The Optimism of Youth
NEX-6, 18-55mm E-Mount Lens @ 47mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/50 sec, ISO 3200, f/5
This week I wanted to try out my new Sony HVL-F60M Flash, and so I decided to take some photos of my friends’ little boy, Callum, for ‘The Optimism of Youth’. This was my first attempt at flash photography, as I have spent the last year or so following the purists’ path of shooting with only the available light. All I can say is that the purists are missing out! Learning to use a proper external camera flash is not something that I think is going to be easy to do, however, but I can already see the benefits that will be available from making the effort to do so. Here is a quick shot I took to show the difference between using a flash and not.
Callum in his armchair, using only the available light.
Callum’s ‘photo shoot’ was nothing too grand or well staged, and involved his Dad lying on the sofa helping me to get Callum to stay still, and his Mum in bed with a migraine. We managed though and took some shots in a few different locations of the house, with the cold and rain preventing us from going outside for a change of scenery. Callum has his own little armchair and foot stool, probably because John wants more room to stretch out on the sofa for himself, and so I placed this in the corner of the room, next to the window for some natural light. I had my new flash unit mounted on my NEX-6’s Multi Interface Shoe, which also acts as a standard hot shoe, conforming to the ISO’s measurement standards (more on this later though).
This photo was taken using the flash unit.
Comparing the two photos with and without flash, you can immediately see the huge improvement in the quality of light, with all of the shot bathed in an even light which brings the image to life much more. I was using the flash as a Fill Flash, which basically means that it fills in most of the shadows that you would see when a subject is lit from one direction (e.g. by the Sun, or a window during the day), and you can see how those shadows from the first image are filled in by the flash in the second. I was also using the Quick Shift Bounce movement of the flash unit – directing the flash up at the ceiling, so that it would then bounce back down more evenly, and softly, rather than having a very direct light pointing right at Callum, which would probably blind him too.
Using a flash in your portraits (animal or human) also adds interest by creating ‘catch lights’ in your subject’s eyes.
I think one of the most important benefits offered by using a flash in portraits has to be the ability to bring out your subject’s eyes. I have mentioned in previous posts how it is important to make these the focus of the image (unless you are trying something a little different), and the addition of a flash makes them stand out even more, especially when you get ‘catch lights’ reflecting in them (this is just the flash reflecting back off their eyes – and could come from other light sources if they are facing the correct way). The flash also brings out the colour much more, as you can see in Callum’s big, blue eyes above, compared to the earlier shot without flash, where they are much darker and not so obviously blue.
I didn’t really ever need to ask Callum to pose – he was constantly pulling faces and playing around – I just needed to ask him to stay still most of the time.
As I am so completely new to using flash in my photography, I was happy to leave the HVL-F60M to work out what strength it needed to be at for the best exposure, which it and the camera work out between them when you use the TTL (Through The Lens) mode of the flash unit. I think that in pretty much most instances where you will be taking a number of fairly quick shots, and you will need to react as things happen, this is the only mode that you would want to use, switching to manual mode when using the flash in a more creative way to create the exact amount of light that you require. You may do this either on or off-camera, and this was something that I was really interested in trying out for my vision of what the featured shot would be for this post. I did manage to stick to my vision, but not in quite the same way as I had originally planned to.
One of my first attempts at creating the shot I had envisaged for this post. Sadly, I was using autofocus and the NEX-6 did not focus on Callum’s face/eye, which is really my own fault for not taking more control over this feature.
My slightly pretentious vision was to have Callum opening a box, from which bright light was spilling on to his face, as a metaphor for a child’s optimism and interest when investigating even a mundane cardboard box! We made do with his toy box though, which slightly spoiled the idea, as what average child wouldn’t be interested by the prospect of opening their own toy box?! I moved Callum’s toy box in to the hall way, closed the doors and got John to hold up a towel to block light coming through the window of the front door, so we had a pretty dark setting. The light from the toy box comes courtesy of the flash unit’s LED video light, rather than the actual flash itself. This leads me to a few issues that I have with the Sony flash – despite the fact that it is very good on-camera, it simply does not work off-camera with the NEX-6.
