photographic

PHOTOGRAPHIC.COM 1Night Photography • Latest News • Contests

Insight into taking the best flashphoto with your digital camera.

2 PHOTOGRAPHIC October 2010

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OCTOBER 20106

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13 Night PhotograPhy Taking greaT phoTos in The dark

3 Editor’s Notes George Schaub

4 Introduction

6 Quickshot Latest News and Contests

LEARNING ABOUT FLASH

11 Meet Your Accessory FlashModes, Buttons, and Lighting Control

12 Diagnosing Flash ProblemsWhy Flash “Fails”

21 Off Camera FlashControlling the Direction of Light

23 Photo of the MonthSee what we’ve picked out this month

25 Photography: Then & NowShort history of photography

27 Exposure ModesChoosing the Right One to Match the Scene

28 More about Bounce FlashIndirect Lighting for Softer Effects


41 Flash PhotograPhy Tips and Techniques by chuck Mckern

EXPERIEMENTING WITH YOUR CAMERA

29 Diffusion TechniquesSoftening Accessories

30 Remote and “Slaved” FlashAdding Extra Light to the Scene

37 Stop Motion With FlashFinding the Right F-Stop

39 Color and FlashEmphasis on Flash with Color Scenes

40 One Flash Portraits A Single Light Can Do it Right

49 Black and WhiteGetting Great Detail in Lightroom 3

GETTING TECHNICAL

51 Experiements with Flash Creative and Fun Techniques

53 F-StopLearn About Today’s Greatests Lens & More

55 Photoshop TutorialsFun Photo Editiing Techniques

57 Using Bridge & LightroomHow to Organize your Photos Better

59 Tri-podsFind Great Deals on the Latest Tri-pods

60 Using Flash for MarcoUp Close and Personal

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The Nikon Foundation is a new student initiative by Nikon UK, which aims to support and celebrate emerg-ing photographers as they complete their education and begin their careers. By submitting a portfolio of images and a covering letter, students are in with a chance of winning a 3-month internship with fashion and celebrity photographer John Wright and Nikon professional equipment worth £4000. Whilst the Nikon Foundation is ul-timately a photography competition, the shortlisted 10 finalists will each be interviewed by the panel of judges, including John, after which one winner will be offered the position with John and his team. The competition will run from today until 31st March 2011, with the winners announced in April. The three month placement with John will commence in June 2011.

Nikon Foundation Competition

NEWS, CONTESTS & MORE

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putre moving images that are easily good enough for sites such as YouTube. The Movie mode on DSLRs is a comparatively recent innovation. and one that is being refined all the time. True camcorders still allow more cre-ative control, but this will undoubtedly change. Models like the Canon EOS 7D, for example, allow manual control of ap-erture and shutter speed. In terms of quality, the latest camer-as give 1080p HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) image quality, with a maximum record-ing time of 12 minutes at this resolution. Sound quality is one area that needs consideration if you want to make serious movies with a DSLR, and some models now offer the option of plugging in a stereo microphone to improve audio.

Magical Movie Modes Who’d have though HD movies and DSLRs would pair up?

It was not that long ago that photo-graphic experts were predicting that camcorders were going to rule the world and that the days of the still cam-era were nigh. Camcorders were gain-ing in resolution, and a Still Capture mode meant that you could video away and then ‘grab’ the fram or image you wanted later. That, as we know has not happened, and the still camera is as popular now as it ever was. And, of course, many mod-ern cameras now have the ability to ca-

Pindar supplies digital photography Pindar, which offers a printing service through subsidiary Alphagraphics, has supplied digital photography for the US and European versions of the Country Artists Collectors’ book, printed in the UK by Adare Pressicion, Southam. Pin-dar has two digital photography studios, producing digital images using a 50mb

