Beginning My Journey!  

One of the first steps in my project, as outlined my proposal, is to create a blog website to share what I'm doing. I chose Weebly as the site's platform because it is has an easy-to-use editing UI, has a professional looking final product, and (most importantly) is free. The blog postings following this one are really just my notes and summaries of what I'm reading/learning, but in paragraph form.

Although the time I spent creating this website is my first time-log entry, I've already been conducting research for the past two months. I spent hours on the internet finding out what steps I should take and what resources to use and what equipment to get. The reason why I didn't record any of these hours is because they were spread out over long periods of time. For example, I would research for twenty minutes, then come back to it a few hours later. Also, there are instances when I posted questions of forums, then would wait for responses over the course of a week.

My first piece of equipment, a Yongnuo YN-560II flash, has already arrived in the mail. Technically, this component is all I need to get started learning flash. However, to take the flash off-camera, which is my goal, I need wireless triggers. Wireless triggers send a signal from the hotshoe of the camera to the flash unit, telling it when to fire. Although I don't need wireless triggers to use the flash off camera (I can use adapters and a cable), it will be much more convenient in the long run. Other equipment I would like to obtain is a light stand to hold the flash when it's not on the camera hotshoe, and a shoot-through diffuser umbrella to modify the light for aesthetics. I am currently looking into do-it-yourself alternatives to buying these parts.

TOTAL TIME ESTABLISHING WEBSITE: 2 HOURS

Studying Lighting 101: EquipmentI'm reading through the David Hobby's Strobist blog, specifically the "Lighting 101" course, which I am using as the base of my project to learn flash. In the beginning, he is talking about equipment to get started. These things include: camera (of course), speedlight flash unit [note: I use the term speedlight, strobe, and flash interchangeably], triggers of some sort, light stand, umbrella, and umbrella bracket. Of these things, I only have a camera and a flash unit.

I am learning that each of these components to a lighting setup serves a unique and important purpose. Obviously, the camera is what takes the picture and the flash is what supplies additional light to the scene. The light stand is basically a tripod just for the flash, which would enable me to place the flash in different positions off-camera without having to hold it. 

Triggers send a signal from the camera to the speedlight to set it off. There are different types of triggers. The main ones are optical trigger, PC sync cord, and wireless radio trigger. My flash already has a built-in optical trigger, meaning that I can use the pop-up flash built into my camera to set off my off-camera flash. The downside to this is that the pop-up flash can interfere and create a poorly lit scene.

A PC sync cord is a wire that connects from the camera to the flash. This is a cheap way of setting off a wireless trigger, but it can be an inconvenience since there would be a long cable dangling around everywhere. Also, because my camera doesn't have a PC cord port, I would need to buy an adapter that fits on the hotshoe.

Radio triggers are my preferred route to syncing the flash to the camera. In this set-up, a transmitter that fits onto the camera hotshoe sends a radio signal to a receiver connected to the flash unit. This is the most versatile option, as there would be reliable wireless connection no matter what I try to do. Unfortunately, this is more expensive. The triggers I have been looking at, are anywhere from $10 (but from a third-party, lower quality brand in China) to $75. Pocket Wizards, which are the industry standard radio triggers, cost between $100-$200.

The umbrella is a type of light modifier. It is used to diffuse the light that is generated by the flash, spreading the light source from a few square inches to window-size. This softens shadows and creates generally flattering light. The umbrella bracket, mentioned above, is what connects the umbrella to the flash stand. Both of these things are relatively cheap in terms of photography equipment, around $30-40 total. I haven't purchased these items yet, although I just found a cheap ($18.95) umbrella at glazerscamera.com. Glazer's Camera is an awesome little photography supplier just north of Denny Park in Seattle, so I'll have to drop on by sometime soon.

Using an umbrella isn't the only way a photographer can change the light coming from the flash. Without using any additional equipment other than a stand (which may not even be needed depending on the set-up), bouncing the light off of a wall is a simple way to diffuse the light.

Hobby says that when using this technique, one should keep in mind the wall's color, since any light reflected off of that surface will take that color cast, and the flash's lens angle adjustment.

This adjustment is like a zoom inside of the flash that controls how wide of a spread it has. Having a wide spread would give a wider area of light being bounced, and having a narrow spread would give a smaller lit area with greater light fall-off.

Another interesting way to modify the flash's light is with bare-bulb lighting. This involves sticking the speedlight inside of a lamp globe to create an orb of omnidirectional light. I feel like this technique may be impractical and not as useful to me, since my end-goal is to take environmental portraits, but I might give it a try later on.

My takeaway from today is that getting into flash photography isn't that hard, and there are create and innovate ways to use it. Coming up in Lighting 101 appears to be more technical info, which is the more interesting side to this :) .

Total time reading through: 1.5 hours

Wireless Trigger Research My dilemma: I need a trigger set-up for my flash so I can fire it remotely (off-camera). The question is, what triggers should I get?

I'm mentioned before how I prefer to get wireless radio triggers because I'll most likely end up with them in the long run. However, there are so many different options.

From what I could find, these are the choices for wireless triggers:

- Yongnuo RF-603This trigger is made by the same company that made my flash. The downside is that it's more expensive than other options (~$32 for 2 transceivers). Also, Yongnuo only made versions for Canon and Nikon, so I had to do some digging to see what was compatible with my Pentax camera.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/125-flashes-lighting-studio/244818-yongnuo-flash-560iii-radio-trigger-rf-603n.htmlAccording to this, the N3 version, made for Nikon, should work well.

- Yongnuo RF-602This is the older version of the RF-603 trigger set. It's cheaper (only ~$20), and some say that it works well with Pentax. Unfortunately, I'm finding lots of reports that people find issue with them, such as misfires, not getting full sync-speed*, having to use a rubber band to keep it on the camera hotshoe contacts, etc. While I like the cheaper option that is native to my flash, I'd rather not have to put up with malfunctioning equipment, particularly since the flash is fully manual and would require time to adjust already.