I like the way in which Callum’s face is lit from his right, throwing shadows over his left side.
Both the Sony NEX-6 and A99 have the new Multi Interface Shoe, which is both the same height and width of a standard hot shoe. However, due to a number of contacts at the front end (so that camera and attached peripherals are able to ‘talk’ to one another better), the Sony shoe is actually deeper than the standard. This is fine if you want to fit another manufacturer’s flash to a Sony product, but it means that the Sony flash does not fit in to other manufacturer’s products – in my limited experience at least. I really wanted to use the flash off-camera, which means that you need a way of triggering it when you press the shutter release of the camera. There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved – on-camera flash can be synched to fire the flash unit, wireless remote triggers can be fitted to both devices and send the signal from camera to flash, or you can purchase a cable that runs between the two devices and sends the signal ‘hard-wired’. Whilst the Sony A99’s on-camera flash is capable of being synched with the HVL-F60M, for some reason (which I am currently not aware of), the NEX-6’s in-built flash is not capable of doing so. I purchased some cheap wireless radio transmitters, in the hope that I would be able to fire the flash that way, but because of the extra contacts for the Multi Interface Shoe, my flash does not fit in to the receiver, although the transmitter will fit in to the shoe on the camera. I am currently attempting to modify the cheap receiver, so that the flash unit will fit, but it is a work in progress and will require me filing down some of the metal hot shoe, which I do not think will be very easy!
I was tempted to use this as the featured photo, as we can see more of Callum’s face, but his expression doesn’t exactly scream ‘optimism’.
I’m not really sure whether or not there is currently a hard-wired option available for me to use, but that is not really ideal as I would like to experiment with the flash well away from my camera, and not be limited to a couple of metres of cable. As the Multi Interface Shoe is so new as well, there are probably not any third party manufacturers currently making compatible wireless triggers (as the market for them to sell to is simply not large enough at the moment), but hopefully this will change over time, so please could everybody reading this go out and buy either an A99 or NEX-6 to bring that day closer?! Seriously though, I will update this if/when I find out any further information on the issue, and I am happy to try and answer any questions people may have, so please leave a comment if that is the case. The problem I have is that I am so new to all of this, have no experience of other manufacturer’s hot shoes, and there is also sooooo much misinformation on internet forums that I have come across whilst trying to find a solution, so I will try to get some definitive info from Sony UK directly, and share this when possible. In the meantime, I may have to invest in a cheap speedlight which should work with my wireless triggers, and simply use the the Sony flash on-camera – which it is undoubtedly going to be great for in many situations to come. At least I could use the LED video light to fulfil my idea for this post.
After telling me that one of his Mr Potato Heads looked like me, he moved on to making them hold hands whilst posing for some more photos.
Happy that I had a shot that I would be able to use for this post, we put John and Karen’s house back in order (mostly) and then I decided to take a few more shots of Callum playing with his toys. I was pointing the flash up at the ceiling again in the above shot, but you can see the reflection in the radiator behind him – this was reduced significantly when I attached the diffuser that came with the flash though.
Another example of what these photos would have looked like without using a proper flash unit.
I think that it is very important to get down to the same level as your subjects much of the time, as you can see from all of the shots that I have used in this post. I have nothing against experimenting with different angles from time to time though, but when photographing rug rats you really need to be prepared to get down on your hand and knees. It is sometimes a good idea to go all the way down to lying flat, to capture a more unusual angle – and the kids can often find that entertaining in itself, which helps to bring something new out in their response to the camera as well.
Although this is not one of the better photos of Callum, taking the shot from so low down helped to make him do different things, and actually peaked his interest in the camera.
So, that was my first attempt at flash photography! I have so much more to learn, and I also know that it is going to be quite complicated if I want to have a really good understanding of the topic, but the potential that using a flash (or flashes) brings with it is really going to be invaluable for a number of my future photos. I won’t be using flash all of the time of course, as many of the photos that I will be taking will not require it, but there are definitely a number of really interesting and artistic effects that can be gained from it. So, much like every new thing that I learn about photography, I’m really excited to keep using and improving with it.
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