New 2View Samsung cameraswith LCD Screens

Samsung is known for its innova-tions, and nothing cemented this sta-tus more than the 2View camera - compact with two LCD screens. The latest in this unique line-up are the ST-600ww and ST100, successors to the popular ST550. These latest models have received an upgrade to their front LCD screens. Measuring in at a larger 1.8 inches, this promises to help users frame their self-portraits for photos and videos. There are also new fun features to experi-ment with, including a Couples’ mode tthat will snap a photo when it detects two faces tilted towards each other, and a Jump function which will immediately take three consecutive images to help us-ers capture a mid-air flight image Both the ST600 and ST100 possess Samsun’s smar auto (still and Mov-ie) scene recognition technology, au-tomatically selecting the optimum set-tings for you, as well as optical image stabilisation for steady shots. Aimed at the style-conscious consumer, the new compacts come in four colors, includ-ing hot pink, go.d, black and purple with metallic finishes.

IN THE NEWS

WILD AT HEARTWhat to shoot:Wildlife, animals, nature, birds, reptiles, flora, fauna

What to submit:We want to see your best ever wildlife shot for this category. From local birds to exotic species - just go for it! Email us your entries at 300dpi, providing your name, contact details and shot info (camera model, lens, focal, length, aperture, shutter speed. ISO). You can enter up to three images per category. Full terms and conditions can be viewed at www. DPhotographer.co.uk/competitions.

How to enter:Email your images to:[email protected] date: October 21, 2010

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Free Apple AppApple announced the new Phanfare app for iPad and iPhone users that lets you edit, organize and diesel your photos and videos. It works even without a net-work connection and retains the original versions, too. It’s available in the Apple-App store now for free.

iWorkcaseiWorkCase is an on-location workstation for photographers and digital operators working on an Apple Macbook Pro. With changeable inlays you can use the iWorkCase with different Macbook Pro versions. In addition, the iWorkCase supports the Arca Swiss type quick release system for quick and easy tripod mounting. “A couple of years ago I was working as an digital operator,” says inventor Immanuel Meier. “We never had an easy-to-set-up working place for outdoor people, lifestyle and fashion shoots. I started to develop my own case for this purpose.” A result of this development, the iWorkCase is now available for $700.

IPA Photo ContestThe International Press Association (IPA) has announced a unique photo contest to help launch their new Member Support Blog on their website. There are no fees to enter, no contributions to the contests favourite charities, no restrictions on the subject matter, two levels of entry - pro and amateur - and “so many prizes that the chances of winning are quite good”, the Association says. First place winners will receive over $1800 in prizes each, second place winners receive over $500 in prizes and ten Honourable Mention winners will receive over $150 in prizes each. The contest will be using the viewer votes (25%) and the judges’

votes (75%) to determine the final winners. The submission deadline is 30th November. The contest is open to the citizens of the US, Australia, New Zealand, Can-ada, Croatia, Norway, Switzerland and a selection of EU Member States in-cluding Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. As al-ways we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

Dinky DriveThe lexar Echo SE USB FLash Drive is an accessible, portable drive that lends conivence to backing up your files on the go. Designed for netbook and note-book users, this is one of the smalles solutions on the mark. Available from Amazon.com for $500.

Digital photography Leading market in photo sector

According to market research institute GfK, 2004 will be another excellent year for digital photography in France. The sector progressed 44 per cent for the first half of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003. With Euro 650 million for the half-year digital photography accounts for 41 per cent of the total French photography market. This is down to the explosion in sales of digital cameras, which are expected to exceed 4 million by the end of the year. The rise of digital photography has hit traditional cameras hard. Sales of normal cameras have been slipping for two years and again tumbled 54 per cent for the first half of 2004 to account for just 2.4 per cent of the market and an interim turnover of Euro 38 million. Even more surprising is that even disposable cameras have

been affected; these had until now been the only growth area for leading brands like Kodak.

