No Flash -- Again

One of the things I have been trying to do over the last few months is learn more about finding and seeing "available" light.  In general I believe in using any freakin' light available ( saw that in a book I think ), but lately I am specifically looking to use and modify the ambient light.  This is the lobby of my office building.  The front is a huge building sized window, and the inside is all white.  It not only gets a ton of light, it bounces the light around like crazy. I'm pretty certain it is impossible to end up with unflattering light in there.

I'm am still trying  to create and catch different expressions.  I won't pretend to have influenced this one, but I did manage to catch it.

Available light -- again

Tobias at the Beach looking out our patio door. Roll in Bed used as a reflector behind him. D200/ISO 800

Lately I am using available light much more than flash. This is because of a few things. Part of this is I feel I need to revisit the fundamentals of exposure again. I need to keep my highlights under control, and other things. Plus its nice to just see the effects of light without having to imagine it ahead of time.

Kathryn at the beach, same "setup" as Tobias' picture above. Kathryn loves having pictures taken.

I didn't bring a flash to the beach. If we planned to stay longer, or if I planned to make photography a major part of the trip I probably would have brought one.

Tobias after putting himself to bed for a nap. D700/ISO 3200

A second reason is I have been able turn up my ISO rating to unreasonable levels and still get reasonable results. I mentioned before that I don't care that much about noise, but I do care about funky color shifts. My older camera starts shifting at ISO 800 in shadow and by 1600 it is shifting everywhere. ISO 1600 is also the top of its range, some of my recent shots have been done at ISO 3200 and beyond. True, I could have used a tripod, or a strobe, but, well, in the example I chose to post here I just know I would have woken Tobias up messing with extra gear.

Click on the images for a bigger look at the picture.

I wish I had my camera...

I do not feel the need to carry my camera everywhere with me. I know a lot of people do, in case they come across they must photograph. The types of things I would want to photograph that I hadn't planned on generally fall into two categories. First, some events I should just watch and let my memory remember them. The second type are events that it would probably be in my best interest to run away from. Not having a camera for either of those does not bother me.

But sometimes...

Today I saw very cool light playing outside. It had been a dull and lifeless morning, but by late afternoon the clouds were breaking up, and warm colored sunlight was laying on everything it touched. I love the cold steel-grey skies contrasted against golden light. I looked out the window and wished I had my camera.


I didn't have my camera, but I did have a camera of sorts. My phone has a camera. So I grabbed it and made a few pictures. I made one from inside the building, and then held off on the rest until it was time to go home. I needed to make the other ones because, as you can see, the image from inside the building is a little lacking. Or maybe, it just plain sucks.

After I had made these, I felt I should post them up here. Images like this represent a change in my photographic-philosophy so to speak. Many times in the past I refused to photograph things I felt would be snapshots, or I didn't have the "proper" equipment to make a "good" picture. Within the last year or so, I have changed my mind. I now feel, that the mere act of creating something is important. It doesn't matter how great the result is necessarily. I have some pictures I would not have otherwise. Like Kathryn playing an angel in a Christmas play. I would not have made that before, it really is "only" a snapshot. But-- its an important one.

I will say, that I am a little irritated I had to install software to pull the images off the camera. I find that somewhat inexcusable.

I like the final image in this set the best.

Tried something new

Most of the photos I show here have been relatively simple setups. I believe the available light shots have the most "going on", in terms of the number of light sources. They have light from the front, back, and sides! The images created with strobes are much simpler, generally only have two light sources, a strobe + reflector.



I made an attempt to use more than one strobe in some recent pictures. The two girls are 3 light setups. It showed me I have a fair amount to learn, but I found quite fun.

I wish I could paint my wall a color more suited to photography! ( Mayhaps I should build a studio?)

Au naturale

Natural Light, available light, ambient light, it has many names. It is the light we find waiting for us in a location. Sometimes it is straight sunlight, sometimes it is sunlight reflected off a white shed, sometimes it is a lamp, or overhead room lights. Maybe it is stagelight, or a street-lamp, or stadium floods. It is light we can use on its own, or shape with reflectors, or enhance with strobes. It is also light that I have completely ignored lately.

Window Light behind camera

Off camera strobes are something I have been fascinated with since I picked up my first camera many years ago. I have been using them a number of years, but not very creatively, and not with much confidence. This changed over the summer when I discovered Strobist, and stumbled upon Confessions of a Photographer. I worked through the exercises in Lighting 101. I watched videos of photographers using strobes in a studio and out on locations. I experienced one of those "magic" moments where a bunch of independent circuitry in my brain finally connected. I gained confidence in using my strobes, and suddenly I had a whole new set tools and techniques for making pictures. I was no longer confined to what I could force available light to do.

So, what happens when you get a new toy? Sometimes you forget about your old toys. This happened to me. It seemed every time I had my camera out, I also had a flash, or two, or four.

More window light camera left, and backlight

Same image, with a bit of high pass filtering, and limited opacity on the original
(Not sure which I like best, but I'm in experiment with everything mode)

I realized I may have gone too far when I brought my camera bag, a light stand, and umbrella to my wife's grandmother's house Christmas day. Really, I did! Fortunately, I had the good sense to leave the stand and brolly in the trunk. I figured I had it if I needed it, but maybe I wouldn't need it?

Same Window as before, this time to camera right

It turns out I didn't. The kitchen had fantastic light coming in windows, bouncing off of whitish walls, and it just looked nice falling on people. The light picked up some warmth from the room. This is something that, to me, is really nice. I could "correct" it, I suppose, but that loses some of what I liked. I also attempted candid photos for the first time in a while ( aiming a bunch of lights at someone tends to make them aware of the camera... ). I placed a few images from the day through the post, only one is directed, all are available light.