FLASH on camera? off camera? what to do for NON STUDIO portraits

[removed account4]

i got most of my portrait experience just by doing it. and by assisting people ...
i shot some soft available light, but fill flash or key/sun fill always looked good.
while there is a hot shoe on a lot of cameras, i never really liked what that blast of light looked like,
just as i never really enjoyed the whole washed out flash bulb look. for some stuff it is OK but not really the aesthetic i have been after.
i opted to the have a bracket and the flash off to the side connected with a PC, or the camera on a tripod and the flash someplace else. more freedom bouncing the flash off a ceiling or wall or the ground, or ?? i eventually dropped the attached to the side/bracket.
i started doiing this with a 35mm, eventually to a 6x6, and then to the bigger formats ( 4x5 and 5x7 ),
all on location all off the cuff/not planned more than maybe a phone call once in a while, unless it was
and assignment, then it was planned but pretty much they just knew i was showing up at 1015, and that's it.
with the D-thing, i squelch down the on camera flash to almost nothing, and use a peanut-slave to do what i need.
i've used everything from a cheap, tiny flash ( dont' remember the brand ) to sunpaks, to lumedynes,


whats your set up for non-studio, off the cuff, flash required portraits ( and other stuff )?
do you like the washed out blast from the past wedge-esque look? do you like something a little more refined? do you bring a few lights and have an entourage? or do you just push your film and not have any
artifical light?

 

[HiHoSilver]

I'll be following w/ great interest. I've read enough to get some perspective - largely from strobist.com, but don't seem to have a light source that plays well w/ the older manual cameras.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I try to keep it simple - a reflector is always good, particularly a multi-surface one you can switch from white to silver to gold, or remove the covers and it becomes a diffuser. Other than that, I've got a Calumet Genesis GF400 (they sell them under a bunch of other brand names too- Godox, Witstro, Neewer, etc) 400 w/s bare bulb flash that can be shoe-mounted, or swap out the bottom plate and it takes a 1/4-20 screw and fits on any light stand. It can be sync'd by cord, PocketWizard, or by a proprietary remote that also lets you adjust power output from the camera position (very helpful if the flash is closed up inside an umbrella softbox). Put that in a softbox or an umbrella and you're good to go. Minimal kit, minimal weight, easy peasy.

 

[removed account4]

scott,

your system is a good one !
i have a few reflectors, but never have an assistant, friend, extra arm,
light stand, ( just a tripod if LF is used ) &c to put it on there to bounce ..
your light seems similar to what i do .. except you put it on a tripod / stand.
its obvious it works, i've seen the photographs made this way ( i think ? )

 

[HiHoSilver]

TFC - very cool. 'Sounds like alot of kit for 'minimal'. Thx for posting.

 

[frank]

My favourite portraits are taken by window light, or by single studio mono flash bounced from white umbrella.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

TFC - very cool. 'Sounds like alot of kit for 'minimal'. Thx for posting.

One strobe, one reflector, one modifier, one stand - that's pretty minimal compared to a full-on fashion shoot where you need a dozen assistants just to keep up with everything, and several gas-powered generators to run the lights. I hate hauling a ton of crap around, and since I normally don't have any assistants, the kit has to be manageable with one hand (the other one is holding the camera!).

 

[removed account4]

One strobe, one reflector, one modifier, one stand - that's pretty minimal compared to a full-on fashion shoot where you need a dozen assistants just to keep up with everything, and several gas-powered generators to run the lights. I hate hauling a ton of crap around, and since I normally don't have any assistants, the kit has to be manageable with one hand (the other one is holding the camera!).

hi scott
sorry, i underlined and bolded.
minimal is good. it really lets you focus on
knowing light, and the subject.
i've seen people with an entourage,
not sure what that was about, maybe they thought they were annie ?

william coupon ( http://www.williamcoupon.com )
does some fantastic work with minimal lights, he's photographed
time covers, us presidents, regular people ...

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

hi scott
sorry, i underlined and bolded.
minimal is good. it really lets you focus on
knowing light, and the subject.
i've seen people with an entourage,
not sure what that was about, maybe they thought they were annie ?

william coupon ( http://www.williamcoupon.com )
does some fantastic work with minimal lights, he's photographed
time covers, us presidents, regular people ...

