Flash, Huh, what is it good for? Absolutely everything!

A Soldier from the Fort Carson band plays his tuba during the 440th Civil Affairs Battalion unit stand-up at Fort Carson, Colo. on September 15, 2012. The 440th has spent the last year filling it’s ranks with both new and Veteran civil affairs Soldiers and is now an officially commissioned unit lead by Lt. Col. Damone Garner and Command Sgt. Maj. Aaron Miller. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

Oh boy, look at all that dead space on the right. Luckily for me this post isn't about composition, it's about flash. Okay that's a lie, we'll talk about composition too. Why? Because it's the only thing that really matters. [Yes, that is a completely subjective observation] But first, flash.

Most people use flash when it's dark, which is fine, but have you thought about using it during the day?

"Felix, why would you use flash during the day? It's already bright outside?"

   Because of shadows. Do you see how my subject in the photo above is nice and bright? Do you see how the rest of the band is not? The flash is filling in the shadow caused by the sun that is right in front of me [The sun is in the top left; who am I kidding you didn't miss the sun.]

"So what? So the subject is a little dark, no biggie, flash scares me."

   Okay, we'll lets say I didn't use the flash. The camera would have probably tried to expose for the tuba player; [we haven't talked about exposure, but essentially it's when the subject can be seen and isn't too dark or too bright] in this photo he is correctly exposed. The camera would have accomplished this by allowing more light to hit our sensor. The tuba player would have looked the same as he does now. "So what's the big deal dude?

This is the big deal: more light on the sensor would have made the sky white. You would lose the clouds and that pretty blue sky, maybe even the grass. If you want detail, if you want your colors to pop, you need to know how to put the light where you want it, and you need to be able to know how to balance it out.

   I'll get to exposure, apertures, shutter speed and all that technical stuff in other posts, but for now, You should know that flash can and should be used during the day. Yes, even your little pop-up flash on your camera will work. But you must, must, must experiment with it in various situations. Light does a lot of different things depending on the size of the space and yes even the time of day.

Note 1: If you're using flash during the middle of the day, like I did, it's going to have to be a really powerful flash or you're going to have to be standing really close; you will probably have to zoom out / use a wider angle / and/or step closer depending on how bright it is and how dark your shadows are. The further away your flash is from the subject the less impact it will have. I suggest experimenting with stationary objects first. You may find getting close to people uncomfortable so using an inanimate object too learn is fine. Again, you need to learn the limits of your flash. If you're shooting mostly in automatic mode you'll want to know what your camera will do at certain distances.

Taking notes about what your camera and flash settings are while you shoot is always good idea.

Note 2: If you're using your camera's pop-up flash or a flash which mounts into your camera's hot shoe, certain lenses will cast a shadow when used in conjunction with a flash when at the wider angles [10mm-25mm or so, rough guesstimate, again, experiment with your equipment] aka zoomed out. That's because the lens is blocking the light from the top of your camera.

Note 3: Your phone's flash probably isn't going to match the power of sun if the sun is behind your subject, [like the image below] no matter how close you are.

   So how about this photo? Do we have a clear subject? Yes. Is the subject in at least one point of interest? Yes. Do we have leading lines? Maybe, you could argue his eyes lead to his music sheet and the tuba is one big line leading you to the sun. The colors are nice and the subject is interesting.

   What's bad? Well all that dead space on the right for one. It makes the left side of the frame super heavy. You could delete that whole right side of the image and message of the image would still be the same.  

   The empty space on the right isn't the same as negative space because because it's distracting.

   Had there been soldiers all around him, then it would have balanced a little better. It would have blended in. But as it stands, in my opinion, this area of the photo sticks out like a sore thumb. It also causes him to be dead center for really no reason.

Note 4: Dead center is when you put your subject in the very center of your photograph without using leading lines, framing, the rule of thirds, or balance.

   

   Friends don't let friends shoot images dead center. Would it have killed me to put his head in a point of interest? No, not at all. I would have lost some of that dead space for sure; which would have been good. I could have also bent my knees a little too to give it a slightly different perspective.