[magic.pill]

Hello,

I have a pentax K5-ii and a Metz Flash light.

I have found the following pictures (taken in low light conditions) of a party on facebook. I dont know the gear those pictures were taken with. For some reason, when I take pictures with my pentax and my flash and my 50mm in low light situations (for instance at my home) with TTL they turn out to look FLASHED. These pictures here taken with a flash light turn out to look smooth, they look like they are still in low light but nicely flashed, with nice colors. Can someone explain to me why the "smooth" pics look smooth?

All pictures attached are NOT mine, they are just an example for flashed vs non-flashed.

Thanks in Advance,
MP

Attached Images

       

[tuco]

A flash pointed right at a person typically will have that flash look. It needs to be highly diffused. Some strobes have a little white board that pulls up and you can point the flash up and it will bounce of the white board. And bouncing the flash off a ceiling or wall works wonders too. Here at a Halloween party I bounced the flash of the ceiling and with a diffusion adapter on the flash it also has some light going forward to fill in a face that has a hat on.

[enoeske]

The difference is, the ones that look "flashed" have a small flash head pointed directly at the subject creating flat light and hard shadows and bright specular highlights. The ones that don't look "flashed" are bouncing the flash off the ceiling with creates a huge soft light source, eliminates hard shadows and specular highlights.

[magic.pill]

@tuco: Thanks for your reply. There are two things. When I use flash at home against the wall the picture looks usually like daylight with my setup. Secondly, have a look at the third picture. There you can see that he/she uses a pointed flash-light without a diffuser and it still looks great! Its a mystery.

[magic.pill]

Here is another picture from the same party. Look how its directed light with no diffuser and no flashing the wall.

[enoeske]

@tuco: Thanks for your reply. There are two things. When I use flash at home against the wall the picture looks usually like daylight with my setup. Secondly, have a look at the third picture. There you can see that he/she uses a pointed flash-light without a diffuser and it still looks great! Its a mystery.

It doesn't look great. It looks overexposed. And the flash might not use a diffuser, but its likely bouncing off a nearby wall for lots of fill light which helps to not have those hard shadows. It also helps that the ambient is well balanced with the flash.

[tuco]

Here is another picture from the same party. Look how its directed light with no diffuser and no flashing the wall.

I guess it looks great but you can see the skin has blown flesh tones from the frontal assault of hard light. It is perhaps balanced with the ambient light better which is also a reason flashes can look too harsh.

[magic.pill]

P.S. Here is a picture I took at my party directing the flash at the wall. Look how it completly destroyed the low-light party look.

Looks completly like a day pic.

[shardulm]

Try this...
ISO set on Auto (your camera will take pictures with a higher ISO) if not set it to a higher ISO around 1600 and set the ISO noise correction on.
Bounce the flash or do a -2 flash ev with that higher ISO.. If you are not bouncing it use a cheap plastic diffuser that goes on top of the flash head straight up.
This should most likely give you the results you are seeking.

Also note that your metering will play a big role here. Use spot metering or center weighted instead of entire frame. This will make a big difference. If you use spot metering identify the face that you need correctly exposed meter it (AE LOCK) and then take the exposure.


The images you are liking are essentially vignetted and underexposed. But if thats what you like I am sure you can do this with your DSLR or any DSLR for that matter. Just use the meter properly and adjust the flash compensation with a diffuser.

[swanlefitte]

look at the shadows under the nose. You can see the brightest light on that last one comes from high and right. 2+3 in the first post also show a light of camera. A butterfly light from up above would show a shadow under the nose that looks like a butterfly. Check out guess the lighting blog.

[mcgregni]

Get a Gary Fong Lightsphere and just stick it on ... Bounce up and sideways. There is always front fill and nice soft reflected light with this product.

[CarlJF]

P.S. Here is a picture I took at my party directing the flash at the wall. Look how it completly destroyed the low-light party look.

Looks completly like a day pic.

As others said, it's a matter of balancing flash and ambient lighting... If you were in low light and just shot the flash on full auto, the flash was your main lighting and flood everything with light to get the right exposure... It can't read your mind to know that you wanted to keep the low ambient light visible... Which can be done by using flash compensation and EV compensation, if needed. There's no "wrong", "right" or "one-fit-all" setting, it all depends on the result you're looking for and the lighting conditions under which you take the picture. Sometime, you want the flash/flashes to overpower everything and other times you just want it to act as a subtle fill-in light...

If you're interested in using flash, you should read Strobist: Lighting 101 webpage. It lclearly and quickly explains the basics of flash photography and what we mean by "balancing your flash and ambient exposure". Getting great results with a flash is an art by itself... However, it's relatively easy to get very nice results once you know the basics and undertstands what you're doing.

[tuco]

P.S. Here is a picture I took at my party directing the flash at the wall. Look how it completly destroyed the low-light party look.

Looks completly like a day pic.

Your flash is not balanced well with the ambient light. Experiment with auto ISO and with turning the flash power down with a minus EV flash value.

[mattt]

^^ That ^^

The flash exposure is controlled by sensitivity, Aperture, and flash power. The exposure for areas in the beyond the flash reach are exposed by shutter speed, aperture and sensitivity.

if you want the back ground to darken, stop down, but leave ISO and Shutter speed the same.

The minus EV flash is basically telling the flash to fire at weaker power.

bigger light sources, closer, are softer, smaller, more distant flash will be harsher.

It should be noted that legacy non-A glass will have to be flashed in Manual (or A-mode).

I shoot groups and presentations in dark venues frequently. I find indoor flash works best with ISO locked at 400 or 800 ISO.

Bryan Peterson has a usable Flash guide too.

[RGlasel]

Look how its directed light with no diffuser and no flashing the wall.

Both of those shots have the flash bouncing back from a window behind the people in the photos. That will throw in-camera metering all out of whack. Since the faces are overexposed, my guess is that the photographer applied lots of exposure compensation to overcome the low flash output. Essentially, what s/he got was the equivalent of a built-in flash providing some fill-in, but mostly ambient light is responsible for the exposure. To my eyes, the colour temperature is wrong as well, which is likely from the ambient light.

Look how it completly destroyed the low-light party look.

Put a dark wall behind your people and move them further away from the wall.