WD My Book LiveWD has just introduced its My Book Live home network drive. The device’s built-in DLNA media server makes it a fast, simple solution for users who wish to view videos, music and images on any Mac or PC connected to the home network and stream digital media to a television set, the company says. Compatible with the Apple Time Machine, the WD My Book Live incorporates Gigabit Ethernet technology for speeds up to three times faster than that of traditional USB 2.0 drives. The My Book Live is available in capacities of 1TB and 2TB, priced at $169.99 and $229.99.

ACCESSORIES & MORE


We asked four photographers what they consider to be the most important inventions and innovations over the past 100 years

MARTIN PARR DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER“For me, the biggest innovation is the gradual takeover of digital, which means permananent prints, no messy chemicals and the image quality to match the best of film.” To see Martin’s work , go to www.martinparr.com

BOB MARTIN EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHER“Photography is all about light, so the invention of small electronic flash guns is important. The real innovation, though, is wireless TTL flash and the ability to control several remote flash guns from the camera.” To see Bob’s work , go to www.bobqmartin.com

PRO PICKS

New Digital Photo FramesAgfaPhoto has introduced six new dig-ital photo frames ranging from 7 to 10 inches in size. The AgfaPhoto AF-5108PS, AF5088PS and AF5078PS are for photos only, whereas the Agfa-Photo AF5108MS, AF5088MS and AF5078MS are multimedia frames that can also play back videos and music. All of these frames feature a 4:3 aspect ra-tio and SVGA resolution (i.e. 800x600 pixels). All photo frames also have LED backlight LCD screens and use “Crys-tal Image HD” technology, which ap-plies automatic adjustments to bright-ness, contrast, hue, colour balance and so on. The recommended retail prices range from €49.99 to €139.99, depend-ing on model.

Vale of York DarkroomsIn order to help those interested in tra-ditional wet darkroom practices, Pe-ter Heaton - former head of photogra-phy at York Art College - has created Vale of York Darkrooms; a darkroom and teaching solution at Stillington, 10 miles north of York, North Yorkshire. Vale of York Darkrooms offer a range of Black and White photographic cours-es throughout the year. They are suit-able for absolute beginners through to the more experienced photographer, and cover traditional and experimen-tal photographic techniques. The fully equipped darkroom is also available for hire to groups or individuals, though a low-cost annual membership is re-quired prior to any hire usage.

Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 available

Adobe has pushed Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 out of the door. The release contains new Cam-era Support for the following camer-as: Canon EOS 60D, Casio EXILIM EX-FH100*, Fuji FinePix HS10, Leica S2 (DNG*), Panasonic DMC-FZ100, Panasonic DMC-FZ40 (FZ45), Pana-sonic DMC-LX5, Pentax 645D, Sam-sung NX10, Samsung TL500 (EX1), Sony A290, Sony A390, Sony Alpha NEX-3, Sony Alpha NEX-5, Sony SLT-A33, Sony SLT-A55V. It also contains new Lens Profile support, direct publishing to Face-book and SmugMug is also available.

StareBeginning Wednesday, 15 December 2010, the Norton Museum of Art will explore the most basic aspects of pho-tography in Stare: The Pleasures of the Intensely Familiar and the Strange-ly Unexpected. The exhibition gathers works that are by turns “intricate, outré, opaque, puzzling, and perverse”, cre-ated by seven photographers and other artists of “strikingly different sensibili-ties and concerns”. They are: Diane Ar-bus (1923-1971); John Coplans (1920-2003); Walker Evans (1903-1975); Vik Muniz (b. 1961); J.D. Okhai Ojeikere (b. 1930); Ed Ruscha (b. 1937); and Taryn Simon (b. 1975) The Norton Muse-um is located at 1451 S. Olive Avenue in West Palm Beach and is open Tues-day-Saturday, 10:00am to 5:00pm, Sun-day, 1:00 to 5:00pm. General admission is $12 for adults, $5 for visitors aged 13-21, and free for members and children under 13.

