[tuco]

I'm all for a flash when you can. But outdoors and in spontaneous situations there is no easy bounce off a ceiling. The light has to come from the front which I don't like to do this close. So some higher ISO is a must too. This was on auto ISO with minimum auto ISO shutter speed set to 1/125th and result ended up being ISO4500. I would only want to go much higher out of pure desperation.

[Dlanor Sekao]

This is actually very enlightening....I NEEDED to read and see this......good points on all.

[philbaum]

Flash can also be used outdoors. Below is a manual flash that i use off-camera via a radio trigger. Use small 20"softbox on a portable stand. The first pic shows the time of day, i.e. after sunset. Used ISO 1000, 1/60s, F5.6. The shots were for some promo shots for a dinner theater play. They wanted me to do the play indoors in a theater setting (boring) but i persauded them to do it outdoors in a ball field. the problem was, one of the actors worked till 6pm. so used a slow shutter and high iso. They had fun, i had fun and the website guy splashed it on the theaters main website for a month.



[IMG][/IMG]

I've also used this single manual flash off camera to augment the theater's stage lights. This is another promo shot done with a single flash complementing the normal stage lgihts.
[IMG][/IMG]

[clackers]

I'm all for a flash when you can. But outdoors and in spontaneous situations there is no easy bounce off a ceiling. The light has to come from the front which I don't like to do this close.

Great spirit you captured in those friends, Tuco!


But for a naturalistic approach with flash, you can make the light come from the side, either off-camera, or on-camera, swivelled and bouncing off a side reflector or even someone wearing a white t-shirt (a Jerry Ghionis suggestion).


The lighting is actually very artificial in this shot - bounced off a sidewall using my hand as a flag to cut the 'front on' component of the flash, but you can see the resulting feel's very different from my previous example, which was from the same afternoon in the same area.:





And this shaping of flash applies to APS-C, FF, or as this pro chooses shooting his gliding instructor indoors - with a Phase One MF!

Even with a huge sensor, the game is to keep the ISO down, introduce contrast, and to shoot at the sharpest apertures for the lens, rather than opening up because there's so little natural light.

You Tube

You Tube

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Last edited by clackers; 02-19-2015 at 04:37 PM.

[clackers]

Flash can also be used outdoors. Below is a manual flash that i use off-camera via a radio trigger. Use small 20"softbox on a portable stand. The first pic shows the time of day, i.e. after sunset. Used ISO 1000, 1/60s, F5.6. The shots were for some promo shots for a dinner theater play. They wanted me to do the play indoors in a theater setting (boring) but i persauded them to do it outdoors in a ball field. the problem was, one of the actors worked till 6pm. so used a slow shutter and high iso. They had fun, i had fun and the website guy splashed it on the theaters main website for a month.



[/url][/IMG]

I've also used this single manual flash off camera to augment the theater's stage lights. This is another promo shot done with a single flash complementing the normal stage lgihts.
[/url][/IMG]

Wonderful shots, Phil. The top one's particularly instructive- a great mix of flash and ambient background.


The flash let you take it at f5.6 to get the depth of field to cover both actors. An f1.2 lens would have been a waste - and resulted in a softer image.

[Ash]

To me flash is indispensible for creating effective portraiture. Natural lighting has to be both soft enough and directed in the right angles for it to be optimal for portraits - too much left to chance. So I prefer adding light to the subject whilst using the ambient lighting for the background. Then I can control how much the background should be exposed vs. the subject.

[GeneV]

Very nice shots by everyone.

I have quite a reputation for making the world my studio. I have about a dozen speedlights and several studio strobes which may show up at your house if you invite me for an event, and will definitely show up if you ask me to be your photographer for the event. Radio controlled flashes get stashed in all kinds of corners.

I have been the photographer for a dance event for close to a decade. Several years ago, a friend's photographer son who saw my shots asked how I got the outdoor lighting look with no flash shadows in a badly lit gym. Then he saw the photo of me below and said he got it. A few Alien Bees and some speedlites, all near the ceiling, and you have lighting that can make even the meager ISO capabilities of a K10d look good as in the bottom photo. With the more modern APS-C bodies, it is even better.

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Last edited by GeneV; 02-20-2015 at 07:03 AM.

