Flash Sync Question

[Mr Bill]

Sounds like a fun exercise, I'll have to try it!

I've found polarised lighting useful on other occasions but have just used an LCD screen for those

Have fun! Something that just occurs to me is the possibility of using direct flash to photograph a museum exhibit that is enclosed in a glass box. I'd be interested in your results should you try this.

 

[Petrochemist]

I don't think I need any polarizer using the mirror. There is no different with shooting directly.

The difference is the flashgun will be seen in the reflection, giving huge amounts of glare, when it goes off...

 

[Chan Tran]

The difference is the flashgun will be seen in the reflection, giving huge amounts of glare, when it goes off...

There is no need for the flashgun to be seen. In the picture that I took I intended to show the flashgun but by pointing it up there is no problem there. You don't want to use the flash straight ahead any way.

 

[Mr Bill]

I don't need any polarizer. I have a normal portrait using the mirror without using polarizer.

Ok, I don't dispute that YOU don't need this.

My dispute is with your statement "There is no different with shooting directly." I think I explained this adequately in my response to you. The rest of my response, below, is mainly for other readers who may not follow that gist.

What I'm saying is simply, if one uses a (smallish) on-camera flash as the sole illumination to take a self-portrait in a mirror, then a very substantial glare will exist in the image. (The small area of the flash is producing 100% of the illumination of the subject, and consequently must appear much, much brighter than other parts of the scene.) However, the use of two polarizing filters, as I initially described, can DRASTICALLY reduce the photographed glare from the flash head, making it nearly insignificant in the photograph. As a wild guess, I would say perhaps 98% or more reduction.

 

[Mr Bill]

There is no need for the flashgun to be seen. In the picture that I took I intended to show the flashgun but by pointing it up there is no problem there. You don't want to use the flash straight ahead any way.

Ralph's original club assignment was to photograph a firing flash. So yeah, he needed for the flashgun to be seen.

And I'll grant you that yeah, you DID photograph a firing flash.

 

[paul ron]

put flash b on the m sync?

 

[Flashcam]

That self portrait of the camera does have a little flair at the flash. The OP's assignment didn't say anything about just a little flair tho!
So does that polarizer effect require a linear polarizer or a circular polarizer? I was way off for a while there thinking he meant lighting a Night Club!

 

[Petrochemist]

That self portrait of the camera does have a little flair at the flash. The OP's assignment didn't say anything about just a little flair tho!
So does that polarizer effect require a linear polarizer or a circular polarizer? I was way off for a while there thinking he meant lighting a Night Club!

You can use either, but if you want the light to be polarized on leaving the filter a circular polarizer must be mounted so the light goes through it the opposite way to normal (effectively making it a linear polarizer)