- Cowboy Studio NPT-04

I came across these in a forum post about other triggers. They are reviewed to work fairly well for Pentax, and are also cheap ($20).

http://www.pentaxforums.com/accessoryreviews/cowboystudio-fm-radio-trigger-npt-04.html

- Cactus V5Expensive for a starter set-up (~$70), but still cheaper than professional triggers like Pocket Wizards. From what I found in forums, they work perfectly with what I need.

- Cactus V4The predecessor to the V5 triggers. Cheaper ($32), but just as effective (except for the odd misfire). I was actually going to buy these, but there was an issue with Paypal and it didn't go through. Since then I've been exploring more options more in depth.

- Whatever these areThese were suggested by a commenter on a forum post I made back in December. These triggers are extremely cheap and seemingly compatible with my flash. However, they appear to be knockoffs of the RF-602 from some small company in China. These seem enticing, but sketchy.

*Note about sync speed: At this point, I'm still not entirely sure what this is. I believe that it is time between the shutter opening and flash firing. Also, I've been reading that Pentax cameras have a relatively slow sync speed of 1/180 second, which can be limiting to what you can do with your flash. I'll be learning more about this soon in my studies.

Total Time compiling these notes: 1 hour 15 min. This is all information that I've found before in my random perusing of forums and Google searches over the course of a couple months, but I just never made solid notes of my findings. 

Studying Lighting 101: More About LightEarlier, David Hobby (the Strobist author) wrote about one type of light--soft light. Soft light is diffused, even light with soft shadows. The other type of light is hard light. This type of light is strong and harsher shadows, and it's more obvious to tell where the light source is. 

One important concept that he touches on is that hard light generally comes from small sources and soft light comes from larger sources. This makes sense. For example, if you have a bare speedlight (which only has an area of a few inches), your shadows will be much more defined compared to when using an umbrella. A more common example is when it's sunny; on bright days, the sun casts dark and sharp shadows, but on overcast days, there are very few shadows at all (which is why, if I remember correctly, photographers call clouds "nature's softbox").

This photo is an example of soft lighting. It was taken around noon on an overcast day, so the light was nicely diffused and even, leaving no unruly shadows across the subject's face and body.

While I'm often wary of hard light, Hobby says that a key to success is to balance the light source with ambient lighting. This will give a defined shadow area but keep detail where it's darker.

Photo by David HobbyHobby continues on and talks about some more light modifiers, which include a min softbox. A mini softbox is an easy to use and portable diffuser that attaches to the head of the speedlight. This turns the hard light of a bare flash into softer light.

Balancing Flash and Ambient, Pt 1At this point, the Strobist blog has talked about equipment and basics of light. Now it's time to get into the really good stuff: using the flash.

Hobby first mentions a couple important points:- As long as you are at or below your camera's top "sync" speed, it doesn't matter what shutter speed you use. This is because the speedlight is pretty much instantaneous.

- Every time you take a photo with flash, you are simultaneously taking one exposure of the flash's light and one exposure of the ambient lighting. When the flash gives off a burst of light, it freezes the subject just like a fast shutter speed. The rest of the exposure time is used to take in the rest of the light in the scene.

The process for balancing flash and ambient light is quite simple:1. Get a full ambient exposure (no flash).2. Underexpose to give headroom for the flash's light. 3. Bring the subject back up to full exposure with the flash.

This three-step process makes flash photography seem so easy--all it is is a balancing act to get proper amount of light. It's just that now there's control over directionality and contrast.

My takeaway from today is that flash photography is both simpler and harder than it looks. On one hand, all I need to do to take a photo with flash is underexpose and add flash. On the other hand, there are many variables, such as how much flash power to have, how much contrast do I want in the shot, and where do I want the light coming from. All of this is just trial-and-error.

Total time today: 1:15. Most of this time was spent reading through the blog and looking at example photos. I also spent about ten minutes or so looking up do-it-yourself mini softbox projects that I can do to make a softbox for cheap.

March 3 Update

Flash-SyncLast Saturday, I visited Kenmore Camera, a relatively large camera store on the north tip of Lake Washington. After lusting over Pentax gear, I hunted for more ways to sync my flash to my camera. After talking to Tom, an employee, about what I was looking for (a cheap, simple flash-sync solution), I ended up purchasing a slave hotshoe. 

This piece has an optical sensor that detects when the camera's popup flash goes off, thus firing the off-camera flash it's attached to. According to Tom, this is the cheapest way to go (the piece was $18.95). It also has a 1/4" screw hole, which means I can mount my flash to my spare tripod instead of having to get a flash stand.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember until I walked out of the store that my flash already has a built-in optical sensor. However, I decided to keep it for now. I'll probably go back next week and exchange the piece for a coldshoe without the optical sensor, so I can still have tripod compatibility.

Total time at the store: 60 min

Balancing Flash and Ambient, Pt 2Last time I read the Strobist blog, Hobby talked about the basics of adding flash to a scene by using the flash as a main light and the ambient (existing) light as a fill. Now he adds onto that by going into fill flash.

Fill flash is when you use flash to augment the main ambient light. Many times, people use fill flash on-camera (the most common example of this is the popup flash). While this does bring up the shadow, it takes away the depth of a subject. However, playing with angles can improve the quality of this light.

These are the steps he gives:1. Sun=main light, strobe=secondary light.This way of thinking gives you flexibility in how you want to play with the scene.

2. Angle of attack.You want to base the exposure off of the ambient light. The goal of fill flash is to decrease shadows, so you have to have the secondary light in a countering direction of the main light (sun).

I'm actually surprised that this is all the info he gives on this. It seems that for the most part,

using flash is a trial-and-error process. It makes sense that there is no one size fits all setup, but I couldn't help but think there would be more technical info for using flash.

AccessoriesIn addition to the essential things needed for a flash kit, you can use modifiers to change the flash's light. 

For example, gels are colored attachments you put on the flash head to change the tint of the flash's light. These are used to match the white balance of the flash with the ambient light. I'm not to worried about these, though,  since I can always adjust color errors in post-processing (editing).

