Fill In Flash Trail 1

In response to the comments I received from Steve regarding the use of fill in flash, I have now had chance to take a number of images using this technique.

However the day which I had chance to do this was very overcast which you can see from the images. I believe that using fill in flash would be more beneficial on a sunny day when shows are being cast on the subject. The flash would then highlight these darker areas.

The images shown below and in the link provided still demonstrate the effect of Fill in flash and give me an idea of what to expect when using the flash in the day.

I did notice difficulties when using the flash in daylight. One of which is that the camera kit I own is reduced to a shutter speed of 1/200 with the flash in use.

Due to the fast pace of snow sports I found it more difficult to time my shot. Whereas without the flash in operation I am able to take 4 shots of the subject before they land from a jump.

The timing of the shots is easy to overcome after a few trial shots. The biggest downfall of this technique is that I cant be as close to the subject as I would like without the image blurring to some degree. Shown below.

From the review of the shoots in Austria and Aviemore it is clear that the better shots are those taken within close proximity of the subject. Either at the side of them or even underneath them as they jump over me.

You can still see from this image that the flash is having some effect and is lighting up area which would normally be in shadow. For example the ruffles on the trousers and under the eyes.

The rest of the images from this shoot can be seen in the slide show labelled Fill In Flash Trial 1.

Eadweard Muybridge - History

Eadweard Muybridge was born 9th April 1830 in Kingston upon Thames. He was an English photographer and was responsible for developing the way in which motion was captured at an early stage.

He started out as a landscape and architectural photographer. His earliest work documented in 1866 in this field. Most of his work was aimed at capturing how expansive the West was. During this time he lived in San Francisco.

However it is his work during 1872 that interests me most. In this year he was commissioned to photograph a horse in motion. The idea was to answer the question of whether all four of a horses hooves are off the ground at the same time during a gallop.

A series of images he had taken are shown below. An impressive result for such early photogaphy.

To do this Muybridge devised a new method for motion photography. He constructed long shed, containing twelve cameras side by side, facing a white background marked off with vertical, numbered lines. Each camera was fitted with Muybridge's high-speed shutter, released by an electromagnetic catch. Thin threads stretched across the track were broken by the horse as it moved along, this would trigger each shutter in turn. This enabled twelve photographs to be taken in half a second showing all the phases of the movement. For another method of setting of the shutters, electrical contacts embedded in the track could be triggered by the wheels of a sulky (horse-drawn vehicle) passing over them.

We can see from above that without the contribution from artists such as Muybridge todays photography would not be possible.

ISO Settings

Digital photography uses ISO settings to respresent how sensitive the image sensor is to light. In film photography it was shown as an ASA value. For example 100, 200, 400.

The benfits of digital photogrpahy is that you can change this setting for each individual shot whereas before you would have to change the entire film.

Generally speaking the higher the ISO setting the more sensitive the camera will be to light. This will give more grain or noise on the image.

Below are two images showing the difference between ISO settings. The first taken with an ISO of 200 and the second at 3200. Note that the first had a shutter speed of 1/250s whilst the second required a shutter speed of 1/3200s to match the expossure of the first.

Obviously it would be ideal to use the lowest setting all the time as you would end up producing clearer images. However this is not always possible, for example when the subject of your photo is poorly lit. This could be at an indoors event or at night. In these situations choosing a higher ISO setting will allow you to capure a clearer image whilst not having to compromise the shutter speed. Hence allowing me to still be able to freeze fast moving subjects.

My post titled 'Inital Shot' shows some of my images taken at night using a high ISO setting.

Shutter Speed

The term shutter speed in photography indicates the amount of time the shutter remains open when taking a photograph and therefore how long the image sensor is exposed to light.

Shutter speed in measured in seconds or fractions of a second. For example 1s, 1/2s, 1/125s 1/1000s.

Fast shutter speeds usually require larger apertures. This is because the shutter is open for less time, but you still need sufficient light for the image to have the correct exposure. Shutter speed and aperture work hand in hand to produce an image that is exposed correctly. Generally each increment made in F-stops can be compensated by the same steps in shutter speed.

Fast shutter speeds enable me to freeze fast moving subjects so naturally most of the images i take will be with shutter speeds no lower than 1/250s. Example below.

Slow shutter speeds can cause the suject to blur. This may be done purposly to add artistict effects to the image or to capture motion. A clasic example would be to show the movement of water over a waterfall. An example can be seen below.

