Photos © 2004, Jay Abend,
All Rights Reserved
The look of flash photography has
been a problem for photographers for decades. As we migrated from huge silver
reflectors stuffed with flash bulbs to smaller and more portable electronic
flash units, the look of on-camera flash has gotten harder. Bounce flash came
in to save the day, and then we all started shooting images of our friends and
family with dark, puffy bags under their eyes (from the big, flat overhead lighting
that made every day look like a cloudy day). Manufacturers countered with bounce
flash units with small direct flash tubes to clean up the shadows caused by
bounce flash, and on-flash diffusers and bounce cards helped a bit. Yet, with
all this, I still don't know anyone who is happy with their hot shoe flash
pictures. Are you?
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If
you will be in an environment where there will be other flash
units firing--like every party and family event--you
might want to think about investing in a quality radio remote
system. I own and use the Quantum FreeWire, Calumet LiteLink,
and PocketWizard Plus systems.
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The answer is obvious: no, you're
not. You look for creative ways to use available light; you've purchased
a reflector card or shoot through a diffuser for your existing flash unit, but
you're still not happy. Here's the trick--get the flash off-the-camera.
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The
most flexible and cost-effective way to get your flash unit off-the-camera
is to use optical slaves. Here a Wein transmitter/receiver package
gets an ancient Vivitar 273 to talk to a brand-new Canon EOS-1Ds
digital camera.
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For working pros the solution is
a flight case full of expensive strobe gear, but the weight and expense certainly
isn't for everyone. I own a studio full of the stuff, yet still find myself
with a camera and a flash at every family gathering. Frustrated with the quality
of my on camera flash images, I began to look at ways to get the light up and
away from the lens, and to use the size and shape of the room to assist in creating
natural-looking light. I have a half dozen brackets that allow me to get the
flash off-the-camera a bit, but most of them are ways to get the camera above
the lens.
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It
really couldn't be easier. Just get that flash up and away
from the camera. If you're shooting digitally you can see
what the flash is doing--but even for film, I like to just
shoot a lot and experiment.
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