Quote:
Originally Posted by Qfwfq
Yup. certainly the flash is for impromptu photography, when lighting isn't taken car of better. The problem is of course when we want people to watch the lens so that they are looking at the viewer of the resulting photo, the flash being near the lens for practical reasons.
In any case the flash is only any use for very short ranges of a subject, like 3 or at the most 4 metres. You see so many people using it when it is totally out of place. It should only be used when both necessary and effective. I hardly use it and once I missed a good shot, when I could have exploited the very last one of the spool (back in prehistory) in my girl's little automatic compact. I always found it annoying because I had to remember to set it to no flash every time I switched it on; that time I forgot and I couldn't repeat!  It was hopelessly underexposed. |
Flash has a lot of uses, and can be used much farther away then 3-4 meters, it all depends what it is that you are shooting and how you are using flash. If you are speaking strictly about on camera flash, then yes, generally it is used close up, take that flash off camera and your flashes, while will likely be within 5 meters of the subject, will take on objectives that most sane people don't like to think about
for example this before-mentioned photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/3250091189/sizes/l/ there are 3 flashes used to light up this photo (but you couldn't really tell now, could you
), there is a strobe to the right, that looks soft, so probably with a soft box, probably at a fair power to light up the right side of the body, there is a strobe hidden behind him, knowing David, probably bare, set very low, to backlight the subject and separate him from the background. And there is a green-gelled strobe on the left of the photo, lighting the subject's right shoulder with some green light it looks...
I know it looks like your average photo, but there is a lot of thought put into it to make the light look natural, and yet light the subject just enough
Here are some of my fav shots of his, shots i used and still use to learn more about photo myself
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/3311616091/in/set-72157614396346749/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/176516763/in/set-72157603549501638/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/3349749823/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/2776002397/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/2594689052/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/2503065839/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/491513344/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/420038884/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/143215686/sizes/o/
Yes high speed is indeed easier said then done, you are absolutely right jab, infact that sound like something fun to do today, i'll attempt a high speed shot of something (i'll figure out what eventually
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