DAMIAN MCGILLICUDDY PORTRAIT & FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER“I’d pick the handlheldflash/light meter, because I think you are whitsling in the wind without one. I use a Skonic 1.758 and rarely use the one bulit into the camera.” To see Damian’s work , go to www.damianmcgillidcuddy.com

ROSEMARY CALVERT STOCK PHOTOGRAPHER“Digitall is the most important for m, especially using Photoshop to imporve images. Landscapes can be made to look brighter, a flower’s damaged petal can be repaired and distracting elemants can be removed. It makes it easier to take sellable photos with impact.” To see Rosemary’s work , go to www.rosemarycalvert.com

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have brough us into a world filled with digital imag-ing innovations

you record in the Movie mode is a major attraction, and means you have the best of both worlds in one unit. The flipside to this technology is the still photog-raphers, who are under the perception that they are being forced to pay for a Movie mode they will nev-er use, when all they want is a first-class still camera. An innovation that has great appeal to landscape and senic photographers is the Sony Sweep Pan-orama mode. on Sony’s Cyber-shot compacts, this mode produces a panorama image from video foot-age, but on the NEX system cameras, the camera actually takes 20-odd high res still images that are merged in camera. With the right subject being albe to produce seamless stitched images without us-ing a computer means more and more people can get creative.

Potentially one the most exciting recent innova-tions is the doing away of the reflex mirror in the system cameras. The Sony NEX, Samsung NX10, Olympus PEN family and the Panasonic G-series all have through-the-lens viewing for precise com-position and interchangable lenses, but withough us-ing a reflex mirror. There are rumors that Canon and Nikcon are also due to leap on the system camera bandwagon, which would make this innovation even more interesting. With the increasing interesting. With the increasing interest in creative, high-quality photography using DSLR-type cameras, the option of having all t he potential but without the bulk and weight can only be a good thing. The past 100 years have seen huge developments in image-making. With no signs that it’s going to slow down in the next century, we await new an-nouncements with bated breath...

Awesome Bird’s-eye View Photography of Dubai

In terms of Photography, “Aerial view” or “Bird’s-eye view” is defined as a view of an object from above, as if the observ-er were a bird, and it’s often used in making blueprints, floor plans and maps. I’ve hand-picked some of the best pictures taken by various artists, and linked all pictures to the author’s webpages. If you happen to know about any related picture that should be included here, send me its link and I’ll add it as well.

100 Years Of Development

10 PHOTOGRAPHIC October 201010 PHOTOGRAPHIC October 2010

Night Photography Great photos with and without flash


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Tripod Mounted D700Nikon 50mm 1.8 Lens2 Second Exposure @ f/8SB-600 in Umbrella, triggered with D700Flash in TTL Mode with -0.7 EVSelf PortraitBy:Ryan Pendleton

The flash was set to TTL with a nega-tive EV dialed in as to not overpower the shot with blown areas, and I began with the camera set to about 1/125th of a second. This produced some nice shots but the rain was fro-zen as round droplets and it didn’t give the desired effect. So, I began to slow the shutter down to draw out the droplets into streaks as you see above.

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Night Photography

12 PHOTOGRAPHIC October 201012 PHOTOGRAPHIC October 201012 PHOTOGRAPHIC October 2010

Nikon D700.

Feisol-mounted D700 with Nikon 24-70 2.8 lens. I set the ISO to 200 to minimize noise, as I knew much of the photo was going to be black or very dark. I had my aperture set at f/11 in order to have sharpness throughout the photo and my shutter speed (after several test shots) turned out to be 1/50th of a second for optimal results.

I stood in the dark with a cigarette in my mouth and an SB-600 unit in my hands, turned down to 1/3rd power so as to not overpower my face. This needed to resemble a lighter so I covered the front of the SB unit with a ‘Full-Cut’ CTO gel which gave it the orange glow. Also in my hand was my remote trigger which fired the camera...


Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSI 1.8 Lens1/40 Second Exposure @ f/4.027 mm Focal LengthISO 1600

Having a direct light source highlight the object with the flash turned off, helps achieve this result when at-tempting to take a photo in th dark without using flash. Having a good lightsource is key.



Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSI 1.8 Lens30 Second Exposure @ f/18EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ISFlash did not fire

Setting up the camera onto a stack of books and turning the camera on and off so that it could extend the lenght of the exposure is how I was able to achieve the lighting effect.

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Nikon D3S.Manual 50mm lens

Most of my walks around the city streets had me carry-ing two cameras. I keep the D3X on my tripod, and have that ready to go for serious HDR work. But over my right shoulder, I carry the D3S with a fast lens. In this case, I was using the 50mm prime o capture quick scenes in the streets.


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Canon EOS 450D (Xsi)Canon EF 18-200

I had dinner last night in Downtown Seattle so I swung by Kerry Park on the way home and got a few shots...I bet you are all sur-prised it’s not an HDR...yes I sometimes do non-HDR work too

Processing:Photoshop CS4: Rotate, CropNoiseware: Noise RemovalTopaz: Minor Detail Enhancement

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Taken by Candice Dunlap

PHOTO OF THE MONTH


PHOTO OF THE MONTH


THEN5th-4th Centuries B.C.Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.

1664-1666Isaac Newton discovers that white light is composed of differ-ent colors.

1727Johann Heinrich Schulze discov-ered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light.

1794First Panorama opens, the forerunner of the movie house invented by Robert Barker.

1814Joseph Niepce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura - however, the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded.

1837Louis Daguerre's first daguerreo-type - the first image that was fixed and did not fade and needed under thirty minutes of light exposure.

1840First American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wol-cott for his camera.

1841William Henry Talbot patents the Calotype process - the first negative-positive process making possible the first multiple copies.

1843First advertisement with a photo-graph made in Philadelphia.

1851Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process - images required only two or three sec-onds of light exposure. 1859Panoramic camera patented

1861Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.

1865Photographs and photographic negatives are added to protected works under copyright.

1871Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process - negatives no longer had to be developed im-mediately.

1884George Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film. 1888Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera.

1898Reverend Hannibal Goodwin pat-ents celluloid photographic film.

1913/1914First 35mm still camera devel-oped.

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1927General Electric invents the mod-ern flash bulb.

1932First light meter with photoelec-tric cell introduced.

1935Eastman Kodak markets Koda-chrome film. 1942Chester Carlson receives patent for xerography. 1948Edwin Land markets the Polaroid camera. 1954Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film.

1960EG&G develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy. 1963Polaroid introduces instant color film.

1968Earth photographed from Moon

1973Polaroid introduces one-step in-stant photography with the SX-70 camera. 1978Konica introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera. 1980Sony demonstrates first consum-er camcorder. 1985Pixar introduces digital imaging processor. 1991Kodak DCS-100, first digital SLR, a modified Nikon F3

1997Photomosaics is published

1999Nikon D1 SLR, 2.74 megapixel for $6000, first ground-up DSLR de-sign by a leading manufacturer.

2000Camera phone introduced in Japan by Sharp/J-Phone

2001 Polaroid goes bankrupt

2003 Four-Thirds standard for com-pact digital SLRs introduced with the Olympus E-1; Canon Digital Rebel introduced for less than $1000

2004Kodak ceases production of film cameras

2005Canon EOS 5D, first consumer-priced full-frame digital SLR, with a 24x36mm CMOS sensor for $3000

2010Increase in resolution and pixel density for LCD screen on camera

NOW


Direct Flash

1 In the first direct flash photo - the photographer is using the direct flash to even out her skin tone and bring dramatic light-ing to the photograph.

2 The direct flash adds to the levels of the photograph to show the individual hairs of the man’s head and the details of his face and hands.

