Mixing Flash and Ambient Light

I've been playing a bit lately with using flash in combination with available light for various purposes.

A lot of what I've done has been testing. For example, the following pictures I took in my car.

The first picture shows the scene as metered by the camera. The speedometer is washed-out, almost to the point of losing detail due to lack of contrast. And the sky is completely blown out.

The second picture shows the scene severely underexposed for ambient light, but I had my flash set to use high-speed sync. The shutter speed was 1/8000 of a second, forcing the flash to fire multiple times to illuminate the entire frame. Here you can see the speedometer is properly exposed, but the sky is quite dark.

In this next pair of images I illustrate the effectiveness of using bounced flash for fill. My daughter was looking out our front door while holding on to the gate (eating it, actually).

In this first picture you can see how the scene would be if it were lit only by available light. With the image properly exposed for the trees in the background, only a small sliver of Emily's face retains detail.

In the second picture, you can clearly see the effect of the bounced flash. While it's obvious that the picture is better-lit, it would be difficult to tell why without knowing. And someone who hadn't seen the first picture might not realize that any light had been added to the scene. (The same technique was used for the pictures at the top and bottom of this post.)

These last two images were taken at our church's annual Easter egg hunt. Both pictures would have had extremes of contrast, since the sunlight was very harsh. However, I had my flash on the camera for use as fill, and it saved most of the pictures I took that day.
The first picture shows how fill flash can be used to subtly reduce contrast in shadow areas. My daughter would have been recognizable, but the picture would have required extensive curves processing to get a similar result without flash.

The second picture would have left you wondering who the picture was taken of. As it turned out, my mother's smile shows up great despite her being strongly back-lit.

Sorry if this one post bored you, but it's exciting to me to see the possibilities opened - and the shots saved - by techniques like this.

MY D200

New class of camera, new class of photos.

I must say, I'm amazed. If you'll remember, I spent a week at my Dad's house playing with his D200 over Christmas vacation. I was impressed then.

I'm AMAZED now.

The D200 is SUCH a wonderful camera! It begs you to carry it in your hands all the time, despite the weight. Enough features to make you feel like you've got a pro camera, enough options to convince you it was tailor-made to your specifications. Yes, it's got banding, so it might go back to have the A/D converters replaced and calibrated at some point. But I've run into banding in perhaps 5 shots out of around 1000 I've taken in the month or so that I've had it.

And that lens! The 17-55/2.8 DX is worth every cent you pay for it. Like the D200, it makes your hand more comfortable to be holding it. Truly a luxurious lens, it's obviously designed for professional photojournalists who would have to live with it day-in and day-out. It can out-resolve my D200's 10MP sensor, even wide-open at f/2.8. And the contrast is like nothing I've seen (and I've played with some of Canon's L lenses from time-to-time). Truly an optical marvel.

The combination of D200 + 17-55/2.8 just can't seem to go wrong. Focusing is ALWAYS fast and ALWAYS accurate. Any focusing errors can always be attributed to user mistakes. And with the SB600 - on OR OFF the camera - the pictures almost make you cry. They're just that good.

Anyway, enough talk. Here's the pictures!


ISO 1600, WB set to Incandescent+3, lit by the chandelier over our kitchen table

Lit by SB600 on-camera, bounced off the ceiling. Yes, the ball hit the lens hood just a split second later. My daughter's face is in PERFECT focus.

Her Papa was throwing her onto the couch cushions when I decided to try for the mid-air shot. It took me four tries, and he had already been throwing her a while. But the camera did its job, and I love the results. SB600 bounced off the ceiling, after pre-focusing on my father-in-law.

I was playing with the SB600 on its stand bouncing through Carrie's sewing machine to get a good shot of her. While I still haven't gotten exactly the shot I want (will probably require multiple lights), this shot turned out great.

I really like this one. AS you can tell, it was almost bedtime, Carrie was holding Emily (our youngest). Then Mara got jealous and crawled up into her lap, too. SB600 on-camera bounced off the ceiling.

Nikon's D200

I've got Canon's Digital Rebel. It's a great little camera at a great price. Beautiful images at low cost, made by the market leader in SLR cameras. I'm married with two kids, and I just got really interested in photography a year ago. So my lens "collection" is really a pair of $100 lenses and my pride-and-joy, the $450 Sigma 30/1.4. (The Sigma is a non-zooming lens that offers a natural field-of-view and is great for low-light situational stuff.)

Mike (a friend at work) shoots with Nikon gear. He's single (never been married), older than I am, and has been collecting Nikon lenses since he majored in photography in college. So his lens collection is really a "collection". He just bought Nikon's newest pro digital - the $4500 D2x - to replace the other DSLRs he's worn out.