To increase the directionality of the flash, you can attach a flag (which can just be a piece of cardboard) to the head to act as a barn door and prevent light from hitting certain things. For example, you can use a flag to prevent light from shining on a background when the flash is perpendicular to the subject and camera, or use it to prevent lens flare when the flash is behind the subject/facing towards the camera.

A flash using a snoot. Photo by David Hobby"Snoots" are similar devices, but even more restrictive. These are tunnels that prevent the light from going anywhere except exactly where you want it. Snoots are useful for lighting only certain elements in a photo, such as a face.

My takeaway from today is a reaffirmation that flash photography is simpler than I thought. For example, I'm actually surprised that he gave only two guidelines for fill flash. It seems that for the most part, using flash is a trial-and-error process. It makes sense that there is no one size fits all setup, but I couldn't help but think there would be more technical info for using flash. Also, the fact that you can use simple things like a bottomless cup for a snoot shows how quick-and-dirty yet effective you can be when doing flash photography.

Total time today: 60 min

PhlearningWhile browsing the internet today, I came across some videos regarding lighting. These videos, created by Phlearn.com, featured concepts and information I found interesting and noteworthy.

The first video compares and contrasts the two methods of lighting in photography: artificial and natural.

Artificial lighting: - Can be completely controlled. You can change the light's shape, position, direction, and intensity however you want.

Natural:- Prevalent whenever there's sunlight, which means you don't have to carry/pay for equipment. - Can be modified (using reflectors), but to a much smaller level of control.- Coldest light is midday (5600K), warmest during "golden hour"-- near sunrise and sunset

The second video was a practical tutorial for portraiture. The setup Aaron, the presenter/photographer, talked about is called clamshell lighting." It requires two lights in front of the subject--a key light above and a fill light below. The key light is obviously brighter than the fill (he recommends about a 3:1 ratio), since having both of them at the same power would flatten the subject.

One reason why this setup is great is because the lights reflect in the subject's eyes, making them stand out.

While I only have one flash, the clamshell method would be interesting to try with a reflector and natural light.

I remember that my mentor suggested that a good way to build my understanding of flash photography is to look at photos try to dissect how they were lit. This is why I watched this final video.

I found this photo interesting because it's really dim, leading me to initially believe that very few lights were used. However, this photo used four lights: the dim ambient lighting of the studio, a desklamp, and two strobes.

Aaron first set the exposure for the ambient and lamp light. This is neat, because it's follows David Hobby's simple steps for adding flash.

The desklamp acted as a key light, and a strobe placed at a distance supplemented it to light the rest of the subject's face and body. Another strobe up and behind the subject added to the ambient lighting and also acted as a rim light. 

I can now see how useful gels can be. The front strobe had a CTO gel to better match the light from the lamp. Without it, there would've been a weird mismatch of color temperature on the subject, making the photo look less clean and planned.

Total time: 1 1/4 hour. While the video lengths only add up to about one half-hour, I ended up pausing every few seconds to take notes or reference the articles that accompanied the videos.

More Lighting TechniquesThere are simple techniques that go beyond the straightforward guidelines of balancing flash+ambient light.

A common technique is cross-lighting--using two light sources that are opposite in direction. An example of this is having the subject face away from the sun, using a flash as a main light and the sun as a backlight/rimlight. Using cross-lighting is a way to create interesting lighting simply by moving the location of the flash.

Illustration from Strobist blogA practical example of cross lighting is a simple headshot in a room corner (at least I think this can be classified as cross-lighting, it's never explicitly mentioned). In a corner, the back wall will act as a background and the side wall will act as a fill by reflecting light from the flash back into the subject.

In this photo, there are two ratios that I would need to keep in mind: flash-subject-distance:flash-to-background distance, and flash-subject-distance:flash-reflector-distance. The first controls how bright the background is compared to the subject, and the second controls how much light is reflected back to the subject.

Distance seems to be a main factor in lighting. If I remember correctly, light disperses as an inverse square (1/distance^2). I've heard of the inverse square law in lighting before, but I haven't gotten into it yet.

Another technique is using ambient to light the subject and using flash as a backlight behind the subject to create separation from the background. This creates a dynamic lighting effect and is an idea to keep in mind, but I don't see myself using this as a primary set-up.

My EquipmentBefore I get into practicing everything I've learned over the past weeks, I just wanted to share what my equipment I use.

This is my Yongnuo YN560II Speedlite. The red area is an optical sensor, which detects when my camera's popup flash goes off.

These controls manipulate the flash's output power and spread (zoom). Note that I have the flash mounted on a small camera tripod.

Total time: 1.25 hours. My goal today was to prepare for actually practicing everything I've learned tomorrow. Reading through the Strobist pages weren't too time-consuming, but I spent time reading through the comments on each topic to build my understanding.

Sync Issues*The following is written as I went back and forth troubleshooting my equipment.

In the process of taking example photos to demonstrate the zoom and powers of my speedlite, I ran into an issue.

I set my camera to Manual mode and set my exposure to 1/80th, ISO400, and aperture f/4. This got just under a neutral exposure. I didn't care about balancing for ambient light yet, since all I wanted to do was test the flash settings.

The flash is on a tripod approx 3 feet away from a white wall.For the first photo, I set the flash to 1/128th power and zoom to 24mm. This ended up with a wide spread and relatively dim power.

I kept the same flash power, but zoomed the flash to 105mm. This creates a narrow beam of light.

Then I set the flash to 1/1 full power and 24mm to show how bright the flash can be. However, I ended up with this image. You can see the reflection of the pop-up "commander flash" to set off the optical trigger, and the speedlite did fire, but it's not showing up in the photo.

I tried changing my shutter speed and the flash's zoom setting, but nothing changes.

I even tried different flash powers, and found that this failure begins at 1/8th power. The flash shows up at 1/16th power and using the fine tune controls to +0.7 (whatever unit that is), which is the closest you can get to 1/8th power. One-eighth power seems to be the cutoff point.--

After trying as many different settings I could think of and unsuccessfully perusing internet forums to find solutions, I tried mounting the flash directly to the camera. When I took a shot, the speedlite fired at full power! And all other powers, for that matter. This means that the issue is with the pop-up commander flash.

