Does fill flash always make a difference?

Josh, Nora, Emma, and Chanelle photographed with and without flash.

While I firmly believe that fill flash in outdoor portraits improves the final image, it can be said that it is not always needed.  The above photos demonstrates this, as the image quality of both photos colour, contrast, and saturation is good.  The top image was taken without flash while the bottom was.

If you look closely, you can see where flash made a difference.  The shadows are filled (look at the necks of both adults), there is a catchlight in the eyes where flash was used, and the clothing isn't quite as dark.  However, if you were to see both photos independently of each other, there would be little cause for criticism, aside from the position of the members.

Most of the time fill flash makes more of a difference than this.  Sunny days, bright backgrounds, flat lighting, and shooting in a shaded area all tend to produce better results when fill flash is used.  Nine times out of ten you will end up with a much better photo with flash than without.

In this case, the improvement was nominal.  I set my flash to two-thirds of a stop below 0 and the flash exposure setting.  This allows significant fill without blowing out areas in the image.  I also expose for the background, which usually means a manual exposure setting, although you can get by in shutter priority mode.  The day's lighting was soft due to the high cloud cover; there was very little shadow was cast.

I got some nice photos of my son and his family and we had a nice outing with the grandchildren.  The mountain ash tree's colour made a perfect background for the setting.  It was just part of a great visit with them all.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I found a black widow spider in a plant pot today

Image
The spider I found is a western black widow spider, one of three species of black widow that occur in North America.  The fact that this one has another red patch on the back of its abdomen above the spinnerettes tells us that it is an immature individual. The one thing that people know about black widow spiders is that they are extremely poisonous.  Their venom is something like 15x more toxic than that of a rattlesnake.  The saving grace is that there is very little venom injected from a black widow bite than what a rattlesnake can deliver.   The good news is that black widow bites seldom lead to death.  You are more likely to suffer nausea, muscle pain, and swelling around the bite.  Symptoms usually last only 12 hours or so.  Death may be a result in people with compromised immune systems or in the very young or the elderly.   In 2018, it was reported that there were 1015 cases of people bitten by black widows.  Of those, there ...
Read more

The passing of a generation

Image
Kathryn's mom and dad with our children, Josh and Leanne. A generation, for North America, tends to be between 20 and 30 years.  During that time a couple will give birth and raise children to see them repeat the pattern as they themselves have done.  Each generation has its own set of standards, values, and ideals based upon their experiences and culture, and some of that is passed down to their offspring.  What changes are the life experiences of the following generation and the new customs and ideals that are blended together as a couple becomes a family. Kathryn's mom passed away a few days ago, she was predeceased by her husband several years ago.  Both of them were the grandparents of my children, the mother and father of my wife, Kathryn.  It was my pleasure to know them and to love them as my own, for to me they were Mom and Dad.  And they were there to welcome my children into the world just as my children were with them in spirit when they left it...
Read more

Hang in there, things will get better.

Image
The Svendsen Family - Eric, Samuel, Leanne, Joshua (top row), Nora, Kathryn, Chanelle, Emma If I could go back, in my mind, to a day in my life when I was really down, it would be nice to be able to see into the future.  If could see things as they are today, with the many blessings that have been given to me, it would give me hope knowing that things wouldn't always be so discouraging.   The message here is we do not know what the future holds.  When things are bad, it is hard to raise your head out of the mire to see beyond the darkness.  There are no guarantees, of course, that things will be better, but I think it is true that fortunes ebb and flow as tides do.  The trick is to see beyond the low points and not be too haughty during the high ones.  I know that, at this moment, things are very good.  What the future holds is unknown, but low and high points are likely in the forecast.   This is why taking satisfaction from the moment ...
Read more