Flash Friday: Know Your 'Full Stops' for Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and Flash Power

File

"Full stop," what does that mean? Well, as a photographer who wants to take control of your camera, it's a concept you need to try to understand. And as one who also wants to take more control of using your hot shoe flash off camera creatively and effectively, you definitely should try to understand full stops.

It is easy to grasp that when you change your shutter speed from 1/250 to 1/125 you have doubled the amount of time your shutter remains open (1/125 is a slower shutter speed than 1/250) and, conversely, when you increase it from 1/250 to 1/500, you cut the amount of time your shutter remains open in half. Simple math seems to make that fairly obvious. So, the change of a shutter speed that halves or doubles the speed is referred to as a "full stop." The term 'stop' comes from the days of film cameras where when one increased or decreased a setting, one moved a mechanical control to the next 'click' or 'stop' on the adjustment dial. Unlike digital cameras, one often only could make full stop changes. There was not always the ability to make intermittent stops between full stops as there is now with modern digital cameras, where most digital cameras today will allow one to even choose between 1/3 and 1/2 stops!

We refer to full stops when we make ISO and aperture changes, as well. Though somewhat of an oversimplification, ISO controls the camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The lower the ISO, the less sensitive and the higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor is. Changing one's ISO from 200 to 400 doubles the sensitivity level and is, therefore, referred to as a "full stop" increase in ISO.

The same is true with aperture values, too. An aperture value is, typically, expressed like this: f/8. The "f" refers to the focal length of the lens and the actual aperture value, i.e., the actual numerical value of the circumference of the lens opening, is the result of dividing the selected aperture number (in the above example, 8) into the current focal length of the lens in use. That's a lot of math and, thank goodness, you don't have to worry about it. What you as a photographer do need to understand, though, is that as that number gets smaller the aperture opening (the circumference) gets larger and, conversely, as it gets larger i.e., f/11, f/16, etc., the aperture opening gets smaller. Now, with aperture values, the math is not as obvious, as an aperture opening of f/11 is twice as large (double again!) as one of f/16. And an aperture opening of f/8 is twice as large as one of f/11. Therefore, to cut an aperture of f/8 a full stop to reduce the light hitting the sensor, you change it to f/11.

Now, as you add flash to the equation, you will learn that you control how much light your flash unit splashes onto the scene by changing the power level of your flash. Working in Manual flash mode, as I recommended in a recent post (http://www.whboozimages.com/), you will be able to adjust these power settings which will start at full power, usually indicated on the flash unit's LCD with value 1/1. How you actually do that varies somewhat from flash model to flash model, so refer to your flash's guide or manual. Most hot shoe flashes, even the less expensive ones, will have power settings in the range from 1/1 to 1/8. The "full stop" power settings in between will look like this: 1/1 - 1/2 - 1/4 - 1/8. Again, you see the parallel with your other exposure controls since a power setting change from 1/2 to 1/1 is clearly doubling the power output and is, thus, a "full stop" on the flash's power scale. More expensive flashes will usually give you control all the way down to 1/128 power, giving you a broad range of control of your hot shoe flash.

Download the image attached to this post, print it, and keep it in your camera bag until the full stops for all the exposure, that is, "light," controls on your camera are second nature for you.

Check out my photo classes and workshop page: http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Classes for Fall 2012 available for review and registration.

 

Revisiting Controls - Being in Charge of Your Image Making

(download)

Last week I started teaching another of my classes. "Shooting to Learn" is intended to be an opportunity for those who take it to practice what they have learned in previously taken classes or from their own self-instruction. This is a fun class to offer because it is less about "teaching" and more about helping. The class consists of three, free-form sessions "in-the-field," that is, although I have a semi agenda for each class session with specific topics to address, it is more about responding to the needs and questions of the participants and this usually comes back to the basics of paying attention to the things over which you, the photographer, have control, i.e., aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I really enjoy working with folks like this as it is always different and very real world type situations so the questions are not hypothetical and very important to the class participants. "Tell me again how I make the water look like cotton candy?" a student asks as we stand in front of a flowing fountain. "Try shooting at 1/125 and then at 1/15 and compare the difference," I suggest. I'm just thinking that that student is going to remember to use a slow shutter speed next she wants to make flowing water look dreamy, aren't you?

Another advantage of walking around with others taking pictures is that students watch each other. Someone will invariably try something others hadn't thought of and that encourages others to experiment too. "Hey, I never thought of taking that shot through a water fountain. Good idea!" And off they go, trying something new...to them. Though I try to make the image making process in a classroom with four walls, and I do have my students practice hands-on, being outside and applying what one has learned or read about, makes all the difference in the world!

