Bounce Flash

Connie Almueti proudly displays her plaque and medal which inducts her into the Civil Affairs Hall of Fame at Fort Bragg, N.C., Sept. 25, 2012. Almueti has served seven commanding generals over 42 years as a Department of the Army civilian, and has been a critical contact for countless commanders in the field. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   In case you haven't been following along, I've kind of been gushing about Flash. I talked about flashing in the morning, Flashing  in the evening, and Flashing at Supertime.

[This is a reference to the  song"Sugartime" which I honestly have no idea how I know about this song, possibly I heard it in an ad? Moving on...]

   Needless to say, I'm a big fan of flash. In fact, a friend of mine said the other day,

"Appreciate natural light, but bring your own just in case."

   Okay, enough gushing. So lets talk about this photo. Connie was inducted to the Civil Affairs Hall of Fame, hence the medal and the plaque, and I was tasked with writing the story.

   Unfortunately administrative work doesn't exactly lend itself to very memorable photography, and really the big story was that she was becoming a member of the Civil Affairs Hall of Fame, a first for any woman. So I said to myself,

"Damn the torpedo's lets pose a photograph!" 

   This was also the second attempt, the results of the first weren't really up to snuff. Yes, I have had plenty of bad days photographing, luckily I was able to go back and try again.

I wanted soft light because it's just more flattering. My favorite method of getting soft light is to bounce it off the ceiling. I aim my flash straight up, crank it up to 11 and let it rip. The light actually bounces off the ceiling and cascades downwards like fairy dust.

You'll notice this isn't quite the exact same picture, I can't

find the one I posted. Regardless, it's pretty awesome, in my

opinion to have anything of mine hanging in the pentagon.

Note: High ceilings laugh at your attempts to bounce flash, many flash units just don't have the umph to launch light beams 10 feet up and 10 feet back down. Also some ceilings will absorb the light.

   The only real problem was that the glass on her plaque was the right height to just catch to tip of my flash. That's a big no no because it breaks the fourth wall. I didn't have access to any sort of off camera flash, not even a bracket, so I just had to work with what I had. I strongly considered removing in in post, but decided against it because editing anything in post is frowned upon in Army photographs, more so than posing. As such, it sits there mocking me.

Turns out, this photo is hanging on a wall in the Pentagon. The small photo shows it hanging out with some other photos. As far as I know it's the only photo of mien hanging in the Pentagon, which to be honest is probably more so because of the content (Connie is a pretty big deal) and no so much the awesomeness of the photo. Regardless, I think it's pretty cool.

If your interested in learning more about Connie you can read about the story I wrote here: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/95899/general-aid#.Ul4bWFA3v8k

Things I need: More Flash

Soldiers from the U.S Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Soldiers prepare to hook up a load to a UH-0 Blackhawk during Pathfinder School at Fort Bragg N.C. on March 27, 2013. These soldiers where able to earn their Pathfinder Badge, thanks to the National Guard Warrior Training Center Mobile Training Team.

   In my dream world I'd have a big flat bed truck with a couple of spot lights and filters at my beck and call ready to provide fill light everywhere I went. Unfortunately for me, I don't have access to something like that. So, sometimes I have to use the power of Photoshop to add light.

Yes, adding light in post does in fact tear me apart inside.

   In this photo I did in fact use my flash. I channeled my inner Captain Kirk and screamed for more power, to which my flash responded, "I'm giving all she's got!"

   You can see that the flash was able to highlight the dust flying at me, but it kind of made it look like snow. It was also able to add a little bit of light to the cargo and the backs of the Soldiers. It also added a little bit of pop to those yellow strands. I would have liked this better if I had more power, because it would have brightened everything up. As it stands it's a shade dark in my opinion.

Step 1: ID Subjects Step 2: Wait for something cool 

Step 3: Press Shutter Button. Step 4: Blog about it.

   You can see that we had cloud cover, so the light was already diffused, there wasn't too much in the way of harsh shadows I really needed to fill.

   Also, the underbelly of the helicopter was dark; and even after some touch up in post is still is darker than I would have liked. But without that flat bed with spotlights there wasn't a whole lot I could have done about that. (I probably don't need a flat bed, a few well placed strobes connected via wireless would do the job as well, but that's a whole other discussion.)

