Photography - Modified Fill Flash In Direct Sunlight
Some SOOC comparisons of fill flash vs no flash.
Never use on-camera flash! That's what they tell you. They also tell you never to shoot in direct sunlight. But there is a time and place for everything in photography. I was at the beach a couple of days ago with the lovely @Vajola and we decided rather spontaneously to do a few shots. There was no shade to be seen. I had no assistant, reflector, or light stands and the sun was unusually blistering.
I decided to try some "fill flash". It can be used to fill in shadows whether shooting with the sun behind you, or directly into it. To soften it a bit, I had my cheap Chinese "flash disc" modifier on my flash, which was on my camera.
Perhaps this is a subjective matter of taste. I'm sure some will prefer the shots without the fill flash. These examples are straight out of camera ("SOOC") without any editing. The flash was set to TTL mode at -2. The shots on the left are with fill flash, and the shots on the right are without.
Zooming in, we can see how shadows are lifted on the skin...
All shots Nikon D750 with Tamron 45mm 1.8 VC. By the way, you read that right above, @Vajola has finally joined Steemit and will be blogging very soon!
What do you prefer? With or without fill flash?
Comments very welcome below.
This is a situation where fill flash comes as necessity to get some sparks in the eyes. Glasses have enormously exaggerated that effect. For a tutorial purposes it's OK, but for real shootng with glasses I would use off-camera flash @condra.
Upvoted, resteemed & DPS.
Yeah me too I wanted to reach in there and take that flash off camera hahahahah Interesting the urge right?
Thanks so much for the resteem. Yes, I would never favor on camera flash over off-camera flash, but at times, such as shooting weddings, off-camera might not be an option. I'm glad this post got people talking. Will have to do some more technical comparison work in the future.
I used to love playing around with fill flash in bright sun. I even got into using neutral density filters to be able to balance the sun brightness with the flash brightness and shoot at a shallow depth of field. It can make for some really amazing looking photos. I personally like the natural light shot for the first one, and the filled shot for the second. Great work as always @condra!
Oh dude I was kicking myself for not having my ND filter with me. These had to be shot around 2.8, especially since my D750 doesn't have 1/800 or ISO 64, something I love about the D810. Actually I don't think I've ever combined fill flash with ND filter in direct sun. That's gonna have to be tried soon. Thanks for the insightful comment.
Thanks for sharing your straight out of camera images @condra. I quite like the look of the fill flash, however I personally like the look without the glasses. Great post thought and keep up the brilliant photography!
Yes the reflection in the glasses is off putting. I would probably remove it in post. Thanks for your comment.
Hey no problem, off camera flash is my preferred option for this type of shoot. That way you can leave the glasses on :) Good luck with the edit!
The one on the right 👍 the left one looks strange, I can't put my finger on it.
Hey Tomekkk. Thanks for the comment. You probably have a good eye for when light isn't natural. It's especially evident when on-camera I think, even if the sunglasses didn't make it so obvious. Generally, I wouldn't be inclined to use on-camera fill flash outside of outdoor event work.
the only problem, i see with this particular setup, is that with glasses, the fill flash mounted on camera (parallel to lens) made a white reflection on them, hiding eyes, and putting a white spot on them... so for this setup i prefer no fill flash, also if skin is a bit more dark.....
Nice comparison for reference @condra! Definitely looks better with flash :)
I prefer the fill flash too, apart from the reflection in the glasses, which I would remove in post.
Thanks for reply :)
Upvote! @condra
Cheers!
rally good im also photographer and i say you thumbs up on this fab photography , keep it up
Cheers!
awwwwww pleasure man
Good shots and beautiful model.
Much more I prefer shots on the right, without fill flash. :)
Thanks for your comment. It's a close call for me. I think I prefer the shots with fill flash, but better without the reflection in the glasses. Anyway, it's just a comparison. Will be doing more comparisons soon.
lovely comparison <3