Check out my photo classes and workshop page: http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Classes for Fall 2012 available for review and registration.

 

Taking My Flash on the Road

File

We leave tomorrow on one of our biggest - and longest - trips. This one is to Australia and a cruise around part of New Zealand. I have never taken my Canon 580EX II flash unit with me on a long trip like this, but since becoming much more interested in how the use of an off-camera, hot shoe flash can improve my images, I thought it was worth a try on this trip.

Now, this is not a trivial decision as it involves not just the addition of the flash unit, but since I want to use it off camera and even though my 60D can use the onboard flash to trigger the hot shoe unit, I still want to be able to attach the flash to the camera by cable. This is in case I am in an outdoor situation where the communication between on-camera flash and the 580EX may not work. So, that is another, albeit small, cable to pack and keep track of. More importantly, though, the decision to take the flash unit means making sure I have charged AA batteries ready. And that, in turn, means bringing a charger! I'm never comfortable having only the four batteries in the unit but always want, at least, four back-ups with me. When I started to get serious about using my hot shoe flash, I also realized I had to get serious about charging the batteries for it. So, I bought, after some extensive research, the La Crosse Technology BC-700 battery charger (http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/bc700/index.php) to get better charging performance. Well, this charger is a bit bulky, so I am opting not to lug it along on the trip. I will rely on my old AA charger I used to use, but that is yet one more thing to pack and keep track of!

Then, of course, there is the whole thing about carrying the flash unit around with me when going off on day trips. As I have written elsewhere (http://whboozimages.com/carry-your-gear-adapting-a-carry-on-to-use-as) about outfitting my carry-on to accommodate my camera gear, i have ample space for all this gear, but I don't intend to take this bag with me everywhere! No, my plan is to use my Eagle Creek shoulder bag for daily transporting of camera and lens. I am hoping I can also fit my flash unit in that bag as well. I may have to forsake a second lens so it will fit when we go off on day trips.

Well, in any event, I'm going to give it a try. My experience will either help me decide to leave it at home on next trip or make realize I can't leave home without it. We'll see.

Check out my photo classes and workshop page: http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Registration for my "Working with Light" and "Shooting to Learn" (meeting in April and May) is still open.

 

Flash Friday: Take Control of Your Flash - Try Manual First!

(download)

 

I have already mentioned that it is relatively recent that I have begun to feel a lot more comfortable with using external flash with my SLR. That comfort has come from a lot of reading, working with some other folks, and simply practicing and experimenting with different lighting setups. And making lots of mistakes. I shoot Canon so I was particularly happy to finally have a chance to read Syl Arena's book, "Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites." Arena does an excellent job of leading the reader through the process of using Speedlites, or 'speedlights,' as most others refer to off-camera, hot shoe flash units. After that, I went back to David Hobby's strobist.com web site and went through his "Lighting 101" posts again plus, this time," also his extensive and detailed "Lighting 102" posts. The latter is, essentially, an online course in using off-camera strobes that is timeless and very informative.

While doing all of all this reading I also practiced what I was learning. Hobby and Arena both made the same recommendation: start working with your hot shoe flash in Manual mode before tackling their TTL modes (iTTL for Nikon flash units and ETTL for Canon units). Seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it? Why would you start in Manual mode when there is a perfectly good automatic mode? Well, because by first working with your flash units in their Manual modes, you learn what is happening at various power and zoom settings on the flash and at various aperture and shutter speed settings on your camera. Once you start to understand how one thing affects another in manual mode, you will better appreciate and understand what your camera/flash system is doing when it makes more sense to use those auto settings.

In the case of using flash to augment light in your scene, there are times when using the TTL features of your system makes better sense than trying to work in Manual mode. Manual, for example, is a better choice when you are working with a static scene where you can control pretty much everything. A still life, product shot or a portrait shot inside or outside, for example. In these instances you know how far your subject is from the light source, i.e., your strobe, and you can manually set the power on your flash and aperture on your camera until you achieve the look you were going for. However, when your subject is moving - like a runner, a bride and groom walking back the aisle, an event where you are moving around and so are your subjects - then letting your camera and flash calculate appropriate settings is the preferred way to go.

