Equipment

While working on the fill flash assignment I realized I could use a second speedlight.  I shoot Nikon, and I have been using a SB-600 with Ni-MH batteries for about 2 years.  I am probably going make the SB-900 my next purchase along with a 9’ coiled extension cable.  Both units have similar features and operations, such as auto TTL exposure, FP or high speed sync, remote trigger via IR beam, and use in multi-unit lighting.  As you would expect the SB-900 is more powerful than the 600.  The guide number comparison is below for ISO 200 and 35mm zoom position.

SB-900           48m/157ft

SB-600           42m/138ft

Guide numbers indicate power and are also used in manually calculating exposure.

Fill Flash – Auto FP mode

Auto FP is a hand-held flash technique that enables compatible speed lights and DSLR bodies to fire flash at shutter speeds far above the “normal” sync speed.  Auto FP, AKA High Speed Sync, is useful in brightly lit scenes that need fill flash and small f stops (wide apertures).  Outdoor wedding and sports assignments are perfect examples:  the photographer can use a narrow depth of field to isolate a back-lit subject while balancing the different light values of foreground and back ground. In the example below a beautiful model, me, is illuminated by fill flash while standing against a very bright sky.  I used a Nikon SB600 speed light set at manual full power, a D90 programmed for FP (custom menu e5), exposed at f/5.6 and 1/2,500 second.  Normally the highest sync speed is 1/200 second.   

If you want to try this at home, I suggest finding a scene with a downward slope, a clear view of mostly sky, and a cute model.  Mary was busy....

Fill Flash - cheatin' the sync

There are two basic ways to shoot with flash above the sync speed: cheat the sync speed, and program the camera for FP mode (AKA continuous flash).   Let’s look at the first option (FP is coming in a later post).  You must be able to manually set the shutter above (faster than) the sync speed or you can’t cheat the sync.

Cheating the sync means manipulating the view angle and shutter in a DSLR to take advantage of fill flash.  These cameras have curtain shutters that travel across the sensor chip from top to bottom (or vice-versa).  If you shoot a flash 1-3 f stops above the sync speed the result will display a more or less dark area along the edge of the frame.  This is where the curtain blocked the flash output.  If you shoot faster the result is a dark bar near the middle of the frame.

However, if you compose the frame with the blocked area in bright ambient light (such as the sky in a horizontal or side light in a vertical) the result is a more controlled gradient of changing brightness.  You may have to hold the camera up-side-down to get the blocked area “in the right place”. 

Another alternative is to shoot wide and crop the blocked area.  This will take some experimentation, and a handy reference is the MAGIC LANTERN GUIDE for your camera.   

This video shows you how to do it without much explanation, quick and dirty. 

Fill Flash-2

Another good demonstration of fill flash is offered by Gavin Hoey, a photographer and writer who lives in Copthorne, West Sussex, England.   Copthorne is about 33 miles south east of London.  

This guy’s video camera was listing about 10 degrees to starboard for his entire presentation, an annoying perspective.  However this twisted view was mostly overcome by Gavin’s snappy delivery and logical step by step explanation of how to use a flash in bright sunlight.  He further showed how helpful a remote trigger can be in this situation.

Fill Flash-1

This video post is linked to a demonstration of fill flash.  It was produced by a photographer named Imre (Em-rey) and he does a great job explaining this basic skill.  This movie is one of 17 that cover various aspects of using flash on a DSLR.  He starts off with a very fast joke that reminds me of Mr. Jones’s alter ego, the pun-master Ninja Dave of the eponymous webcast. 

Unlike about 80% of YouTube material, Imre's productions (79 and counting) are clear and concise.  Imre is short for Stephen J. Imre of Warminster, PA, a small town near Philadelphia.  His blog is binarygraphite.

Bounce Flash

This example is really bounce flash and photojournalism.  It comes from an attempted environmental portrait, a chef in a restaurant kitchen, where almost everything was working against me: multiple source lighting, very small space, windowless, busy background, rickety out of shape shelves, heavy rain outdoors, and hot ranges at my back.  The beer and Lamb kebab helped a bit.  This image was only a test but the owner and his manager wanted a copy.  I was relatively sure I could fix the lighting in Photoshop or Lightroom and not violate any journalism rules.  Punch read more to see the how it turned out.