Wednesday, October 16, 2013

flash fill

flash fill

October 16, 2013


This week's challenge is flash fill, selected by Yours Truly. Check out my  pals for their interpretations on this theme: Fishing Guy, Katney, Imac, Lew, and Christine Anne.

This shot captures the idea, but I didn't notice from the little screen that it was blurry.

Again, I exposed for the colorful background, but still used flash and look! A spider--bonus!

This was taken after a rain and I still had wet petals.
Technically, I could have boosted the ISO for these shots and gone without the flash, but the color and sharpness would have disappeared from the subject in the foreground without the fill flash.  I like the way fill-flash makes the subject pop, while not completely overwhelming the background.  And I didn't use fancy flash, just the one built into my camera.

This is especially fun to do with portraits.  Natural light portraits can look very good in a soft way, but I like what it does to add fill flash and bring the face out from the shadows.  Plus, it makes the eyes sparkle (catch lights).  In the case of strong sunlight, I like fill flash, because it softens harsh contrasts, washes out the wrinkles and makes the face look CoverGirl-pretty instead of Hitchcock-stark.

Speaking of "Stark,"  I was invited to a masquerade party this weekend.  I'm going as Tony Stark (Iron Man).  I stayed up after midnight figuring out a way to make the Arc Reactor.  I'll probably add a pic or two to next week's post, regardless of the theme.

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8 comments:

  1. imacOctober 16, 2013

    Nay bad Header and post Iron Man Craver. lol
    Well done ol boy.

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  2. LewOctober 16, 2013

    Great way to highlight the flowers and minimize the background!

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  3. KatneyOctober 16, 2013

    I seem to manage to make things worse with the flash. I guess it takes practice.

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  4. This Is My Blog - fishing guyOctober 16, 2013

    Very nice captures for your theme.

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  5. heritagemomOctober 16, 2013

    You've read my post and seen how infrequently I use flash. :) I'm one of those who prefers natural light, though flash does have its uses, especially as fill or to achieve a certain effect.

    I like your flower pic's, especially the one at sunset. I've used flash once in a flower pic to capture the inside of a yucca bloom. I guess to me, it's obvious that flash was used, but for drama, it looks really nice.

    Lighting (and flash) is probably the next big R&D thing for me in photography. :)

    Thanks for sharing your flash pic's; it's great to see flash in use.

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  6. JackieOctober 17, 2013

    Hello, Iron Man.
    THAT explains your FB post.
    Sigh.
    I'm so glad. I was mystified...but now I understand.
    Great photos...and something that I love about your blog (in addition to your photos) is your explaining photography"stuff"... "Stuff" that I need help with. I love that. And, I thank you, my friend.
    Jackie

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  7. limeOctober 20, 2013

    lovely. i'm still becoming comfortable with fill flash myself.

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  8. Betty ManousosOctober 26, 2013

    great floral captures!
    excellently done:))

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