I know- it's amazing how much you can do with the simplest of outfits. Shooting my trip to France with just the one Rolleiflex with the normal lens and no artificial lights reinforced that as a lesson. Teaching studio lighting also helps reinforce it - you start off with just one hot light to make your students pay attention to light, where it's coming from, how it looks, etc.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

My favourite portraits are taken by window light, or by single studio mono flash bounced from white umbrella.

Frank, you are enlightening me often!
And Jane Bown for non-studio portraits. Non-flash portraits

 

[removed account4]

My favourite portraits are taken by window light, or by single studio mono flash bounced from white umbrella.

i agree, window light is beautiful, and *sometimes* if you have a reflector, you dont' even need the umbrella/lite as fill ..

Frank, you are enlightening me often!
And Jane Bown for non-studio portraits. Non-flash portraits

who is jane brown ?

 

[Soeren]

Joe McNallys books hot shoe diaries and sketching light gives some good inspiration how to use one light.

 

[markbarendt]

I agree on McNally's book.

My absolute favorite is bounce, kinda like playing pool with light.

The things that make bounce special IMO are the size of the reflector we can have and the direction you can get the light to come into the scene from.

The next best thing when bounce isn't available is a gentle fill. On camera flash provides a very small source so the light is hard and provides sharp shadows that typically distract from what is intended. Matrix balanced fill with Nikon gear is great at this but there are distinct limits.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

...
who is jane brown ?

Brown? Hard to tell...

 

[MattKing]

who is jane brown ?

Jane Bown, not Brown:

For example, Samuel Beckett:

 

[Chadinko]

I use flash a lot, and always off-camera. I have two Quantum Qflash units on radio controls, and a whole host of adapter cables for the transmitters that I can use them with my bipole lenses and PC-jack cameras as well as hotshoe cameras. I can use the radios with speedlights as well, but the Qflashes are powerful enough to do what I can't do with the speedlights.

I don't usually work with an assistant, so I don't often do the reflector thing.

 

[GarageBoy]

What batteries do you use with Q Flashes?

 

[Chadinko]

What batteries do you use with Q Flashes?

I have one Turbo Compact and one Turbo 2+2. They last me a long time, though it's about time for me to send the 2+2 in to Quantum for a rebuild.

 

[TSSPro]

Nikon and other flashes off camera, normally unmodified, bounced if available. A voice activated light stand helps greatly with things like holding lights on a boom, adjusting output on manual flashes, wrangling stray people into the frame, etc. Normal assistant stuff.

Here is a shot for a wedding a few years ago- backlit from sun, main light was camera left and high, Nikon SB26 on ~1/2 power zoomed all the way out and on a boom being held by an assistant. Portra 400, Bronica SQ-a 50/80mm?

 

[DiegoV]

I love flash -- it's such a versatile piece of equipment. It gives you a huge amount of freedom when it comes to controlling your light.

That said, I never -- ever -- use on-camera flash. I usually have my light(s) on a tripod, usually with some sort of modifier (softbox, umbrella, snoot, etc.) depending on the look I'm going for.

 

[frank]

When using flash for fill light, like in the pic of the men under the tree, on camera flash is fine. One does not (usually) want fill light to create a secondary source of shadows, which can look unnatural.

 

[wiltw]

When I was still shooting weddings, I would very often employ a 'Main' (highlight( source on a light stand, and a 'Fill' source on camera. That would get rid of the flat uniform on-camera Main source look. And in shooting random shots like on the dance floor, the 'Main' stayed in one place...after all, the sun does not change its position in the sky to be at a fixed angle to the subject!

In bright sun, the on-camera light served as a 'fill' again, and if I had a choice I would try to get the sun off to one side (not full frontal) as my 'Main'...when the sun was somewhat behind the subjects, it offered nice rendition in the hair while my on-camera fill provided sufficient illumination for the backlit faces 'in the shade'.

 

[Gargan]

Flash off camera.

This can be either speedlight or my 300ws godox battery strobe, often softbox or umbrella but also bare speedlight or metal reflector.

triggers are wireless Godox or Yongnuo