1

2Direct flash is what most people are most familiar with, and is when the flash unit emits its burst of light directly at the subject. This is common to all cameras that have a built-in flash unit from sim-ple point and shoot cameras to consum-er SLRs. For many years, all flash attachments were designed as a direct flash (many less expensive units are still designed this way today). The characteristics of direct flash are easy to recognize. Images have harsh shadows directly behind the subject and the photos will have little depth to them. Many photographs of people made with direct flash will have a problem with “red-eye” and if you have reflective sur-faces behind your subject, such as mir-rors, frames, or glass, you’ll have a “hot spot” where the light is reflected off of the surface.

Some of these problems can be re-solved with relative ease if you can move the flash off the camera. Moving your subject away from the background, or raising the flash and angling it to drop the shadow down behind your subject, can allow you to loose the shadow. An-gling the flash will also help prevent the flash from reflecting off of mirrors or glass back into the lens. The one advantage of the direct flash is it can reach longer distances than any other method of flash photography.Looking at the example here, one of the first things you’ll notice is the distract-ing, harsh shadow on the fence in the background. To capture this shot with-out the shadow, we should have moved our subject further away from the fence. This would have allowed the shadow to fall to the ground directly behind the model.

For some reason, flash photography is a topic many people are deathly afraid of and many others don’t fully understand. Flash units are just tools to assist us in our picture taking. They improve our photography by allowing us to control the light. I’m going to discuss flash photography in a manner that, I hope, is easy to under-stand and should take some of the fear out of using that “F” word (flash not the other “F” word silly). I’ll also cover several ways to use your flash to achieve better results.

In-Depth

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Whenever I tell people to use their flash outside on a bright day to improve their photographs they look at me as if I were out of my mind. The midday sun is a very harsh light source and creates pictures that have high contrast. Highlights will be blown out and the shadows are usually deep. The brightness range from the high-lights to the deep shadows will gener-ally exceed what the film can capture. If you expose for the highlights, you’ll loose your shadow detail. If you expose for the shadow detail, you will blow out your highlights. Fill flash is used to add illumination to your foreground to help balance the light levels of your subject and the shad-ow areas so the film can capture both. Fill flash can also be used to bright-en your subject when being lit from behind (backlight). In our first example of the model sit-ting in the window, you’ll notice there’s

Fill Flasha distinct shadow line across the model’s chest. Without the use of a fill flash, her face would have been in a deep shadow and the front shoulder and the part of her chest that is in the sun would have been the only parts illuminated well. If we had exposed for the shadow area, the front shoulder and chest area would have been completely washed out. With the fill flash, we were able to illuminate the area in the shadow and keep from blowing out the areas in the sun. The re-sult: we get a well-balanced, flattering look without loosing a sense of direction from the light, even maintaining detail on her hair (right). In the next two examples, the only light source would have been indoor lighting. Without using the fill flash, we almost silhouette the models are the only parts being lit with natural light. By in-troducing the fill flash, we were able to properly expose the models.

3 Fill Flash is used to get more accurate detail and cor-rect coloring than using di-rect flash which whites out the facial features

4 The colors of the back-ground reflect into her hair. The fill flash makes all the colors pop and look more dramatic, then harsh with direct flash.

3 4

In-Depth


One of the best way to avoid the prob-lems of direct flash is to use a bounce flash. Bounce flashes are flash units that have the ability to angle the flash head upward in order to reflect light off of a ceiling or a reflector connected to the flash unit. This technique will give you a soft diffused light that is very flatter-ing for portraits. Bounce will prevent "red-eye" and eliminate harsh reflections from mirrors and glass because the light is not being reflected directly back at the camera. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when using this method of flash photography. First you will have to "pre-visualize" the angle of the light. Light will reflect at the same angle it is transmit-ted, so you will have to look at where the light will hit the ceiling and follow the same angle to your subject. This doesn't have to be exact, but you want to make sure the light doesn't drop down too far in front of or behind your subject.

