In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong

Photography field reports by Richard Wong. Richard’s work has been published in magazines, books, advertising, and offers fine art prints of his work. Images may be licensed as rights-managed stock photos by contacting Richard directly at Richard@rwongphoto.com or (626) 422-6151. California stock photography, fine art prints, photo blog: www.rwongphoto.com

Mixing Flash with Ambient Light

Posted on | March 26, 2009 | 3 Comments

I’ve been asked several times in the past about how to use flash in a natural-looking manner so I figured this would be a good opportunity to finally post this entry that I started writing last year.

Young People Dancing the Night Away, Venice Beach, California Young People Dancing the Night Away, Venice Beach, California

Aside from the fact that the above image was photographed outdoors in fading light and the picture below was photographed indoors in a dimly lit room, the quality of flash lighting in both images are also different. The indoor wedding photo was primarily a result of bounce flash which was achieved by using an Omnibounce diffuser pointed at a 45 degree angle to bounce light off of every surface in the room. It is a much softer quality of light. Meanwhile, the flash in the beach photo was pointed directly at the subjects but with an Omnibounce diffuser as well. Light falloff was an issue out there since there were no roof or walls to bounce the light off of so I had to boost the flash compensation by +1 stop.

Wedding Guests, Jackie and Antonio Heras Dancing to the Village People's YMCA Song at Brandi and Daniel's Wedding Reception, Ossian, Iowa Wedding Guests, Jackie and Antonio Heras Dancing to the Village People’s YMCA Song at Brandi and Daniel’s Wedding Reception, Ossian, Iowa

The reason for using a diffuser is so you don’t get that harsh, “flash” type of look that you see in most photos. Using a diffuser is only the first step toward getting a natural look though. What I try to do is use the matrix metering to underexpose the ambient light and let the flash fill in the rest.

By doing this, you get the benefits of both ambient light and flash with none of the drawbacks. For the indoor shots, I set the white balance to automatic because the type of light is so mixed that it is impossible to set accurately while shooting on the fly. You definitely do not want the bluish type of flash look that you get from point and shoot cameras. The flash is balanced for daylight setting so if you are mixing the flash with ambient light correctly then you should be getting desirable colors without much post-production work.

I also do not hesitate to crank up the ISO settings to achieve the exposures that I need. Using a flash to light up the image mitigates the potential downfalls to shooting higher ISO. As for aperture and shutter speeds, I’m usually shooting wide open with 1/30 sec as a starting point unless I’m going for a motion effect such as the wedding picture which was shot at 1/10. Normally if you shoot at 1/30 sec. the odds of getting a sharp photo won’t be very high but the flash helps to freeze the subject so 1/30 is good enough to get sharp pictures while allowing you to get some ambient light in the exposure shooting wide open at ISO 400 – 800.

Category: Technique
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Comments

3 Responses to “Mixing Flash with Ambient Light”

  1. Richard Wong
    February 18th, 2009 @ 3:09 am

    testing new Wordpress blog, 1, 2, 3.

  2. Sherri Meyer
    March 26th, 2009 @ 12:32 pm

    I really enjoyed this post Richard. Using the flash is something I (like many) avoid as much as possible. But, there are times when it is a definite must!

  3. Richard Wong
    March 26th, 2009 @ 1:13 pm

    Thanks Sherri. Flash can get kind of addicting once you get the hang of it.

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