To see if this is just the optical sensor's fault, I tried using the slave hotshoe I got from Kenmore Camera. I set the flash on it and took test shots. Unfortunately, I received worse results--it only

seems to work at 1/128th power. I can see the flash fire no matter what power it's set to, but it only shows up at the lowest power. 

Other issues with the hotshoe are that the flash freezes up until you remove it from the hotshoe, and then misfires when you remount it. I'll ask Tom about this when I go back to Kenmore Camera.

For now, I can't think of a way to fire the flash above 1/8th power. 

More troubleshootingOne idea I had was that there was a delay somewhere in the system. The fact that I didn't see any flash no matter what shutter speed I used disproved my first thought that the delay was with the commander flash. This meant that if there was any delay, it had to be before the photo was taken--the flash must have fired before the shutter opened. 

However, while following my mentor's suggestion of trying to find a point at which I can see flash, I have come to a different conclusion. When shooting at 1/8th power and keeping the same camera settings, the flash shows up every three or so shots. This is the same for any exposure time I try. This is making me believe that the sync issue is just a flash misfire.

--

I tried shooting at 1/1 power for several times, but still could not get the flash to show up. Then I tried going back down to 1/8th power, and the flash only showed up one out of several shots, even with unchanged camera settings. However, the flash consistently shows up at 1/16th power and lower. This tells me that the issue is most likely with the speedlite itself, but I still don't know what's causing it.

One interesting thing I notice is that whenever I change the shutter speed, the ambient lighting changes. This reinforces the idea back in Balancing Flash and Ambient Part I of a photo with flash being of two different exposures--one of ambient and one of the flash.

1/160th, f/3.5, ISO800. Flash at 1/8th power. Flash didn't show.

Same exact settings, but flash showed up now.

Fill flash practiceAfter school today, I spent some time playing around with my flash to try and see what works and what doesn't. My goal was just to help better understand balancing flash and ambient light, so I just kept the speedlite on the camera hotshoe. 

I took about 30 photos of the Bboy club practicing a routine. To meter for the ambient light, I shot "wide-open" at f/3.5, ISO800, and set my shutter speed to 1/50 sec. Then I rotated my flash to reflect off of a wall and set it to 1/32nd power (if I remember correctly). The purpose of this bounce-light was to counteract the window-light down the hall and the yellow fluorescent lights directly overhead. The results were photos with nice exposures and somewhat-even lighting on the subjects.

While the club was practicing, I tried more direct fill flash. I had Nick stand with his back to the window and used the flash to bounce along the wall he leaned on. The photos below are with the same exact settings (both in-camera and post-processing). As you can see, the flash eliminated the shadow his face was in. My only regret about his was having him close to where the flash was bouncing, since it looks almost like the flash was directly head-on. Having more light hit him from the side would've created interesting shadows across his face instead of flatter lighting.

f/4.5, 1/160th sec, ISO800, no flashf/4.5, 1/160th, IS0800, flash 1/128th

power bounced off right wallTotal time spent today: 1hr 15min. Like yesterday, I kept trying different settings to try and find out when my flash would work and when it would fail. I took about 90 test shots in all. I'm not counting the time I spent practicing after school, since I didn't take notes as I worked.

Practice with PhetsamaiToday, I messed around with my flash to take photos of my church's guitarist, Phetsamai.I attached my flash to my tripod and placed it around the room, which was lit by relatively dim fluorescent lights.Shots edited in Lightroom 5. Most of them are in black and white to prevent colors from distracting from the lighting.

Total time: 1.25 hours. This includes the 1/2 hour of shooting and the time it took to post-processing and evaluate my the shots.

More Research at Kenmore CameraI went back to Kenmore Camera and returned the slave hotshoe that they sold me a couple weeks ago, which I didn't need since my flash can already do what that device did. Then I asked Tom about what he thought about the sync issue I've been having. We took out my speedlite and camera and ran test shots, and came across the same issue that I've been dealing with.

Tom was unsure of why this happened, and he wondered if it was just a compatibility issue with Pentax. I asked if there were any other options for sync, such as using cables. He talked about PC cords, but I would have to have a hotshoe-PC cord adapter for my camera. Unfortunately, they were out of stock of the component I needed, but at least I know what to look for.

Total time at store: 30 min. Travel time was 40min each way.

PC CordOn Sunday, I finally stopped by Glazer's Camera to continue my equipment acquisition. I asked an employee about syncing off-camera flash, and he first suggested Radio Poppers or Pocket Wizards--wireless triggers that 3-4x my budget. I brought up using cords, and he pointed me in the direction of the separate Glazer's supply store a street over. There, I found exactly what I needed.

Attached to the camera's hotshoe is an adapter, with male and female ports for the PC cord. A 15-ft long PC cord connects the adapter to the PC port on the speedlite. This solution enables me to use the speedlite at full power off-camera, without having to worry about the commander flash and any sync problems. Although it increases how cumbersome my set-up is, this solution is cheaper than getting a wireless trigger (I spent less than $40.)

Total time at store getting cord and adapter: 30min.GlassesWhen photographing someone with glasses, using flash often leads to dreaded reflections. Although Strobist doesn't mention it, this is where some basic physics comes into play.

The Law of Reflection states that the angle of reflection is perpendicular to the light's angle of incidence. When the speedlite is reflected in someone's glasses, the issue is that the camera is in the path of the reflection angle. The obvious solution is just to change the angles.

Illustration from Strobist.comBy rotating the glasses-wearing subject so they face away from the light source, the reflections are moved away from the camera.

This seemed simple enough, so I tried this out. Unedited photos are below:

F2.8, 1/13, ISO400. No flash. Ambient lighting was a desklamp about three feet away on camera left. Camera was about four feet from subject. The downside with using only ambient lighting was that the either the shutter speed had to be slower (introducing camera shake), the aperture had to be made wider (making the depth of field shallower, potentially making the subject out of focus), or the ISO had to be increased (creating image noise.)

1/160, f2.8, ISO400. Introducing the flash overexposed the subject, even at 1/128 power, because it was so close to the subject.

