Lighten up!

Creating light where there was none, or the art of off camera flash.

I have a couple of flashguns, a flash extender cable and some wireless triggers. All this means there is no excuse for nasty washed out camera flash pictures. I can't claim to be a true Strobist but every now and then I make a point to use the flashes to create a specific image:

Here is a particularly comely vegetable, illuminated against a black background by off camera flash. I stood it on a white card to act as a reflector for the underside. The result is rather dramatic, for a vegetable...




Here is a more complex image. I wanted to show both the rose and the moon, but the rose was barely visible in the moonlight, and a long exposure suitable for the rose would burn out the sky. So, I selected the right exposure to bring the sky and moon out then adjusted the flash power and distance to bring the rose up at the same time..


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wicker dam

Image
Well this is typical of Britain. We used to do things well. Sheffield steel was the envy of the world, people would queue round the block for the chance to buy a nice nylon shirt from Marks and Spencer or a brand new Vauxhall Velox. And now? Now we try to keep lake water in place with a pair of wicker fences.  It is this sort of woolly thinking that could lose us our Empire. You mark my words.
Read more

What's This?

Image
What's this little thing then eh?   Well, let me tell you a story... We changed cars recently. The replacement car is awfully modern and features a USB port.   A USB port.. really? What is that for, do you charge your phone on it? No, in fact you connect your iPod* to it. However it will also accept a standard memory stick and play mp3 music files from folders directly. Now that is a cute trick, as I don't own an iPod*. However, I wouldn't want a conventional memory stick poking out of the car for all to see, so I set off in search of the smallest stick I can find. Here it is, a Busbi Mini 4GB stick. In the background are just some of the CDs and tapes I transferred to it. Even this version looks like it will hold about 40 albums, which is all we will need in the car. So, this leads me to a nostalgic moment. In order to convert the tapes to mp3, I had to record them on the PC, cut 25 minutes of audio into individual tracks and export as WAV
Read more

Pompeii

Image
No trip to the Bay of Naples is complete without a visit to Pompeii. This vast 270 acre site is almost too much to take in, particularly in the scant two hours we had with our coach guide. Here's a view of the Auditorium near the end of the visit. A chance to sit down and relax for a moment.  As always, click on the image for the full size version.   The plaster casts of the victims are a chilling and sombre sight in amongst all the ruins For a more relaxed and informative experience, I suggest Herculaneum, on the other side of Vesuvius. Unlike Pompeii, this was covered in volcanic ash and mud which created a anaerobic layer that led to the  preservation of wood and similar materials. Here is a panorama of the buried town that shows how far below the current ground level it is. Most of Herculaneum is under the more recent town. It was lost for centuries: Historians agreed the it and Pompeii were on the coast, but they were digging in the wrong p
Read more