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Light
about one-quarter of the light forward, one-half up to the ceiling, and one-quarter off in various other
directions. LumiQuest makes a bunch of similar products but I think they are a bit too cumbersome.
Finally, you can get small softboxes (see the studio flash section) to cover your flash. The disadvantage
of any diffuser is that it wastes a lot of light, thus reducing your flash range and increasing recycle time.
Accessory Flash Strategy 4: Get Another Flash. If you are willing to invest in a second flash and a rat's
nest of custom cables (Canon and Nikon) or some air (Minolta with its brilliant wireless system), then
you can light the background and the subject separately, fill shadows, and otherwise play most of the
tricks available to studio photographers. The custom cables will ensure that your camera body shuts off
the flashes when there is sufficient exposure, but it would probably be better to use manual flashes and a
flashmeter if you are very concerned about lighting ratios. The cabling doesn't solve the problem of
supporting the second or third flash. You might need light stands in which case it would have been
almost as easy to drag along a couple of studio monolights.
For color photography, the electronic flash has one nice feature: it is designed to have roughly the same
color temperature as daylight. So you don't need any filters to work with standard daylight-balanced
film.
Electronic Flash Examples
http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/light (11 of 22)7/3/2005 2:22:38 AM
Canon EOS-5, 20-35/2.8L, 540EZ flash tilted up 45 degrees, +2/3
stop flash exposure compensation, Stofen Omni-bounce, Kodak
E100 slide film
We wanted a boring flat illustrative light and we got it. This photo
would have been ruined by standard on-camera flash. Standard
bounce flash off the white ceiling would have been better, but
probably it would have left unpleasant shadows under eyes and
chin. The Omni-bounce worked beautifully here, casting light all
around the room. Canon's auto flash exposure worked great too,
though because of all the white in the image, it was a good thing
that we dialed in +2/3 stop compensation.
(see my Narcissism page for details)