1/160, f4, ISO400. To counteract the flash, I tried to shorten my exposure time to 1/200, but I forgot that this was above my camera's sync speed. Instead, dropped my exposure 1 stop to f4. You can see the speedlite reflected in the glasses, though the full flash head is concealed since the flash sits several inches above the camera.

1/160, f4, ISO400 (same settings as previous). This time, I utilized my PC cord and moved the flash off-camera, about 7 feet to camera right/subject's front-left. You can see how the flash is less apparent, since it's at least twice as far away from the subject. Also, you can see some reflection by her left eye.

I increased the exposure of the image by opening the aperture back to f2.8. You can see how the ambient lighting is now more apparent. Also, you can tell that light source is small because of how harsh the shadows are (esp. around her nose). The subject had her head tilted forward, which reflected light down away from the lens

1/160, f2.8, ISO800. I increased my ISO to further boost the exposure. While these angles make a nice looking portrait, reflections are more apparent when the subject faces the light.

1/160, f2.8, ISO800. Following the Strobist advice, I angled the subject away from the flash. This eliminated any reflections. The downside is that because the light source is so small, there are harsh shadows across her face.

Total Time: 1hr. This includes the time I spent reading, shooting, looking up the Law of Reflection, and time I spent reflecting about my set-up/writing the captions for the photos above.  

Finishing up Lighting 101In the last few posts on the Lighting 101 blog, David Hobby introduced the interesting practice of reverse-engineering lighting. He prompts the reader to diagnose the key ight by determining location of the light (revealed by the directions of the shadows and how fast it falls off--fast falloff=close), whether the light is hard or soft (hard transitions between highlights and shadows=harder light source), and the ratio of flash vs ambient (approximated from the contrast of shadows vs that of lit areas). 

The concepts I see when reverse-engineering other people's photos apply to taking my own photos. Pre-visualization is a big part of getting a desired shot. Before I take a photo, I have to look for where my light will fall and what reflections there will be. Figuring these things out is as

simple as eyeballing the scene from the speedlite's location.

Hobby also introduces a shorthand way to describe how a photo was lit.  Instead of writing out the step-by-step instructions of what he did, all he really needs to mention is the relationship between flash exposure and ambient exposure.

Photo by David HobbyFor example, all he needs to say to describe this photo is "Exposed for flashes in chopper -- one in front cabin, two in back -- and dropped the ambient by three stops." 

I found this shorthand to be amazingly simple yet effective. The concept of ignoring what the camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) in favor of the relative settings seemed strange at first, but makes more sense because knowing the exact settings are not important to lighting.

This wraps up Lighting 101, which introduced the beginning elements to strobism. Up next is Lighting 102, which is more in-depth and provides better understanding of ighting.

Total Time: 30min.

Starting "Lighting 102"After reading through the Lighting 101 blog, it's time to begin Lighting 102. This was written a year or so after the first blog by David Hobby, who had further developed his own skills.

He starts off with reiterating basics that were touched on before, but may not have been explicitly explained.

There are seven main ways to control lighting:1. Varying position.          - Angle          - Distance to subject          - Distance to background

2. Varying apparent size of light source.

3. Altering Relative Intensity          - Balancing relative light levels between ambient and flash

4. Restricting Light          - Using tools to alter where light goes

5. Refraction and Reflection

6. Altering color          - White balance          - Gels

7. Time          - Continuous light varies with respect to time duration

Unit 1.1 - Position (Angle)Off-axis light deals with two Point of Views: what the camera sees (which determines what's in the image) and what light source sees (which determines what is lit). The angular difference between these POVs is what creates depth in a photo.

Angle Exercise:I set the camera to 1/160 f5.6 ISO200 and flash to 1/128 power. Flash was held at approximately the subject's armlength.

No flash. Camera settings killed ambient window light.

On camera flash. Because the flash is sitting about 6 inches above the optical axis, you can see some shadows (particularly on the jawline). However, there is still little depth.

Flash at 45degrees above subject.

Flash at camera right. The subject's face no longer appears flat. The hard light source casts hard shadows across her face.

The flash's approximate POV. Anything that the flash "sees" gets lit.

Side lighting from right. Half the face is in shadow.

Flash at camera left.

Left side-lighting.

Flash is up and camera-left at 45 degrees. Nose casts hard shadow across face.

Unit 1.2 - Position (Distance)The Inverse Square Law: the closer you are to the light source, the more powerful the light. Also, the light values change quicker as you move in. 

Understanding that this is a physics concept, I looked up the equation and found:

Intensity ∝ 1/distance^2

It is caused by the area of the light's coverage expanding as it moves from the light source.

For photography purposes, the inverse square law gives light a "depth of field," sort of like the camera's lens. The fall-off of light depends on the distance to the flash. For example, increasing the difference between flash-subject distance and flash-background increases the contrast, making the background darker.

To summarize:• Light Placed Closer = more powerful, and control of the depth of the correct exposure.• Light Placed Further = less powerful, and a broader zone of even lighting exposure.

Distance Exercise:I set the camera to 1/180 (max. sync speed), ISO200, and set the flash to 1/8 power. I used aperture to establish subject exposure.

Killed the ambient, Flash camera left, approx 8 feet from subject. Subject is about 6 feet from wall.

Moved flash to about 15 ft away from subject. It's not much of a difference, but you can already see that the background has less light fall-off and everything is more even.

Flash about 3 feet from subject. The light's depth of field is much shallower because the distance is small, creating massive light falloff.

Unit 2.1 - Apparent Light Size  

It was previously established that the small light source=hard light, big light source=soft light. However it's the not the absolute size of the light that matters, but how big the source appears to the object.

Soft light deals the with four different lighting zones. The first three are:- Diffused highlight area (what's lit)- Shadow area (what's not lit)- Diffused highlight-to-shadow transfer area (the border between light and dark, sees part of the light)

Having a larger-looking source broadens and smoothens the transfer zone.

A rule-of-thumb that Hobby gives is that he considers a source to be reasonably soft if it's size is at least half the light-subject distance.

Apparent Light Size Exercise:

The task was to see how apparent light size affects the subject (in this case, a piece of fruit). 