Mike and I regularly give each other grief about which brand is better. As a routine part of this verbal sparring, Mike has repeatedly stated that Canon is a marketing-driven company, while decisions at Nikon are made by engineers. I always dismissed this as a colored perspective that wasn't really harmful or offensive.

Until Nikon released the D200.

The Overpriced, Underfeatured Canon 5D

Really, it started with Canon's recent release of the 5D. It's way overpriced, in my opinion. At $3300, it's just a $1300 20D with a sensor the size of a 35mm negative. That makes it the first full-frame DSLR available for under $4000. But at that price, I was really expecting the feature set to closely resemble the sports shooters' workhorse - the $4500 1DMkIIN. Weather sealing, 45-point pro-speed AF, and other pro features should be in a $3300 camera. Nope. Just a bigger screen...and a print button.

That print button irritated me more the more I thought about it. Who among the target audience for this EXPENSIVE camera would want a button just for printing? It's a waste of money, a waste of real-estate, and - worst of all - a waste of a perfectly accessible button during shooting. Reviewers everywhere commented on it. And I realized that maybe Mike was right - maybe some Executive Vice President of Marketing decided that "all Canon digital cameras will have a Print button." Starting with the $3300 5D.

The Underpriced, Overfeatured Nikon D200

Meanwhile, Mike had told me what to expect of the D200 - basically a pro camera in a smaller package, priced around $2500 (as was its predecessor, the D100). Sounded like a nice camera (even if it was four years late), but it was WAY too rich for my blood. Besides - I had Canon lenses. Even my humble $650 of glass counts (for me, anyway) as an investment.

So when the D200 was officially announced, the specs were surprisingly up-to-date for a camera four years in the making. (That's a long time in digital land.)

But I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw the price: $1700, just $200 more than I was already planning to spend on an upgrade in the spring.

My initial elation stemmed from the effect this new camera would SURELY have on the new 20D's feature list. I realized Canon probably hadn't been caught by surprise, but we ordinary folk were just waking up to the pressure Canon had been living under for a few years. A pro camera, with pro AF and weather sealing and cast-iron build and controls for every photographic setting I knew of (plus some I didn't) priced for ordnary people like me. "Who knows what Canon will come up with?" I thought.

But the more I looked at the D200, and the more I looked at my investment in lenses, the more I realized that the D200 was an option for ME. (My increasing skills at selling electronics on eBay was also a factor.) I was already planning on selling the kit lens with my camera. I could sell the Sigma for a little loss and probably make up the difference between Canon and Nikon cameras.

And the features were calling to me: Pro-grade AF that could track my child around the frame. Selectable frame rates, up to 5FPS. A buffer large enough to hold 22 RAW files. Weather-sealing and build that would give me peace of mind should life happen while the camera was out. All are features I would use. All are features Canon has so far reserved for their pro cameras (even the $3300 5D has none of these features). Add to that Nikon's less-confusing control layout with a pro-level degree of control. And by all indications, the D200 yields ISO3200 images with almost as little noise as the excellent Canon 20D.

So my mind is made up...for now. My budget is preventing me from buying anything until after Canon has shown their cards. The 20D's successor is expected to be announced in late February at the PMA conference, with cameras shipping in March. I guess it's a good thing I can't upgrade until then.

But I can drool over the D200 in the meantime :-)

Recent Canon New Product Announcements

The all-new EOS 5D

Great camera
Good to see full-frame prices drop
I'll never spend that $$ just for full-frame

The upgraded 1D Mark II N

A surprise: Same sensor, same framerate, same controls.
I'd have expected at least the 9-way joystick from the 20D, if they're going to the trouble of changing the model number and firmware.
At least they're not making you pay more for that bigger LCD.

24-105/4L IS
Kinda surprised, kinda not.
I know many people wanted this lens.
But others (including me) would prefer an 18-50/2.8L. An L-class normal zoom for 1.6x cameras would be great. After all - Nikon makes one.

430EX

The one announcement that will benefit me. This means the flash I buy will have:

• More power
• Manual control
• 2nd-curtain sync
• Less bulk
• Less weight
• Faster recycle time
• Same price (presumably) I was already planning to pay

It, too, is a surprise. I've not heard any complaints about the 420EX. I have, however, seen Canon lose many 420EX sales to Sigma's EF 500DG Super. That lens already has these features for the same price, plus it can act as a wireless-TTL master unit

I'm still hoping for a 20D replacement in spring.

First Picture Post

This is the obligatory first picture post. Slightly less annoying because it's got a picture. At least it's a good picture of two cute girls (my daughters).