   So how exactly did I find myself in this situation? Well I got a phone call from my Captain,

   "Do you want to go out and take photos tomorrow afternoon? I'm swamped, " she said.

   "Of?" I asked, knowing I didn't have much of a choice.

   "Oh, a bunch of our Soldiers are becoming Pathfinders and their going to be hooking up heavy loads to helicopters hovering over their heads?" She replied

   "Yes. Yes I do."

   I showed up expecting a wait; and wait I did. The students where learning how to communicate with the helicopter pilots and where practicing dropping supplies. Which looked cool, but it's hard to show a soldier on the ground and a helicopter a few hundred feet up in the air dropping supplies, visually it's hard to capture without a huge lens.

Note: A telephoto lens condenses space, so if you want to make it look like two things are closer than they actually are, use a telephoto lens and it'll look like they are much closer than they are.

The red arrow is where I wanted to be, on my back, with a 

super duper wide angle lens. I wanted the tips of the rotor,

the cargo and the soldier hooking up. If anyone gets this shot

after reading this and wins an award for it,  I fully expect a 

thank you card.

   Regardless, I stuck around waiting for this shot. Okay, I actually was thinking of a different shot, using a super wide lens from underneath the belly of the beast, but we didn't have a super wide. But I persisted.

   Luckily for me, this event happened about 10 times, giving me ample time to see what was happening, think about different angles, and fail a few times.

   The first time I stood back and just watched. I could see the wind from the rotors just whipping all sorts of dirt in the air. I knew from previous experiences it wasn't going to be fun. But I can't say I was entirely prepared to be just a few feet from the rotor wash.

   Lets just say, unless you're under the belly, it's not a fun time. I went out each and every time, experimenting with different angles and positions aka the 30-30 rule. I really wanted the faces of the soldiers and their unit patch because a big part of public affairs is showing off your "brand." But I realized getting everything in one shot probably wasn't going to happen. I decided the most compelling thing about this event was a 10,000 pound metal monster bearing down on a few soldiers.

So I got behind these soldiers, put them in my points of interest and just waited for the helicopter to get in my frame.

At the end of the day I can say I got a shot I liked. It wasn't the shot I wanted; I still would like to go back and try again, but I'm happy with it.

Interested in reading more about my adventures with flash? Check out: Felix and the technicolor dream coat, 

Flash, Huh, what is good for? Absolutely Everything, and Flashing at Night

Felix and the technicolor dream coat

Staff. Sgt. Israel Pou with the 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion checks his map in the dark during the Night Land Navigation portion of the Best Warrior Competition at NAS Pensacola on March 23, 2011. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

I can't for the life of me find the original of this image and the metadata has been stripped out of the copy I do have. Conspiracy? You be the judge.

   Regardless, this photo I like. No, it's not perfect but the colors I love. I know I just talked about how night time is a great time to use flash. And it is. But lets say you don't have a flash, what do you do then? Well, be lucky!

   Okay, well that's not entirely true. In this instance you can see my subject had a few sources of light, a fairly bright light from a near by parking lot, a yellow/orange light from a nearby building, and his big red flashlight.

Note 1: His red light is a great example of how light accumulates on a sensor/film.

His flashlight produces only red light, not white, or yellow or orange, just red.

   Why so many colors? Because as the light accumulates on your sensor or film it will eventually turn white. There is more light in the center of his beam and less light as you go outwards. So here, the colors represent brightness as well as color temperature.

Note 2: Do you see the purples and the blues? You can almost see where the light from the parking lamp (which produces cool blue light) mixes with the red light, making purple. Neat huh? I thought so.

Note 3: Do you see some yellow tint around to top part of the photo, top part of the solider and some of the grass area? That light came from a nearby building

Okay, so now that we know how we got all those neat colors lets talk about some technical aspects about this photograph. 

   I used a tripod to keep camera shake on my end out of the equation. However, as we discussed yesterday, if the subject moves we would get blur. I had to stay around the building/parking lot because as my major source of light (I didn't have a flash with me) I simply wasn't able to get any photos outside of that area that weren't nearly black.