Bounce Flash Another important thing to remem-ber is when bouncing off of a ceiling is you'll loose some of the reflected light, typically about two stops. If you're using a dedicated flash on a camera with TTL (Through The Lens) metering, the cam-era will make the correction for you. If you're using a manual flash, you will have to open your aperture by two stops to compensate for the light loss. If you're using a bounce attachment that attaches to your flash, read the documents pack-aged with it for the correct exposure ad-justment. Again, with a TTL set-up, the camera will make the correct adjustment for you. This is all easier than it sounds once you try it. In the examples here, notice that di-rect flash causes the flesh tones to wash out slightly and there is some loss of de-tail. In these shots with the bounce flash, The flesh tones and details are preserved and in the bike. Since I was shooting out-side, I used a Lumiquest Pocket Bounce to provide the reflective surface for the flash.

5 Direct lighting is used and the light is bounces of the walls back to the figure using the flash ef-fectively

6 The bouncing of the lighting adds to the ob-ject with making it look more luminescent

5 6

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Front curtain sync is the "normal" style of flash synchronization. This means that the flash fires when the shutter first reaches its peak opening. Front sync is used whenever you want to freeze mo-tion at the beginning of the exposure. In our example of the children playing with the ball. It is shown to be in motion and appears that time is standing still.

Front Curtain Sync

7 A large sense of mo-tion is created with Front Curtain Sync in the photo with the Christ-mas decorations.

8 Front Sync slows down the motion of the ball to make it appear that it is frozen in time and create this cool effect.

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Rear curtain sync fires at the end of the peak shutter opening as opposed to the beginning. When used with a slow shut-ter speed, you'll create a streak behind your subject and the subject frozen at the end of the frame providing a more realistic motion effect. The photograph on the left you see a more direct sense of motion with the light in the background of the man in streams of light. This is a traditional ex-ample of rear curtain sync flash. The photograph on the bottom the wom-an appears still herself, but everything around her is in motion using a slow shutter speed.

Rear Curtain Sync9 The woman photo-graphed is shown to be stopped in time with mo-tion going on all round her. Using Rear Sync gives her more focus

10 The streak appears in the photo on the right, in traditional rear sync style. The man is in focus and gives the sense of motion around him.

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Some high-end dedicated flash units have a feature called stroboscopic flash. This mode will allow you to fire the flash rapidly, several times, during one expo-sure as a subject moves across the frame. Stroboscopic flash is normally used with a long exposure (usually ½ to one full second). The result is a moving subject frozen several times in the frame. When we set up for these shots, we placed the camera ten feet away from

Stroboscopic

11 The slinky looks like there is more than one slinky bounc-ing from the same place when in reality it is moving.

12 Stroboscopic flash pho-tographs create multiples of an object with a slow shutter speed. There appears to be more than one watch but there is only one.

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our model and manually set our expo-sure at f/2.8 for ½ second. We set our flash unit to give us five bursts at 1/16 power. This allowed us to have the flash fire five times evenly spaced during the ½ second exposure. You can increase the power output to get more distance be-tween the camera and model, but you will not be able to get as many bursts per frame. Refer to the documentation for your flash for more information on this feature.


Slow sync is when you combine flash with a slow shutter speed (normally 1/30th or slower). This will allow you to expose for low light situations and cor-rectly expose for a subject close to you in the foreground. If you are photographing a mov-ing subject, with front curtain sync, the flash will record the subject at the begin-ning of the frame while the ambient light will allow a "ghost like" image to "streak" while moving across the frame. The re-sult is an unrealistic image with the mo-tion in front of your subject.

Slow SyncThe example on the bottom shows a di-rect overhead shot with a “ghostly tail” caused by the long exposure with a sense of motion. We took the same shot with a shutter speed of 15 seconds (requiring a tripod) using slow sync, we were able to capture the model moving a card at fast pace to see the projected motion that the model made. Using the slow sync gives anoth-er dimension and a cool lighting effect. With the other model we used a strong contrast of night and light to amplify the effect.

ConclusionYou can see that understand-ing flash really isn't all that hard. All it takes is a little knowledge and some practice for it to become second nature.

So go out and try it! With a little exper-imentation you'll be using your flash like a pro.

