Well.
Single flash is hard. My outtakes from this were definitely something else- I was getting all kind of crazy effects (that I didn’t really want), and half of the images are strangely focused–partially because the sensor on my camera is a little messed up, and partially because focus was one of about seven variables I was trying to keep track of at all times. Meanwhile, I was still trying to get good content, and, of course, the images that had such potential for content were all wrong in terms of the technical parts, and the ones that were technically better had poor content. Yeesh.
I also got kicked out of not one, but TWO locations when I was trying to complete this assignment–one flower store downtown told me that I could shoot up front as much as I wanted, but I wasn’t allowed to go back to where the employees were making the flower arrangements (maybe they thought I would give away their trade secrets or something), and, when I headed out for my last take, I was informed that I couldn’t take pictures inside Mizzou Market without upper-level permission. This seems silly to me, since the Market is part of the university, which is public, but oh well.
The funny thing about shooting with flash is that, despite how frustrating it is to get the exposure and everything just right, I actually like messing around with the controls and not really knowing exactly how the image is going to look after I hit the shutter button. It makes it a little more satisfying when I do finally hit upon the right combination.
Here are my selects:
Direct
Jared Hammon (left) enjoys a late-night ice cream at Sparky’s in downtown Columbia with wife Jenny (right) and children Jordan and Abby (not pictured). The Hammons do not often eat at Sparky’s, except for Jared, who is “here a lot,” according to Abby.
This was picked almost entirely for the interaction element, and the fact that their hands are in near unison. Her face is just too blown out for me to really like the image (plus, it’s not perfectly focused). I tried some bounce for this, too, which had some sweet space-age effects when I bounced off the floor–it was like an alien light tunnel was opening underneath the family.
Bounce
Dryer’s Shoes employee Kristal Allen (left) models a pair of sandals as co-worker Victoria Paul (right) looks on. During lulls between customers, the two often test out the store’s merchandise.
If you look closely at the background, I actually got a little bit of fill in the window (unintentionally, but I’ll take it. Yay!). I tried bouncing the flash off of all kinds of things in the store (I wish one of the shots bounced off a white patent leather shoe had turned out; that would have been neat)…this was just basic off-the-ceiling. I’m kind of bothered by the less-than-clean background in the shoe store, but a more shallow DOF would have blurred out Victoria, and then the interaction would have been gone. Le sigh.
So, that was my first attempt with flash…I give it a “Meh.” On to the wonderful world of tungsten and f-light!