With the flash about 2 feet away from the subject. You can see

that the light is a little soft by how the shadow begins to disperse.

The set-up. The black binder is to limit reflections off the white wall, since I only wanted to see the effects of the key light.

The apparent size of the light source is small.

Bouncing the flash off an umbrella. The light is much softer.

The light is softer since the apparent light size is much larger.

With the the bare flash about 12 ft away. The light source appears much smaller, so it's much harder.

Unit 2.2 - Specular Highlight ControlThe fourth lighting zone is Specular Highlight, or reflections.

The specular highlights reveal not only the size and shape of the subject, but the surface quality.

When shooting a dark subject, form is revealed by specular highlights. If the subject is light, form is revealed by the shadows.

As the size of the light source decreases, intensity of the specular highlights increases.

Exercise:

The task was just to experiment with reflections. I combined this with the previous exercise. The photo on the left was taken with a bare flash, making the specular highlight hard. The photo on the left was taken with the umbrella, which made the specular highlight less intense.

Total Time: 1 hour reading though material, 1hr 25 experimenting with exercises.  

Last Equipment Run (hopefully)I went up to Kenmore Camera and got hopefully the last components that I need: a [used] photography umbrella, a flash stand, and a bracket to hold both the umbrella and flash. Total was about $65.

Total time at store: 30min. Travel time was approx 45min each way.

'Cooking With Light' Assignment  

The task was to use all that I've learned in the past 2 units (Angle, Distance, Size) to create a commercial-looking image of kitchen utensils.

I set up my equipment in the kitchen and looked for things to shoot.

I tried several combinations of angles, distances, and light source sizes. After about 45min, I stopped and reviewed/post-processed what I had.

I shot two subjects: a glass and a pot. Above are the two best shots out of the 60-80 that I finished with.

For shooting the glass, I used the umbrella'd speedlite camera-left to kill the ambient. I tried to get the background dark by having the umbrella as close to the subject as possible to get a quick falloff, but its' size still illuminated the rest of the scene. I used the umbrella because I wanted to tone down the specular highlights on the glass, since the smaller the light source, the more intense the specs.

When shooting the pot on the stove, my goal was to get the stove mostly sidelit with a lightbulb in the background acting as a rim light. This meant that I had to dial up my ambient exposure. Even with the speedlite at lowest power, I had to use a folded paper towel to dial down its intensity. Issues I had included the reflections from the fridge on camera-right. Also, I couldn't

quite nail the light 'depth of field' that I wanted. 

Even though the shots I ended up with were getting close to what I envisioned, the final products weren't that great. To get inspiration, I went back to the blog and looked at other people's shots. As you can see, other people's shots are very clean and simple.

After about 30 min of checking out the possibilities of what can be done, I went back to work in the kitchen. 

Letter-paper background

Purple construction-paper background

Moved the flash slightly further rear to get more shadow.

To clean the scene up, I used sheets of printer paper and then construction paper for the background. I placed the speedlite to the left of the subject and used letter paper to diffuse it. You can see how the curve of the bowl creates diffused highlights, shadow area, a smooth transfer zone, and some reflected highlights that are softened by the larger light source. While the photo may not be as impressive as others', it achieves everything I set out to do.

Total Time: about 2 hours, including post processing and looking at other people's attempts for the same assignment.

Umbrella Specular Highlight AssignmentThe second assignment is more specific than the last: "You'll be doing a photo of a person, using one soft light source (shoot-through or reflective umbrella, soft box, scrim, whatever) and angling it so it becomes a specular highlight in a darkish, semi-reflective background."

Photo by David HobbyFrom first looking at the shots from others, it looks like this is somewhat straightforward and achieves a cool look.

I spent 30 min trying on my own. My first attempts had the subject nicely lit, but I couldn't get

the specular highlights to show up behind the subject. I had the umbrella set up on camera right at about 45 degrees. I kept trying different angles, powers, and distances between subject and wall, but the specular highlights still either showed up in the wrong spot or not at all.

No specular highlights on background.

Highlights are starting to show up, but are on wrong side.

After failing to get what I want, I revisited the Strobist blog and looked at others' shots. From quick examination, it appears as though the light source has to be more head on, or at an angle so the camera's position places the reflection behind the subject.

Something like this. (Angles aren't portrayed accurately, but the idea stands.)I tried again, remembering the law of reflection to get the specular highlight behind the subject. After experimenting with settings and moving both light and subject further a step away from the wall to get the background darker, I finally got everything where I wanted it. 

Total Time: 1.75 Hours. My takeaway from today was to keep in mind the basics (in this case, the law of reflections).

Unit 3.1 - Balancing Light: TwilightIn natural light, there is generally only one correct exposure in a photo, which is the correct exposure for the ambient light. However, in flash photography, the correct exposure is whatever the photographer wants it to be. By establishing the correct exposure on the subject using flash,

you can go beyond an evenly-lit ambient scene.

Most of what is mentioned in this unit is a reiteration of what was in Lighting 101. I'll skip the given exercise, which is to shoot a subject in the ever-changing light of twilight. I feel like I have a decent understanding of the concept of balancing light, and the rainy days certainly don't help.

Unit 3.2 - Balancing Light: Flash/Sun CrosslightingAs touched on earlier in Lighting 101, fill flash is how one gets rid of harsh shadows in hard light situations, most often a midday sun.

To tame the sun, all you need to determine is:- The angles you want the sun and speedlite to hit the subject- How bright you want to set ambient light- How bright you want to set your flash

Start by having the subject facing away from the sun. Hobby recommends setting shutter speed to max-sync speed when starting, so you can use aperture to set ambient exposure and maximize the flash's work without increasing its output. Once you get background exposure, bring the flash in at 1/2 power. Adjust the flash's exposure by altering power and distance.

And that's basically it. Pretty straightforward.

Unit 3.3 - Balancing Ambient/Flash IndoorsAgain, this was already touched upon in Lighting 101. Basically, once you can expose properly for the flash on the subject, the ambient light can is controlled by the shutter speed. Increasing the ambient exposure also controls the tone of the background (you can go from darkness to having rich tones to having an "airy" look. 