[GeneV]

On a similar note, last year I shot the event with my K3, and my friend backed me up with his 5D MKIII. When we shot the same performance, (coincidentally, with our zooms at about the same FL) there were differences and there are differences in our PP (he used more NR and less sharpening), but it is hard to say one is better or worse in technical quality. Well, I might like his angle from the front a little more and he cropped more tightly, while my shot below included all three girls.

[DavidSKAF3]

On a similar note, last year I shot the event with my K3, and my friend backed me up with his 5D MKIII. When we shot the same performance, there were differences (many of which are just PP), but it is hard to say one is better or worse in technical quality. Well, I might like his angle a little more and he cropped more tightly.

These are great! So, can you select which flash fires if you place multiples around the scene? Or do they all fire?


Thanks!

[kooks]

These are great! So, can you select which flash fires if you place multiples around the scene? Or do they all fire?


Thanks!

You can do that (controlling zones) using Cactus V6 with the flashes Pentax.. actually you can control not just when it triggers but also via remote you can control the flash power, and if is a Cactus RF60 you can control the flash zoom. I think that Cactus is the only flash manufacture that do this kind of performance using Pentax flashes.

[nowo1978]

So far, the APS-C equivalent to most FF lens are around the same size.

Uhm, no:

[Rondec]

Uhm, no:

The point is that an APS-C 50-135 f2.8 lens is similar in size to a full frame 70-200 f4. The Sigma 18-35 f1.8 is probably a little bigger than most 24-70 f2.8 lenses, although it doesn't have as much coverage with regard to focal length.

[GeneV]

These are great! So, can you select which flash fires if you place multiples around the scene? Or do they all fire?


Thanks!

For the gym, usually they all fire at once. Both my friend and I had triggers, so the fast recycle of the studio units came in handy. I have set up some lights in corners that had their own triggers. To keep them straight, I had a particular body for that area. I have looked at the Cactus V6, but I am more inclined right now to the Cybersync trigger, which will better control the Alien Bees to allow adjustment of power remotely. Only about half my remote speedlights work with TTL, so the V6 will not be as helpful on those.

---------- Post added 02-20-15 at 06:17 AM ----------

The point is that an APS-C 50-135 f2.8 lens is similar in size to a full frame 70-200 f4. The Sigma 18-35 f1.8 is probably a little bigger than most 24-70 f2.8 lenses, although it doesn't have as much coverage with regard to focal length.

I hardly see any of my friends dress their FF DSLR with anything slower than 70-200/2.8, and that size comparison is pretty accurate for the real world. I why from a technical standpoint that one stop difference is used for comparison, but I am not sure it works out that way in practice. The only FF manufacturer which has stuck at F4 for its flagship 70-200 is Sony's FE, and even with the mirrorless design, that lens is noticeably larger than the 50-135. BTW, great shots of your daughter.

[philbaum]

Thanks to everyone for the cool flash shots and the different approaches. I know one professional in my area who is an active long distance hiker. He carries some sort of small lightweight flash with a radio trigger and uses it on his hikes for special backlit/lighting effects. I've seen some of is hiking pics, and they are superb. The only thing that stops me from doing this myself is finding a small manual flash that would be light to carry.

[Rondec]

For the gym, usually they all fire at once. Both my friend and I had triggers, so the fast recycle of the studio units came in handy. I have set up some lights in corners that had their own triggers. To keep them straight, I had a particular body for that area. I have looked at the Cactus V6, but I am more inclined right now to the Cybersync trigger, which will better control the Alien Bees to allow adjustment of power remotely. Only about half my remote speedlights work with TTL, so the V6 will not be as helpful on those.

---------- Post added 02-20-15 at 06:17 AM ----------



I hardly see any of my friends dress their FF DSLR with anything slower than 70-200/2.8, and that size comparison is pretty accurate for the real world. I why from a technical standpoint that one stop difference is used for comparison, but I am not sure it works out that way in practice. The only FF manufacturer which has stuck at F4 for its flagship 70-200 is Sony's FE, and even with the mirrorless design, that lens is noticeably larger than the 50-135. BTW, great shots of your daughter.

I agree. It's only the equivalency police who insist on saying that you must compare f2.8 lenses on APS-C with f4 lenses on full frame. Why anyone would buy a full frame lens and then shoot a 70-200 f4 lens on it rather than buy an APS-C and put a 50-135 f2.8 on it is beyond me. The only way it makes sense is if you do shoot faster lenses.