When the flash is on the camera it tends to create "flat" lighting. Better lighting is produced by the light coming from the side of the image. In a prior tread I discussed using window light from the side and a reflector to fill the shadow. In this thread I will be replacing that side window light with a flash. So how do you get your flash off the camera? For these examples I am assuming your camera manufacturer sells a TTL flash. TTL means the flash is measured Through The Lens and the flash head is automatically turned off when enough light has entered the camera to produce a properly exposed image. In order to get this level of communication between the flash head and the camera more than just an on and off wire needs to exist between the two. Look at your camera hot shoe and see if it has many metal "dots" to make the extra connections. These extra "dots" communicate the TTL function. Nikon has had this system for a long time and I expect Canon has had it also. This is what a Nikon TTL flash cord looks like. It is Nikon SC-17.
So how does it look when we place the Nikon SB-600 flash on a book to the right of our watch to create that side light? Not so hot at first. Look at this photo and see if you can identify the problems.
Do you see how the right side of the photo is "burned out" because the flash is too strong in that area? But the left side of the photo has shadows that are too dark. And the beads are reflecting too much in the dial of the watch. Our lighting isn't "flat" any more but it is too "unflat" now.
Let's first use the plastic diffuser over the SB-600 to mute that "hot" lighting on the right. Here is what the plastic diffuser looks like over the flash head.
Here is the effect it has. Notice a reduction in the highlight in the right corner. Notice how the diffuser also cuts the brightness of the light hitting the beads and therefore reduces the reflection of the beads in the dial.
We are getting better but now lets deal with the too dark shadows on the left by using the white side of our reflector to fill in those dark shadows.
Starting to look pretty good, isn't it? You may want to stop here. But what if we used the aluminum foil side of the reflector to further fill in those shadows? Here is what that looks like.
Now our lighting is quite nicely balanced and we could stop here. But we could also go on. What if we used our exposure compensation feature to try deepening the colors about 1/3 f-stop? Look at your owner's manual under exposure compensation to see how to do this on your camera. Here is the same composition exposed now with diffused off camera side flash, aluminum reflector and -0.3 exposure compensation. Notice we are getting "richer" colors. Remember your exposure meter is designed to expose to a "gray card" which reflects 18% of the light falling on it. BUT your subject may reflect only 15% and that exposure compensation feature tells your exposure meter to "darken" the subject a bit from the default 18% reflectivity.
Getting better, aren't we? What if we darkened more to -0.7 exposure compensation. Here is the result.
We are now entering a matter of personal preference. Some people may prefer the stronger contract created by the white card fill over the lesser contrast created by the aluminum foil fill. If so, perform your exposure compensation variation using the white card as your reflector. Some people may prefer the "standard" exposure over the -0.3 or -0.7 exposure compensation exposure. Here is a -1.0 (one full f-stop underexposure) exposure compensation.
Personally, I feel that going more than -1.0 would produce an image that was too dark so I stopped at that point. I prefer the -0.3 or the -0.7 image. But you may like to go to -1.3 or more. Nothing wrong with darkness and nothing wrong with trying it. It doesn't cost you anything to try different things with digital photography, just a few electrons stored on an SD card.
Here is a photo of the overall scene so you can see the background chosen, the reflector position and the flash position. For this photo I placed a Kleenex over the flash head to illustrate what you can do to soften the harsh light if your flash doesn't come with a built in diffuser. A word about the background: the watch was chosen to be something different than I had used in my other Shutterbug posts because people may be getting tired of looking at that watch, the jacket was chosen to complement the watch and is a recreation of one worn by Buffalo Bill in his Wild West shows. The book was chosen for its leather color to complement the jacket and watch. The composition was created simply to give the viewer an interesting and pleasing image when illustrating "hot spots," deep shadows, diffused flash lighting off camera, reflectors effects, and exposure compensation.
If you are a Canon owner please post the number of Canon's TTL off camera flash cord so people know what that it.
I think these TTL flash cords can be obtained on line from B&H Photo or Adorama.
Please try this yourself at home and post some example of your work.
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