[Phil J]

Nice one Ed. The master of manipulation pulls another one out of the hat!!

Frankly Ed, I don't know how you can be so consistent, Pure brilliance to me, that's what it is.

Best regards.

Phil.

[Dougson]

Hi Derek
I've just seen that Amateur Photographer this week has an article on using Single flash !
That was well timed, I hope that provides some interesting info.
All the best Doug

[delb0y]

Thanks Doug. I appreciate the head's up - bought a copy on the way home from work. Cheers Derek

[Phil J]

Here is an example of a 'still life' taken with 'flash'.

Nikon D300, Manual exposure, Nikkor 160mm F10. 320sec. ISO500, two Nikon SB800's one directed into a brolly to camera right at 7ft and 45degrees, and one with a blue gel and 'gridded' to camera left, which was pointed at the background. The background is in fact an old 'projector screen' which also sometimes serves as a large reflector. I'm sorry but I can't remember the flash settings, but, I used the Nikon CLS controls from the D300's built in flash.

[delb0y]

Haven't had chance to even open Amateur Photographer yet as it was straight home from work into a rehearsal with a song-writing buddy. But I did manage to persuade him to let me practice my single-strobe-creating-a-black-background on him in between learning songs:

[Phil J]

That's good, I like that Derek. Very atmospheric.

Regards.

Phil.

[Dougson]

Hi Derek
Nice photos you should be pleased with those, were you learning Southern Man (Neil Young) or Strange Fruit (Billy Holliday) !!

[delb0y]

Thanks guys. A third one, mono, from last night, too. Yep, quite pleased that I was able to get the intended result in between songs, with only half an eye and half a brain on the photography.

Two good songs, there, Dougson. Both in my record collection but not in the set. Mostly originals last night.

[Dougson]

Another good photo, Derek it gives the impression that it's lit by a table lamp which to me evokes a feeling of a personal performance
by the artist. Your coming on leaps and bounds,well done.
Try listening to Katy Sagal singing Strange Fruit & another song is an old Bob Dylan no, Girl from the North Country from the Album Songs of Anarchy from the Sons of Anarchy TV series
You should find them on You Tube.

[delb0y]

Cheers Dougson. I took a couple of these to my photography evening class tonight and they were very well received. On the last one I posted I had the flash on the table just in front of Sid - right at the place where a table lamp would be. It does work nice.

Yes, Girl From The North Country, played it many a time. I have a couple of favourite versions - one is by a English fingerpicking guitar player called Jim Crawford and another is by Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas. Great song.

[Phil J]

Here is another still life, this time a bowl of fruit. This was lit by one Nikon SB800 bounced out of a Westcott Double Fold 43" Brolly. This was placed behind the bowl at about 60 degrees to camera right and 30 degrees looking down. Fill light was obtained by using a foldable 'silver windscreen reflector shield' to bounce some light into the subject at front camera right at 45 degrees from the viewers position.

Usual Techie stuff. Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm F5.6, 1/250sec, ISO200, M/Mode Center weighted average, auto white balance. Post processing in PhotoPlus X5 and Nik software.

[delb0y]

Nice one, Phil. I think I'll have to get a shoot-throw brolly and a stand sometime. Not going to do it until I'm in a position to shoot other folks regularly, and at the moment I'm a long way from there. But one day.

So for now, it's more of me :-)

This is another selfie, but instead of going for the black background, this time I've angled the flash up and to the left to try and replicate natural light, albeit in this room the window was actually on my left hand side where the shadows fall here.

Won't be much time for flash experimenting this weekend - gigging tonight and tomorrow!

[Dougson]

Hi Derek
Have a great weekend, just got back after a week in North Norfolk and the the skies are filled with WW2 fighter aircraft getting ready for Duxford , Flying Legends Airshow .
I'm going Sunday (Happy Days).
Regards Doug

[delb0y]

Hi Doug. That'll be brilliant! Enjoy :-) It's Fairford airshow this weekend, too - I've seen and heard a few jets heading over in the general direction. I'd love to go, but (a) the tiny little lanes get chocka and I'm not fond of traffic jams, and (b) I have prior appointments like gigging Saturday and sleeping Sunday. Just got back from this evening's gig - was meant to finish at 10:00 but folks kept calling for more so we played until 10:50. Fingers and throat are sore now! But great fun.

[delb0y]

I've not given up on my flash learning, just not had time with gigs and work and lawns and things. But tonight I managed a few minutes to practice using flash even in bright sunlight. I'd like a second flash unit (or a reflector) to get rid of the shadows caused by the first, but I'm on a self-imposed spend-no-money-on-photography period at the mo'. Plus I really want to get to the bottom of using one unit before I complicate the issue.

[Phil J]

Derek. If you have a sheet of white A4 paper, that will be OK as a reflector to bounce some fill light back into the left of Bambi and the Buddha. Your flower shot is just fine as it is.

Regards.

Phil.

[GrahamS]

Nice work, Derek. I agree with Phil - all you need is a soft reflector.

[Dougson]

Nice photo's Derek as your using a white background your getting light reflected back on to the dark side which is giving a more rounded and three dimensional image on both of your objects, but just for your own benefit try using a white paper as a reflector or for that matter a black card and one with Silver foil attached.
As I said I think it's fine as it is, but it will give you a benchmark with the other reflectors as to what they can bring to the party.
Regards Doug

[delb0y]

Thanks guys. For added interest (or, at least, added information), the little home-made light-box that I used for these last few is shown below. Didn't cost a penny to make and great fun for these types of picture. The one of the Panasonic camera below didn't use any flash - just daylight softened by the tracing paper I taped to the cut out sides of the cardboard box.

EDIT: Even the daisy above was taken inside this box. As it has no bottom you can place it over flowers in the garden - even reduces wind-shake! Just need to catch a sleeping frog now.

[Jocko]

Super idea.

[delb0y]

Not my idea, Jocko.

http://strobist.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/h...tudio.html

In my flash travels I'm working very slowly (i.e. first few pages) through some of the material on Strobist - although they're very keen for me to spend money on modifiers and things right away, and all that has to wait until my self-imposed spending freeze is over.

[Dean]

Very useful, Phil. I will experiment with changing the aperture to see how the flash light changes - for now I'll leave the shutter speed at 1/250 to keep the ambient light down to a minimum.
Cheers
Derek

Another useful "tool" for varying flash power when you have the room is distance, if 1/32nd is too dark and 1/16th is too bright, I'll set it to 1/16th and move the flash head back 2'-3'.

Don’t forget that the light drops off dramatically as you move it further away. Inverse square law applies. Also you get a harder light. Ok for photographing guys but the ladies are not so enamoured. Buy a cheap soft box to soften it.

[delb0y]

Another Self Portrait. This was taken inside but in a well lit and very bright room - with ISO set to 100, f/10, and 1/160 it pretty much killed all ambient light. I then used the manual flash with black card wrapped around it to make a tube that prevented any stray light illuminating the background.

Self Portrait by Derek Rutherford, on Flickr

[EdMak]

Excellent. Ed.

[EnglishBob]

Very nicely done. I need to get back at my flashes and do some more experimenting.

I quit my job back in May and have started my own company, finding time for anything for myself is getting scarce.