So, refer to the manual for your flash and learn how one uses it in Manual mode and practice. Make mistakes. Try again....and again. I will be posting some exercises here in the near future, so come back, but do take a look at Hobby's "Lighting 102" posts. They start at the beginning and build, so you can't go wrong (http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/06/lighting-102-introduction.html).>

Check out my photo classes and workshop page: http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Registration for my "Working with Light" and "Shooting to Learn" (meeting in April and May) is still open.


 

Carry Your Gear: Adapting a Carry On to Use as Camera Bag

(download)

I wrote about actually stuffing one of my backpack camera bags into my newly acquired roller carry-on bag in preparation for our trip to Norway back in August (http://whboozimages.com/put-your-camera-bag-in-your-carryon). We are now getting ready to leave on a 3+ week trip to Australia and New Zealand and I decided that, though the backpack-in-the-carryon approach did work, the camera bag actually took up a lot of the interior space of the carry-on simply because of all of its belts and shoulder straps, etc. I wanted to try something different where I would still be able to travel with one bag that rolls and that would be able to protect my camera gear adequately, plus - and this is the key - give me more room within the bag. I know, I know, I could purchase just such a bag from Lowepro (http://bit.ly/wKjDAe: Pro Roller Lite 250 AW) and ThinkTank Photos (http://bit.ly/A8hKmw: the Airport Security v. 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag), but I'm basically cheap. Plus, I would prefer to spend the $350+ for such bags for a new lens or flash equipment than on a bag. I figured I could craft something that would work for our next trip and ones to follow by adapting the lightweight carry-on I bought back in the summer for our last big trip (http://bit.ly/yptR5e).

I figured that all I needed was padding to create a section at the bottom of my little carry-on into which I could add padding walls from my existing camera bags. Ended up that I only needed to take out the padding from my Tamrac Expedition 4 backpack. So, off to JoAnn's Fabrics to purchase some black material to use as covering, some Velcro strips to add to the padding so I could attach the padding panels from the Tamrac, and some foam padding. I got a 2" thick piece that I cut to a 12" square and covered to serve as the bottom (or "back,"  as the suitcase stands up), as well as a 12" by 24" piece of 1/2" thick foam to cut into four 6" panels. I cut out the 13" (or so) by 49 1/2" piece of fabric to use to create a "sleeve" into which I would put the four panels. Our sewing machine has been retired, so it would have taken longer, probably, to get it out and set up than to simply go ahead and sew these pieces up by hand. I did all the sewing except I needed to ask for my wife's assistance to close off the ends. That process was beyond my seamstress talents!

After getting the panels into the sleeve and having it sewn shut, I began the process of adding strips of Velcro on the three panels that would form the bottom (as suitcase stands erect) and left and right sides of my camera "area." As you can see from the images, I do appear to be challenged when it came to getting the strips parallel! But, in the end, they work! I also learned - after taking an entire day to get these six strips attached to my panel sleeve - that it is a very good thing that I do not make my living from sewing! Two days and about $10-15 later, I had exactly what I wanted. I compartment at the bottom of my carry-on that would safely secure my 60D with a 28-135mm lens attached, my 70-200mm, f/4 lens, the 17-55mm kit lens, my 50mm, f/1.8 lens, my Canon 580EX II flash unit, and small bags holding sundry cables, filters, Hoodman Loupe (http://whboozimages.com/the-hoodman-loupe-really-works), extra SDHD cards, etc., etc.

Now that the bag adaption is complete, I am deciding exactly what I can take in my carry-on. Certainly what is in the list above, but I need to add more. There is space above my "camera compartment" to insert my favorite shoulder bag (Eagle Creek: http://bit.ly/you1bx) containing my iPad, Kindle Touch, and other miscellaneous things I will want with me in my seat once in the plane. I will use the small shoulder bag as my walk-around bag when we are in Australia and New Zealand. It will hold my camera with attached, an additional lens and the iPad or Kindle easily. I'm ready.....I think. Will let you know. You can follow the progress of our trip at http://billbooztravels.posterous.com/ as long as we have Internet access. Otherwise, i will update that blog with information about our trip after we return home at the end of March.

Check out my photo classes and workshop page:http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Registration for my "Working with Light" and "Shooting to Learn" (meeting in April and May) is still open.

 

Shutter Priority - When to Use it

(download)

Recently I talked about some reasons for deciding to shoot, as a large percentage of photographers do, in Aperture Priority mode. Today let's explore one of the alternative modes all SLR cameras offer: Shutter Priority. So, by selecting Shutter Priority you are saying that you want to select the shutter speed you shoot at and you're letting the camera select an aperture that should give you a correctly exposed image. But why would you want to choose a particular shutter speed? In my case, I have found that to get more keepers I need to shoot at faster shutter speeds so my images aren't blurred, that is, less camera shake. I don't hold the ole camera as steady as I did when I was younger. Or, maybe, you've just had a lot of coffee and aren't as steady either.

