Using fill-in flash ?

Shimmyhill · 23 Apr 2006 at 17:32

Well im having more joy with the flash now, its awesome but at the same time hard to get to grips with.

Here is a shot im quite happy with - would be better if my daughter could keep her hair tidy for more then 2 mins.

morgan · 23 Apr 2006 at 21:13

did some tests myself over the weekend. tried a different approach which I am very happy with indeed. I'm not sure if it was a fluke due to the lighting conditions but heres what I did.

5D, 24-70L @ 24mm (Circ Polariser Filter Fitted), 580EX

1. Set Manual mode
2. Meter off the sky only (to get a nice blue sky) I use partial metering. This gave me 1/125 @f8, ISO 100
3. Set the flash to have no FEC, aim it straight at the subject, no stofen etc.
4. take your shots

results:

Both straight out of the camera, no adjustments whatsoever.

I'm really happy with these. The second has a funky feel to it which I like. The great thing about this technique is that I just left it in Manual, fired about 30 odd shots over the next 10 mins and all were spot on exposures. I think this is kind of like setting an incident light reading by metering off the sky.

Now I'd be interested to see how this technique would work for different times if the day, brighter/shady days etc. Aiming the flash directly at the subject does a great job of lighting up the face (eye sockets) and gives a nice feel. It also helps to give a shot some punch.

morgan · 23 Apr 2006 at 21:26

not sure why but looking at my post, the two shots look totally unsaturated compared to the originals in photoshop...I am saving as jpeg, all shot in sRGB, imported at sRGB, saved as jpegs...they look terrible colour wise...any ideas people? The originals are very rich colourwise...

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EDIT

opened the files and eddited in Canon DPP (YUK!) and saved, colours have not desaturated when saving to jpeg...ie the jpegs look exactly how the RAWs did when viewing on screen...any ideas anyone?

Shimmyhill · 23 Apr 2006 at 21:40

Not an answer but a question.

Can i ask why you shoot in sRGB ? (genuine question, i always found it oversaturated and gave less editing scope than Adobe RGB)

morgan · 23 Apr 2006 at 21:43

I shoot in sRGB as all web browsers use sRGB as thier colour space.

If you use AdobeRBG and save as a jpeg then view the image in iexplorer, firefox etc then the colours will be different from the original.

This problem I am having in photoshop is very strange...cant work out what it is doing...