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Light
Abound using electronic flash units.
I am a caver, and member of a cavephoto group. Caves are realy dark! We can't use P&S techniques
much, you realy have to think ahead when making a picture.
The equipment we use are Firefly II slave units attached to flash units. They are waterproof, infared and
extremly sensetive. The cost about $100 and you can order them from Engeland at http://www.dragonspeleo.co.uk,
a big cave equipment store.
What we use to light the flash is a normal (small) flash unit at the camera. If we don't want direct
flashlight at all, we tape a piece of old slide/film in front of the flash. Only the infrared light will pass the
flash now, thas enough for the Firefly slave.
A bible for cave photography is Images Below from Chris Howes, It has many, many tips and trics on
lighting the subject well. Also for non-cavers a must. You can order it at http://www.albany.net/~oldbat/
and probably amazon.com
Greetings Edwyn
-- Edwyn Schuchhard, August 5, 1999
If you're like me, you take the vast majority of your pictures of people in social settings, indoors, with
color-negative film, and WITH a flash. And also if you're like me, many (most) of the results are just
plain bad. So, when Phil writes:
"We wanted a boring flat illustrative light and we got it."
it makes it sounds as though the effect in this picture is boring or even somewhat passi. True, there may
be more interesting flash techniques in terms of artistic potential, but there are few that are as effective!
Like many, I was annoyed at the harsh, straight-on shadow effects of a single, bare flash. I had tried
many different pocket gadgets, (the Lumiquest, an index card, a mini-softbox, etc.) but none does the
trick like the Omnibounce.
Look at the picture again: note the even, well illuminated quality, with no hotspots or dark areas. (This is
using slide film as well.) Try to get that with a single flash; whether on camera or not. In most cases,
either the subject (Phil) will be correctly lit and the room will look dark, or the room will look fine with
Phil ready to ignite! There is no light falloff at the edges either (another typical flash bug-a-boo,) and
there are no real harsh shadows. The effect, (though "boring") is excellent; done so well that it escapes
attention - the TRUE mark of impeccable technique.
http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/light (15 of 22)7/3/2005 2:22:38 AM