Tutorial #6
Strobism - my learning curve (part 1)
Updated: January 2010
Strobism is a quickly-growing genre of photography for those who want to emulate a studio environment, with all its lighting, but don't actually want to be confined to a studio or carry around sets of bulky lighting gear. Using multiple off-camera flash guns, it is now possible to recreate the studio look from your own front room - given that ,with digital, you can now see the effect of a flashgun as soon as the shot is taken and make compensatory adjustments on-the-fly.
Off-camera flash simply means detaching it from the camera hotshoe and using it away from the camera. The flash is then triggered either by a long sync. cord or using wireless flash triggers (some cameras, including my Pentax, are designed so that the pop-up flash can double as a wireless trigger for a compatible flashgun).
Once the flashgun is off-camera, apart from the effect of different lighting positions, it also means that a range of reflectors, diffusers, umbrellas, snoots, etc can be used to modify the light output. A true strobist tends to be a bit of a DIY'er and would rather make these themselves that buy overpriced mass-market versions.
So, with a recent new Metz flashgun added to my kit-bag I thought I would give it a go. In the dark recesses of a cupboard I also found my 20-year old Makinon flashgun which still worked - and which sports a light-sensitive trigger - so both can now be fired remotely. I already have a Sto-fen flash diffuser, a 24" diffuser/reflector set and I found a set of coloured gelatine filters in the same cupboard as the flashgun - so I am well on my way.
In part one, I decided to leave the Metz gun attached to the hotshoe and first just see the effects of different set-ups when taking shots of a small ornament. I then added the Makinon remotely to see if I could change the appearance of the background.
This is the control shot - i.e. just ambient sunlight coming through the window behind the camera.
My chosen subject was a small blown-glass ornament. In hindsight, a glass subject may have been a mistake as any backlight just shone through making it a trickier exercise. The glass in this case has a very slight yellow tint to it which I wanted to try and pick out.
I placed the ornament on a white card (the baseboard) and placed another white card at 90 degrees to it about 2 feet further back to act as a backboard.
Actually it doesn't look too bad apart from the strong demarcation between baseboard and backboard and the varying shades on the backboard. Also, there are some very dark areas on the subject itself.
The first strobist shot was with a flashgun mounted on top of the camera, straight-on to the subject. It was set to p-TTL mode and the camera set to 'program' mode. In this way, the flashgun was in total control of the exposure.
It has improved the overall lighting of the shot - the subject is a little clearer and the backboard is more uniform. The demarcation line between baseboard and backboard has been reduced.
However, there a visible shadow of the subject on the backboard and the dark areas on the subject, although lessened, are still visible.
The flash was then bounced off the ceiling at an angle of 45 degrees.
Note how, with the light now coming from above, the baseboard is now lighter than the backboard.
As above, but a 60 degree angle. As above, but a 75 degree angle. As above, but a 90 degree angle , i.e. straight up. I reverted back to a 60 degree angle - but with a Sto-fen diffuser added to the front of the flashgun.
This has had the effect of almost giving the backboard and baseboard the same shade. As above, but now the Makinon flashgun has been added between the subject and the backboard in an attempt to brighten the backboard up.
Because the Makinon cannot be adjusted it always fires on full power and so has dominated the shot.
To try and reduce the amount of light, I reduce the power on the on-camera Metz flashgun to 1/16th and place the Sto-fen diffuser and the 24" diffuser over the Makinon flashgun and then place this in the floor.
The exposure is acceptable although the flashgun on the floor has created a shadow to the left. However, as I will crop the picture down later, I choose to ignore it.
Now I used different coloured gelatine filters over the Makinon flashgun to colour the backboard.
First green.
Then red Then yellow But ultimately my favourite was coffee brown - which accentuated the natural colour of the glass.
After cropping:
So what did I learn? - That a reasonable result can be obtained with little expenditure and a little ingenuity. However, before progressing further I need to replace the old Makinon unit with something that has a little more control with regards to its output.
In the next tutorial we will improve a bland sky using Gradient Fill in Photoshop.
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