Creatively, however, you would want to select your own shutter speed and not leave it up to your camera if, for example, you did want blur in your two-dimensional image to give the illusion of motion. In such a case, you would want your camera's shutter to open and close slowly to have the light captured by your camera blur your resulting image. That is, you would select a slow shutter speed such as 1/30, 1/15, or, maybe even 1/8 of a second. Now, a slow shutter speed like that will require some very steady holding or some help like holding yourself steady against a pole or wall or, if you have one, by using a tripod. Another popular use for slow shutter speeds is when you want to shoot flowing water and make it look soft and silky, almost like cotton candy. The danger here is, of course, unless you are using a tripod or some other method of steadying your camera, you run the risk of blur in other parts of the image. You can see this blurriness in the rocks in the stream image that has no ferns.

On the other end of the shutter speed scale are fast shutter speeds. You select a faster shutter speed when you want to freeze the action in your scene. Maybe you want to stop a basketball player in the air as he dunks the ball. Or, maybe you want to freeze a baseball in flight as though it was suspended in air. To accomplish that, you will have to select a very fast shutter speed. Something like 1/1000 or 1/4000 of a second. Even at 1/800 of a second I was able to freeze the lacrosse ball in the air in the attached images.

So, select which shooting function you want to control, shutter speed or aperture, and select that mode, letting the camera help you out with the selection of the other function for a correctly exposed shot.

Check out my photo classes and workshop page:http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Registration for my "Working with Light" and "Shooting to Learn" (meeting in April and May) is still open.

 

Aperture Priority - Why? Some Reasons & Roundup of Great Articles

(download)

Though shooting your SLR in Auto or Program modes is not a bad thing, you are letting your camera make all the decisions about how to expose a scene. Any digital camera today is far more sophisticated and, quite likely, better than any camera from 10 or 15 years ago, so shooting in these "auto" modes will generally yield great images that are correctly exposed. Use these modes to learn what tends to be "correct" according to the camera. That is, after taking a shot, don't just take a quick look at your capture, but go into review mode (when you push the button on your camera to look at the images you have captured; often this button has the triangle "play"icon on it) and press the "info," "display," or however the button on your camera is labeled that changes what information is displayed along with your image capture. Now, with at least the shutter speed and aperture info displayed, take a closer look at your image and consider how those settings that the camera chose for you affect the resulting image. For more information, move to the display that probably shows the histogram graph, because this screen will show you even more info, including, for example, the ISO setting your camera used. Reflect on what your camera considered to come up with the selected settings.

Doing what I describe above will help you to learn what "correct" exposure settings your camera chooses in different lighting situations. However, you will probably want to experiment and create images that are not "correctly" exposed, but, rather, "creatively" exposed!  That is, you can now break the rules to get an image that is more like what you envisioned and not exactly as the scene presented itself. The most common example is an image of a person where you want all attention on that person, your subject. By selecting a large aperture opening (small aperture value, such as f/1.8, f/4, or similar) and focusing on your subject's eyes, you will have a shallow depth of field where only the range from, say, a bit in front of your subject's nose to just a bit behind his or her head will be in focus and everything else will be blurred and out of focus. Or, maybe, you are shooting a group of twelve people arranged in three rows, one behind the other. In this case, you want a wider depth of field so that everyone in the front row is in focus, as well as everyone in the back row. Now you want to shoot with a smaller aperture opening (and, conversely, a larger aperture value like f/11 or f/16). 

It is for these reasons that most photographers who choose to take control of their cameras will choose to shoot in what is called "aperture priority" mode. That is the "A" setting on a Nikon SLR and the "Av" setting on a Canon SLR mode dial. These photographers want to decide for themselves which aperture they want their camera to use when taking a shot and are willing to let the camera decide what shutter speed works best - or, "correctly," with their selected aperture.

Check out these articles and posts about aperture, depth of field, and shooting in Aperture Priority:

Friday Flash: Step #1 - Get Your Flash Off the Camera!

(download)

Seems strange, doesn't it, that the best place for a flash is OFF your camera since the manufacturer placed one right smack dab above the lens and viewfinder of your SLR! And, not only that, they also installed a hot shoe mount in almost the exact same spot! So, if you do even purchase a separate hot shoe flash, or strobe or speedlight (Canon calls them "Speedlites") as they are often called, you have to put it right there on your camera right over the lens, the worst place in the world for a flash!

