settings. Now select M (manual) mode and use the settings you got from Av mode. Fit your flash to hot shoe, use manual flash. Try first maximum sync speed (usually 1/250 sec or 1/500 sec), then come down from here just adjusting shutter speed, and checking on monitor, until ambient light looks right. As for power setting, I like to start at ¼ power, then I can go down two stops to 1/8 and 1/16 power, and up to ½ and full power. (My flashguns only span from full to 1/16 power) For interior shots use the same method: If ambient light reads 1/125 @ F4, you will need to set aperture to F4, and set shutter speed at 1/500(if this is your camera’s maximum sync speed, or 1/250 @ F5.6 if that is your maximum sync speed, and bounce off ceiling. Adjust power of flash until it looks right in the monitor. This gives a ratio of 3:1 as a basic starting point. Ideally, indoor images should not show that flash was used, so for this to take place, modification is required. I use a black computer mouse-mat, which forms a half snoot and is rubber banded to the underside of my flashgun when bouncing off of ceilings etc., this ensures no direct light lands on the subject. You can choose of course, to use automatic mode for flash-or TTL, (Through The Lens) I just prefer the manual mode.
Problems occur when using flash under fluorescent illumination, where you will get a severe green cast over your images-Solution is to use a gel (Window green) over the flash window, and a magenta filter( FL-D) over the lens. These filters will lose you one stop of light, but the lens filter alone will do the trick, if you aren’t using flash. Why this works is green over the flash window equalizes foreground and background color temperature, and the magenta on the lens absorbs the green from both sources to neutralize the image.