13 The slow shutter helps show the path of the light and create this loop effect

14 Having a slow shutter speed creates this band of col-or in the photograph to make it appear that light is coming off of it and the sense of motion.

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Choosing Camera LensesChoosing camera lenses demands both knowledge of and experience with different types of camera lenses. Al-though knowing which lenses work best in given conditions is important, a photographer also chooses a particu-lar lens to produce a specific photographic effect. Light, composition and subject matter of a scene all influence photographers’ choices of lenses.

Telephoto LensThe difference between a zoom lens and a telephoto lens is subtle. A zoom lens enlarges and magnifies the image. In contrast, a telephoto lens brings the sub-ject “closer” to the photographer, reduc-ing the distance between objects in the photograph and the camera’s lens. This allows a telephoto lens to show greater detail than the human eye could see at the same distance.

Fisheye LensFisheye camera lenses distort the subject image, producing photos with curved and convex appearances. The fisheye lens was first developed for astronomy photography that seeks to capture as wide a range of sky as possible. Today, the fisheye lens has become popular with landscape photogra-phers, as the lens distortion curves ho-rizons and hints at the earth’s curve. A portrait of a person taken with a fish-eye lens has the distortion similar to what’s seen when looking through a door’s peephole.

Fixed-Focal Length Camera LensA fixed-focal length camera lens is a per-manent, non-adjustable lens found on some low to mid-range quality camer-as. Often (but not always) doubling as a wide-angle lens, fixed-focal lenses tend to work well for low-light photos.A fixed-focal length lens can do wonders for beginning photographers by helping them learn the art of photography. With-out zoom capabilities, the photographer

must give more thought to basic pho-tography composition to produce good quality shots. Consequently, a budding photographer may learn the basics of good photography faster if by choosing a fixed-focal length lens. Fixed-focal length camera lenses are less common than they once were, in part because most mid-range digital cameras now have built-in zoom lenses.

Macro LensA macro lens is used to take extreme close ups of objects. Its short focal length allows the photographer to take pictures at close distances without distortions. The resulting image is as large as, or larger, than the original subject. Choosing a macro lens has been com-plicated by digital camera settings. Orig-inally, a macro lens was an extension tube for the camera lens. However, to-day’s digital cameras often have a macro setting. Although the setting replaces the traditional lens, it still produces the same effect as the previous macro lenses. Macro lenses or macro settings are best used for magnifying the details of already small objects. For example, a photographer can use his macro set-ting to photograph ripples in water, the dew on a flower petal or the crevices of a rock.

Wide-Angle LensAlthough some will take landscape shots with telephoto lenses, most pho-tographers opt for the wide-angle lens. Because a wide-angle lens has a wid-er field of vision than the human eye, it can take in more of a topographical

expanse. Consequently, the wide-angle lens is one of the preferred landscape camera lenses. A wide-angle lens can focus on the foreground and background simul-taneously, another ability that the hu-man eye lacks. Wide-angle camera lenses are best for large, dynamic land-scapes where background and fore-ground both catch the eye’s attention. However, a photographer should re-frain from using a wide-angle lens if he wants to focus in on the details of a single, distinct subject.

Lens AccessoriesChoosing among different cam-era lenses isn’t an issue for most mid-range cameras because they already have built-in lenses that cannot be changed. While single lens reflex (SLR) cameras have interchangeable lens-es, their steeper prices tend to make them a tool for professionals or serious amateur photographers. For the hobbyist who doesn’t have an SLR camera, front of lens accessories that mimic the effects of certain lenses are available. A front of lens accessory is a disc that clips onto the front of a cam-era lens to provide specific effects. While some front of lens accessories filter out light, others mimic the effect of a wide-angle or fisheye lens. Photos taken with a lens clip on ac-cessory lack the quality of those tak-en with camera lenses designed for the same effect. As choosing a lens is not possible with many cameras, front of lens accessories increase the average photographer’s options.


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