   I wish I could tell you exactly how long I had the shutter open, but unfortunately I can't tell you how long this exposure lasted. I would guess it was longer than 1/2 second, you can see some motion were his head was moving but you'll notice it ends up just looking like a blur/smudge.

   I also wish I could tell you what my ISO was at, but it was probably over 400. How can I tell? Well even the sharp parts of this photo aren't very sharp, if you zoom way in you'll see noise [off color pixels]

Note 3: With film as you increase your ISO you increase your grain. Grain in film is like adding texture, which is different from noise which are digital aberrations. In digital  as you increase your ISO you'll produce noise, random colors appearing as tiny pixels. More noise, more random colored pixels.

Grain is kind of like having a sore throat. Noise is like losing your voice.

Example: My voice is raspy and has texture, its certainly not normal, but it's not terrible and some people might prefer it [that's another topic] Noise is like losing your voice. Every so often I squeak or go silent, there just isn't any consistency to it, that's similar noise.

So, back to this photo, I like it. It's not technically perfect but I enjoy the colors. Do I wish it was sharper? Yes. Do I wish I would have used Flash? Yes. But that is why we take pictures and look at them with a critical eye, to see how we can improve our technique.

Flashing at Night. Bonus: 30-30 rule

Spc. Sarah M. Wiita, 490th Civil Affairs Bn., plots her points in the dark during the night land navigation portion of the 350th Civil Affairs Command best warrior competition at Camp Bullis, Texas on March 25, 2012. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

Yesterday I said, "Flash is good. I promise." To which a co-worker of mine said, "It's not good for night land navigation." To which I say poppycock!

   Okay, I really do get his point. The problem with flash at night is that it can certainly temporarily blind you. But without it, getting an image of a moving object at night is hard. It's more luck and than anything else. Without flash you're hoping your subject won't move too much. If your subject moves too much your subject will be blurry and seem out of focus. You're also hoping you can stand still long enough without moving so that you don't cause unnecessary blur to your image.

The night time, is the right time, to use flash. 

   In the above photo we have a few things going on. First off, this soldier is mapping her route on a map with a pencil and a protractor. She is able to see thanks to her headlamp, because it's dark.

   I also want you to notice the orange light on her back/head, that is from a dim street lamp. The reason it's bright like that is because this was a fairly long exposure, (1.3 seconds according to my metadata) that means I capture 1.3 seconds of her moving and light bouncing off her. We talked a little about long exposures and it's effects on light during a post about leading lines. You can consider this a bit of continuation of that topic.

   In case you don't want to go back and read up, what's happening here is that I'm opening my shutter for 1.3 seconds, collecting light, it's not a lot because it's dark, and you can tell because most of my image is rather dark. I used rear shutter, which means at the last fraction of a second my flash went off and "froze" the action.

   You'll notice her head lamp is a little blurry and the general feeling is that we capture motion. You can tell she's doing something, even if you're not sure exactly what it is.

Also note that I didn't use my flash at full power.

   My intent was to add just enough to highlight my subject and not to overpower the other lights. I used an external flash unit, but even your built in pop-up flash probably has a setting which lets you either have it super bright, which I would use during day light with the sun in front of me, or less bright which I would use at night. Because I turned down the umph of the flash and because this soldier was using a bright head lamp anyway, and she was wearing a hat, I didn't blind her.

How did I know how much light to use? Well it's all about experimentation. You need to go out and play with your flash at various power levels at various times of day. The more you practice the more you'll understand when you need a lot of light and when you need just a touch.

"Felix, you could have used a Tripod!"

I could have and that would have eliminated any movement on my part from making the image blurry. But I had the shutter open for 1.3 seconds. The exposure time would have been longer if I didn't use flash. You can see how much she moved in the image. Unless you're controlling the action and telling your subject not to move, after 1.3 seconds you will get a blurry image.  

So how about the composition?

   I included the points of interest so you could think about it yourself, did I use any of the rules we've been talking about? You're welcome to leave a comment or two about what you think.

So why did I include three pictures if I wasn't going to talk about each one of them? Simple.