Photos by David Hobby

TechniquesIn summary, there are only two variables that I need to control: flash and ambient light. There are three ways to control them.

1. Altering both light levels at the same time is done by changing aperture.

2. Altering only ambient light is done by controlling shutter speed.

3. Altering flash-lit area but not ambient is done by making opposite adjustments on aperture and shutter speed to compensate.

Total Time reading through Unit 3: 1.25 hours. Includes time looking at other people's work.  

Unit 4.1 - Restricting Light  

Soft light produces nice, safe results, but using hard light can create dramatic images.

While apparent light size controls the abruptness of the transition to shadow, balance levels control how far you fall into the shadow.

The light beam itself can be controlled via using various restrictive devices, including:

- Gobo: meaning "go-between," it's basically any light shield attached to the flash head. It prevents the light from going anywhere you don't want it to. My flash has a small built-in gobo on top.

- Snoot: similar to a gobo, this is a tunnel/tube that restricts the spread of the light beam. 

- Grid spot: A bunch of small snoots in one device. It gives an even tighter beam.

- Cookies: Partially blocks light to create patterns. 

Total Time: 15min reading through unit and looking at example photos taken using the devices.

Unit 4.2 - Ultra Hard Light/AssignmentA bare speedlite produces hard light because the flash head is only about 1inch*3inches. However, it can still seem large relative to the size of the subject. To make the light harder, you the apparent light source size has to be made smaller. This can be done by covering up the flash so only a small slit is exposed.

Total Time: 30min spent reading about unit, then looked at photos/discussion for 'film noir' assignment he gives.

Unit 4.3 - Assignment: Cross, Balance and SculptThis is a process for making an interesting photo using fill-light. There are three simple steps:

1. Cross: This is a basic fill-light technique. You basically have the speedlite facing into the ambient light source (sun).

2. Balance: Play with the settings to create the desired exposure ratios between ambient/flash and lit/shadow.

3. Sculpt: Using light restriction devices, sculpt the flash's beam to light only the areas you want lit.

Total Time: 15min reading and looking at example photos.

Some Practice  

Over the course of a couple days I spent time practicing techniques I read.

"Film Noir" AssignmentThe first assignment for Unit 4 is to create a photo with your interpretation of "Film Noir." This gave me the opportunity to play with using light restrictive devices. I used a gobo to block the flash from brightly hitting the wall behind the subject.

After messing around with balancing ambient light, I gobo'd the flash so it would emphasize only the piano keys. I didn't care to hide the light stand in the final shot, since my just wanted to focus on how the scene was lit.

Final, edited "Film Noir" shot

Speedlite with gobo.

The set-up. The gobo is just a 4*5 index card taped to the side of the flas

Total Time: 15min.

TroubleshootingOccasionally, the flash would not fire. This was the first time I've had issues with the flash since I switched to using a sync-cable. I knew that this wasn't an issue with the camera, since the flash wouldn't fire even when the test button on the PC hotshoe adapter was pressed (it can fire the flash even with the camera off). Also, I knew that the flash wasn't frozen or broken, since the buttons still worked and it could fire with its own test button. This meant that the issue had to be the cable. 

I determined that the issue was with the sync cable and where it connects with the hotshoe adapter. Apparently, it has decided that it doesn't like being in certain positions. Once I moved the cable to a non-resting position (when it just hangs off the camera), the flash fired again.

Total Time trying to fix problem: 15min. 

Cross-lighting fill flash

I messed around with fill-flash. This can be considered cross-lighting, since speedlite faced into the ambient light source (sun directly above/behind subjects through clouds). However, in my opinion, the flash axis and optical axis were too close together, and I should have shot from perpendicular to the lights.

I dropped the ambient exposure by 1/3-2/3 of a stop, and filled with a flash handheld up and to camera left. The cup is a little overexposed, but the subject is out of the shadow.

Total time: 15 min experimenting outside.

SciOly Shoot 1Although I'm still working my way through the Lighting 102 lessons, for the sake of time I decided to begin my final stages of the my project, which is to build a photo portfolio for the RAHS Science Olympiad team. I still plan to continue following theStrobist blog, and will continuously apply what I learn to shooting the portfolio.

The first day I went in to shoot the Science Olympiad team featured just the studiers. While there wasn't much action going on, this allowed me to spend time with my subjects to refine my techniques and hunt for what look I wanted to produce.

For the first subject that I focused on, I used the umbrella to counter the ambient window light. While dropping the ambient by about 1 stop made her stand out, the light spread around the scene too much. To better isolate her, I switched to using a bare strobe and zooming the flash head to isolate her in a "spotlight." Once I got the light ratios that I wanted, I just adjusted for composition.

Previous shots:

Ambient light only.

Introducing flash. I first used umbrella, but switched to experimenting with hard light.

Flash didn't fire.

Dialing in settings.

Total time: 45min shooting. I was only able to get one subject. For the next shoot I'll try and move quicker. 15min postprocessing/reviewing.

Equipment Issues

I continued to get issues with my flash not firing (an example pic is included above.) I already figured out the solution, which was to adjust the angle of the plug, but this was still cumbersome and time-consuming to deal with.

While setting up the umbrella to switch to a new subject (I wanted to use it to as a fill light against the window), it flipped inside out. While trying to fix it, the supports bent more and pins came out. After school, I went up to Kenmore Camera to get a new one. Though I could've spent time trying to fix the broken umbrella, there are no guarantees that it won't break further. At least having a new umbrella means reliability, which is essential especially in my crunch time.

Total Time: 15min in store, 2 hour round trip commute.  

SciOly Shoot 2Day 2 of shooting the Science Olympiad team featured the builders, which meant that there was more action in the room. 

The first thing I saw when I walked into the room was a group of guys crowding around a project. The way they were turned, I envisioned having a light source in the middle of the group, sending light emanating through them. 

I placed my flash on some textbooks and faced it so it would bounce off the back of the bookshelf instead of directly hitting the subjects. The first angle I used didn't create an interesting composition, and though the flash was beginning to rim the subjects, it didn't have the strength of have an effect dramatic enough to my liking. In retrospect, I should have tried dropping the ambient exposure.