Experimental Shots

The following images and those seen in the slide show labeled 'Experiments' are working with changes to the flash compensation and shutter speed.

All of these images were taken using an aperture of 5.6. My shutter speed varied between 1/200 and 1/25. I reduced the flash compensation by 1.7-2.0.

When getting on site I like to record two or three test images first. I find this helps me fine tune any settings on my camera I set up initially.

My first images taken on a higher shutter speed capture the motion very well. An example can be seen below.

Throughout the shoot I was generally trying isolate the main subject of the image (the snowboarder). I did keep in mind the location of the flood lighting and tried to incorporate this element into the photography. You can see from the image above I was trying to keep the lighting behind the snowboarder.

After seeing the results from these settings I reduced the shutter speed to 1/40s. The results can be seen below.

In this image the main subject has started to blur, showing movement. You can see that the flash was still operating from the reflective strips on the jacket. However because the shutter was open for a longer period of time the main light source has had more of an effect of the image. Any objects that are white have reflected the redish colour of the flood lights. I believe from these shots that a slower shutter speed has allowed me to capture more colour.

Austria Freestyle Review

The freestyle part of the shoot in Austria was directly aimed at freezing fast paced action. I had ideas of angles and view ports I wanted to create.

One specific idea was having the action coming towards the camera. This proved quite difficult to do whilst avoiding any collisions. An attempt at this idea can be seen here. Ideally I wanted to have the subject in the air. Having reviewed the images I can see that in order to achieve this I will have to stand further away form the subject and use the optical zoom on my camera. I believe this will slightly harder to capture a good quality image as any movement of the camera will have more effect when zoomed in.

Other images from this shoot can be seen in the gallery. 

From standing in a different location and zooming in on the subject I have managed to capture several good quality images. This is one example. Following the discussions with Steve I realise this setting would be ideal to experiment with fill-in flash.

Austria Free Ride Review

One of the shoots for this project took place in Soll, Austria.

Before I went out I had ideas of what I wanted to achieve. Apart from improving my techniques to allow me to freeze the snow sports action, I wanted to capture snowboarding in its most natural surroundings.

The photos I have chosen in this album allow me to show the snowboarder and the skills involved but also the tranquility of the surroundings. I would describe this as a cross between landscape and action photography.

Whilst taking these images I tried to consider where on the frame the snowboarder (main subject) would be. Different positioning allows me to create or capture the expansive setting. The following link shows an example of this. This is referred to as the rule of thirds.

Having shot most of my previous work within the UK the first thing I had noticed and had to adapt to was the lighting condition. Obviously lighting conditions in the snow are much brighter. This affected the F-stops I used and as a result the shutter speed.

My first few images were over exposed. Example here.

As noted above, after a quick adjust of aperture and shutter speed I was able to re-shoot and get better results. Shown here.

Discussion Update - Fill Flash

After presenting my recent photography work to Steve Davies he recommended experimenting with fill flash work.

I have taken photographs of snowboarding during the day and at night. Obviously it is much easier to produce a clear and correctly exposed image during the day, however one of the obstacles I have to overcome at the moment are short days.

My main resource of snowsports action is my local dry slope. The slope is lit at night but this can cause shadows in my photography preventing me to depict certain detail. I am hoping to develop my use of fill flash techniques to help me overcome this problem.

As a brief example of what fill flash achieves I have published images below.

The first is taken with no flash.

The second with the flash setting as normal, meaning that the flash should be the main source of light. This image simulates some of the problems that can occur in real time photography. The main subject of the image is reflecting too much light and in contrast with its surrounding is far too bright and unnatural.

The third image was taken with a flash but i reduced its compensation by 0.7. You can see that it has highlighted areas previously to dark to see detail in and the main subject is still in tone with the surrounding.

Inspiration - Dan Medhurst

Dan Medhurst is a photographer for a magazine called Whitelines. He does have a broad client list, however it is his for work Whitelines that interests me as they are all based on the sport of snowboarding.

Shown below is an image from one of my favourite photo shoots of his.














This was taken with a Canon EOS 5D. He used a shutter speed of 1/200 and F-stop 5.6

I cant be sure of the lens that was used. However the settings mentioned above are well within the range of my equipment.
The only other things he used were 2 external strobe lights and possibly a red filter.

These are the types of images I aspire to take.