I want to talk about shooting in a sequence. 

   Now, if your familiar with video you probably just said, "Wait, sequence shooting is for video not photo."

   Yes, this is a video term, but I think it works for photographers as well.

   Sometimes we see something and it doesn't quite turn out how we thought it would. The key isn't to just walk away and see, "ugh, I can't take a good photo," the key is to move and take another photo until you get it right.

In video there is a rule called the 30-30 rule. 

   Which means you move around your subject at least 30 degrees from where you started and you also increase or decrease your subject size by 30 percent.

   This isn't the best example of a 30-30 sequence, especially not for video [in fact I broke a video rule but I won't bore you with more video rules.] However, you'll notice I took a photo, moved my body and took another photo. Same subject, same action, different point of view.

   Next time you go out shooting, remember 30-30. Keep the same subject and move around your subject, make your subject a bigger or smaller portion of your frame and take another photo. Take five or six more. Go crazy. But change it up every time. Doing things like that will help you improve your eye.

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.

Partial Framing.

A box of Christmas ornaments is partially framed by the box itself. Photo by Felix R. Fimbres

I know, You've missed your regular dosage of my blabbing on and on about a random photograph. I was a little busy, but I should be back to my regular posting! Well at least until I run out of photographs to talk about anyway. Also, I'm still waiting for a brave soul to submit a photograph...

So, in any instance I can think of off the top of my head a frame is probably going to be completely surrounding your subject(s) like this window frame, or this parachute; but you don't need to have the entire frame in your photograph.

I this example we have some Christmas ornaments framed up by the box where the spend most of year.

In my opinion, the snowman sticks out, followed by the rocking horse. why? well probably because they are in focus and each have a point of interest.

Could this photo have balance? sure, the box covers about half the frame and so do the ornaments.

But again, it's just a box of ornaments. This photo probably isn't going to win an award be displayed in the New York Metropolitan Museum of  Art, but that's okay because it at least I know some thought went into it's composition.

Simple. Framing.

Citizens of St. Mere-Eglise admire the view of hundreds of paratroopers from the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) who have descended up on the small town in Normandy to commemorate the 67th anniversary of Operation Overlord, D-Day, on June 6, 2010. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   Let me just say right off the bat, I do like this picture. I do not like this picture with green eggs or ham. I simply do not like this photo.

   But, it's a good example of framing. So, I'm going with it. I know yesterday we had a parachute, well not everyone has a parachute; but pretty much everyone has a window. Or a door. Maybe a door that acts as window? Who knows; lets get back to the subject.

The ONE person in a point of interest is looking off the frame. Not good. 

One of the shutters is well positioned in two points of interest this is good.

Two people are looking across the frame, this is also good. But overall I feel

this photo is just a miss. I guess it's apropos that this photo is missing a 

certain Je ne sais quio. [Did I just get two french words in one sentence about

 a photo I took in Normandy? Win.]

   I'm hoping after you noticed those big huge window shutters after you saw those three people. Odds are you didn't, those shutters are pretty dominating.

   Regarding those people, two of them are looking across the frame, this is good, one is looking off the frame. That killed me.

The chandelier also distracts me.

   But the frame. My goodness the frame is beautiful.

   Set against a great patterned backdrop, the shutters are huge and well balanced against each other. The frame is just begging to be filled by a subject; or maybe a lot of people trying to poke their heads out and catching a glimpse. But sometimes this is just what we get.

   So what went wrong? I think what went wrong is my lust to to get as many rules as possible in each and every single shot I take. Sometimes it's better to focus on just one.

   But as I look at this shot, it reminds me of the parachute photo from yesterday.

The frame is just so dominating that it's hard to get anything else to compete with it. 

      Sure I could have put those two shutters in those four points of interest, had balance, and framing. The people would have added to it. Because they would have been dead center the leading lines of their eyes would have been okay looking off the frame. Not great, but better then the one lady looking off the frame.

   Lessons learned. Framing, is not my forte. Frames, like leading lines can be found anywhere, but be careful, if you find an amazing frame[or an amazing leading line for that matter], maybe the frame itself [or the line in this case] should be your subject.