I then changed my angle to show the subject's faces, which made the photos more engaging. One issue that I see is that having the flash in the bookshelf snooted the light beam, so only their torsos were receiving light.

Attempting to rim-light the group.

Next, I attempted to loosely recreate David Hobby's self-portrait, at right. I faced into the window to backlight the subject, and bounced the light from the flash sitting on the keyboard off of the screen.

Photo by David HobbyThe first photo I took was a bit dark, so I increased my ambient exposure and, if I remember correctly, my flash's power, to compensate. The final result looks nice, but because the flash was moved about 6" away from the screen, the area hit by the light, and therefore the specular highlights reflected in the subject's glasses, were larger.

For the next shot, I wanted a simple portrait of a student working. I brought out the umbrella, and first tried crosslighting against the window light. While this looked decent, I tried having the light head-on to the subject and up high. This gave a nice mix of light and shadow, creating a subtle spotlight look.

My next idea was to try rim-lighting again, using the ambient as the main light. I had the speedlite bare and behind/above the subject. A challenge that I faced was trying to get the flash high enough to rim the subject without getting in the frame. Moving the flash higher made the rimlight stronger, as seen in the second photo, but I think that next time I need to have the flash somewhere off to the side, shooting into the frame.

Another thing I didn't like was the fact that there was a strong specular highlight on the table. I wanted to gobo the flash so it would shine only on the subject's back, but I couldn't find anything to fashion into one.

My final shot before I left was an idea I came up with while noticing a bin of supplies on a table. I had a friend hold the flash underneath the translucent bin, and positioned the flash and bin so that the subject's chin line would be accented.

During this second shoot, I accomplished my goal of being quicker and shooting more subjects. I was able to due this partly because I didn't have to spend time working on equipment issues, and partly because I spent less time trying different lighting ideas on the same subject. This makes the portfolio more diverse.

This was my second shoot, so I am still trying to get a feel for shooting in a real-world environment. The group today was busier, so I had to try and stay out of their way while getting my job done.

As for my technique, I expanded to different setups (rim-lighting, different ambient/flash balance) instead of just falling back on using crosslighting and dropping the ambient exposure (like in Shoot 1). While I'm not afraid to keep trying different things, I want to be able to consistently get shots with an appealing use of flash. 

Total Time: 30min shooting, 1hr 15min reviewing, postprocessing, and writing these descriptions/reflections.

Photo HostingTo display my photos and share them with Science Olympiad, I chose to use picsurge.com. Found through a quick search online for photo gallery sites, I chose to use Picsurge because it is quick and easy to upload photos, and it displays them in a clean layout.

https://picsurge.com/g/omKaDd

Unit 5.1 - Refract and ReflectEven if you only have one flash at your disposal, refracting and reflecting it can stretch it's use.

For example, a quick way to add texture to a blank background is to shoot transparent/translucent objects, such as a water pitcher, to bend the light in an abstract way.

Another example is the corner portrait technique previously mentioned in Lighting 101, in which an umbrella'd light is the main light and one wall is a reflector acting as a fill light. 

The whole point of the unit is to think about ways to extend the use of a flash to beyond its normal capabilities.

Unit 5.2 - Assignment: Double-Duty LightThe goal of this assignment is to create a photo with one flash, using reflective surfaces to create light coming from multiple directions. The twist is that it has to do with a given conceptual theme (of the three options, I chose the theme "Financial Planning").

He gives a roadmap to concieving my shots:1. Concept. In this case, it's "Financial Planning."

2. Subject. The subject will be what's used to illustrate the concept. In this case, it will be a safe.

3. Light. In this case, I am bound to the idea of extending the use of one flash. It's up to me to figure out how I want the subject lit. My idea for this assignment is to have the speedlite on camera left and a reflector to the right/back of subject.

4. Gesture. Specifically for when the subject is a person, the gesture he/she has is important to conveying the concept.

With the above in mind, I set out to take a photo of my locksafe and wallet. I had the flash hiding behind the safe's lid, angled upward. For the fill light, I used the 32" reflector I bought a while ago. I held the reflector just above the camera angled downward to light the inside of the safe. Once I figured out the angles, I ended up with this result:

To get a better rim light, I moved the flash up to the shelf behind the safe. However, less light was reflected back, since the distance between the flash and the reflector was increased (inverse square law).

While shooting the assignment, I encountered the firing issue with my flash. After manipulating the cord positions, I finally got it to work.

Total Time: 1hr 15min, including 30min reading the units and looking at examples, and 45min working on assignment/troubleshooting.

Next StepsWhere I am now- I've been practicing techniques and am becoming proficient with the techniques taught in Lighting 102. - I've started applying what I've learned to real world situations by taking photos of the Science Olympiad team. In the two shoots I've done so far, I've just been trying different techniques with random subjects I find.

End goal- A gallery for RAHS Science Olympiad featuring photos of diverse subjects and lighting techniques. 

How to get there- Strobist: There are 2 more units in Lighting 102. All of the basics have been already covered, so the last units are for expanding creativity. Unit 6 is about changing the color of the flash through the use of gels, which I don't have. I feel that this unit is less important than the other ones, as it deals with a variable with less of an impact than position, balance, etc. The last unit has to deal with time, which seems more interesting.

- SciOly: I am currently receiving feedback on the photos I've taken so far. I shared a link to the gallery on the SciOly Facebook group, and the reactions are positive. I'm waiting for more responses. 

Based off of what's been said so far, I plan to try and incorporate the events more into the photos. Although the competition season may be over, I know that they are already thinking ahead to next year. 

I also need to remember to keep composition in mind. As mentioned in the last post inLighting 101, it's not all about flash. Lighting is just a tool. The photo still needs to have substance to be interesting. I'll try to better communicate the story of the Science Olympiad team through my work.

- Timeline: I'll be able to finish the Lighting 102 within a few days. I'd like to keep visiting Science Olympiad for at least another week to keep building the gallery and getting feedback.