 

But why is it the worst place, you ask? We live in a three dimensional world. Our eyes look at our surroundings and take in this world and, along with our brains, process what they see and then provide us with an image that shows the scene as three dimensional. It does that through light contrasts and shadows. Your camera doesn't have the brain you have. It can't process the scene in the same way. It only sees a two-dimensional representation of what you see and when you use an on-camera flash - either the built-in flash or an added hot shoe flash - it just emphasizes that two-dimensionality of the subject standing in front of your camera. It does this because as the flash fires, it sends light into your subject's face and around the sides of the face, obliterating any possibility  of revealing any shadows. And, typically, the flash fires at its strongest power level so there is incredible reflective glare bouncing off your subject's face.

So, what's the solution? Get the blankety blank (fill with your favorite "expletive deleted" word) flash off the camera! That's the solution. But how do you make it work, you ask. How do you connect the flash to your camera if you pull it out if the hot shoe? Good question. Fortunately, there are several options and they improve with each new camera that comes out. 

Nikon has for sometime had a system they call "CLS" or "creative lighting system." If you are a Nikon shooter and your camera model supports CLS, you can control your off-camera, hot shoe flash unit (Nikon brand speedlight) with your camera's built-in flash, no wires! Likewise, if you shoot Canon and have a Rebel T3i, a 60D, or a 7D body, you, too, can control your Canon brand Speedlites from your on-board camera flash. If that does not apply to you or you want another way to connect to your camera brand's hot shoe strobe or a third party strobe (yes, you can use non-brand name strobes with your camera) to your camera, the next cheapest solution is to purchase a cable connector.


Cables, naturally, come in many flavors and sizes. Since most authorities on off-camera flash usage (e.g., Syl Arena for Canon and Joe McNally for Nikon) and I strongly recommend starting off working n Manual mode on your camera as well as Manual mode on your flash (and, typically, you have to work in flash manual mode on 3rd-party strobes), you might want to go with a generic, long strobe connector cable available from flashzebra.com in various lengths. You can purchase, and in fact, it was my first cord purchase, a short, coiled cable that will connect strobe to camera so you can hold your flash off-camera, off to the left, in your left hand while shooting your camera with your right hand. This is not as hard as it may sound and certainly is better than that ole strobe sitting in the hot shoe on top your camera. Many, however,prefer to put both camera and strobe in a bracket that frees up your left hand. My personal experience with this set-up, though, was less than wonderful. (Wanna buy a slightly used bracket? Let me know.) 

Your flash unit comes with a little, plastic stand that will hold your strobe upright connected to that long cord solution and that may be how you'd like to start out. You can also purchase a light stand for not too much money outlay to hold the flash. That might, in fact, be something you will want to do at some point, but when you decide to make that purchase you might as well buy a light "kit" which consists of a fold-up light stand, umbrella or soft box, and an umbrella/soft box holder attachment (around $149) for your strobe unit.

The third and most expensive solution of all three is to purchase radio frequency triggers to control your strobe from your camera. The Cadillac version are the Pocket Wiizards. You need one transmitter that attaches to your camera's hot shoe and one receiver unit per flash unit. A set (transmitter and receiver) will run around $340. One advantage with the Pocket Wizard is you can purchase a set that works with your camera brand and supports its automatic flash features. However, if you don't require that support (and, in reality, you don't), you van get radio triggers that will work with any camera and any strobe in manual mode for many dollars less. Two other, less expensive alternatives are radio triggers made by xxx and xxx. Though I have no experience with any of these radio trigger solutions - I have been strictly a cord-controlled kind of guy up to this point - I read good things about the Radio Poppers from Syl Arena (in fact, Syl has an excellent summary of all the many ways to connect strobe to camera, where I have only addressed three - athttp://speedliting.com/gear/off-camera-flash-ettl-sync-cords-Hotshoe-adapters/). Their JrX Studio Kit for wireless, manual connectivity between camera and strobe sells for around $170.00! Each additional receiver unit costs $99.95. (http://shop.radiopopper.com)

So, the main thing here is, figure out what you can afford and get to work on getting that flash of the blankety blank camera! In future posts (remember, Fridays are "flash"posting days!) I will address how to work with your flash now that it IS off the camera.

Check out my photo classes and workshop page:http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses! Registration for my "Working with Light" and "Shooting to Learn" (meeting in April and May) classes is still open.