Watching Sleeping Kitties (Earnestly) Sleep

As I've mentioned in the past few postings, one of the fun things about updating a book and needing lots of photos is that it makes you delve deeper into your files--something that everyone should do now and then. While going through a folder of gardening photos from last June the other night,  I found a series of pictures of one of my cats sleeping. I love the very tight framing and the photo isn't cropped, either--I shot her with a 200mm lens from a few feet away (actually, a 70-300mm Nikkor set at 200mm). I'll probably use the photo in the book. I love watching the cats sleep--they sleep so earnestly, so intently. I can tell from the green carpeting that I shot this frame on my back porch, but I used built-in flash to avoid camera shake. Flash fires for such a brief duration (especially with close subjects) that camera shake is completely avoided. Go through those old files, lots of fun stuff in there!

Informal Group Portraits: Get Them to Smile!

Not everyone likes to get their picture taken (me emphatically included), but the trick to shooting happy portraits is to make your subjects look like they're having a grand time. And the secret to that is getting them to smile--and not just a 99-cent fake smile for the camera, but a genuine happy smile. The best way I've found for doing that is to have someone else doing the dirty work for you--preferably someone that your subjects like and have fun being around. In this case is was the father/grandfather who was kidding with the three women just a few feet off camera. By having someone else interacting with them, as opposed to you saying, "OK, smile" it gives you a chance to watch for nice moments and keep your face pressed up against the viewfinder (or looking at the LCD) and paying attention to camera controls. Also, it helps if you're shooting from a slight side angle because then your subjects are interacting naturally with someone off camera and looking directly at them rather than into the lens. By the way, all outdoor portraits work best when they're shot in open shade with just a touch of flash to open up the face. If you set the white balance to "cloudy weather" it will warm the flash up nicely too.

Get the Maximum Blast from Built-in Flash

As much as I prefer not to use flash in any situation where I can possibly avoid it, there are certain times when it's the only option. This past weekend, for example, I was at an agricultural fair and while it was bright and sunny outdoors the minute you stepped into any of the animal-display barns it was like entering a cave--no light at all. The only solution was to pop on the built-in flash and try to find shots where the flash wouldn't be terribly intrusive or obvious.

There are numerous problems with built-in flash, the most obvious being that the flash is harsh, very directional and rarely flattering. Also, the power of the flash is modest at best and so you are limited in how large a subject you can light and how far you can be from that subject. But in watching several other people (most with point-and-shoots) shooting flash photos in the same barns I noticed several simple things people could have done to improve their flash photos. So here are some quick tips for improving your built-in flash photos:

• Stay within the flash distance range. Most built-in units have a range of roughly 3-12' (your manual will provide the exact range). If you work closer than that (unless you're specifically working in a close-up mode that allows a reduced distance range) you will blast your subject with too much light and overexpose it. Conversely if you're too far away you won't have enough light on your main subject and your photos will be dark.
• Use flash compensation if your subject is very light. Many DSLRS (like my Nikon D90) and zoom cameras have a flash exposure-compensation setting that lets you add or subtract light from the flash exposure (without affecting the main exposure of the camera). If you photograph a very light subject in the foreground (like the sheep shown here) without compensation, the flash will "read" the light reflecting back from the white subject and shut down the flash prematurely (thinking there's plenty of light in the entire scene) so that the overall scene is too dark. In this case I only used +2/3 stop of compensation because I really didn't care if the background went dark (in fact, I wanted it to be darker so the sheep would stand out) but I added that extra two-thirds stop because I thought it would lighten the sheep's wool coat a bit. Read your manual for more about flash compensation.
• Consider buying a Soft Screen diffuser from Lumiquest. Lumiquest makes a great little gadget (under $15) that mounts quickly to your built-in flash and softens the light nicely without absorbing much light. You can watch a video about the product on the Lumiquest site.
• Keep your batteries fresh. Flash is one of the biggest drains on your camera's batteries and so it's important if you're going to be using flash to keep your camera batteries freshly charged. Weakened batteries will delay flash recharging times significantly and will also reduce the maximum flash-to-subject range.
• Allow your camera time to recharge the flash. You can't shoot flash photos as rapidly as you can shoot outdoors in sunlight because the batteries need time to charge the flash unit. Give the camera an extra few seconds between flash exposures and you'll be sure you're getting a maximum blast with each exposure.
• Don't put your fingers in front of the flash. I see this all the time--people putting their fingers or their camera straps in front of the flash unit and blocking the light (or creating unwanted shadows on the subjects). Find a comfortable grip that avoids blocking the flash unit.
• Take chances and hope for the best. There have been a lot of times when I didn't think the built-in flash was worth turning on but I shot the photos anyway. I'm sometimes amazed by the difference just a tiny bit of flash can make--often providing me enough light so that I can save the shot completely in editing. What the heck, if you're deciding between not shooting or taking a chance on the flash, take the chance, you might get a happy surprise.
• Consider buying an accessory flash. If you've been frustrated by the limits of your built-in flash, perhaps it's time to consider buying an accessory flash unit (or dropping lots of hints around birthday time) if your camera has a hot shoe that accepts an accessory unit. A good accessory flash can provide you with a flash range several times longer than a built-in flash unit and offer tons of other flash options like bounce-flash for softer light, etc.

Built-in flash isn't the greatest lighting option in the world, but it sure beats not taking pictures--and it's a whole lot better than carrying flash bulbs in your pocket the way I did when I was starting out!

Metadata: Shot with a Nikon D90 camera with a Nikkor 18-70mm lens; exposure was 1/60 second at f/3.5 with +2/3 stop flash compensation. Shot in RAW format.

Compensate Flash in Bright Surroundings

OK, first I have to tell you how this photo came to be. My cat is always finding new and interesting places to sleep and it takes me a while to discover them. But recently she would disappear inside the house for a few hours and then come back with her butt and tail all wet. Then, by chance, I found out where she'd been hanging out: she had started sleeping in the bathroom sink, which had a slow drip, which explained the wetness. Turns out she likes the hot water dripping on her!

I was originally going to call this posting "Keep Your Sinks Clean" because after I had shot a few frames of her (she's a very cooperative cat when it comes to photography) I noticed that the sink needed cleaning! So I had to use Photoshop to "clone away" a few dirt spots. But she still sleeps there and I want more photos of her in the sink, so now I keep the sink spotless.

But let's return to photography tips! Because the bathroom is white and there is a big mirror behind the cat, the on-camera flash was getting fooled into underexposing the shots. The camera saw all of that bright light bouncing back and thought (rightfully so) that there was more light than there really was (especially on the cat) and so it as shutting off the flash before it had enough light. The way that TTL (though-the-lens) flash works is that when you take a flash picture, the camera measures the amount of flash actually passing through the lens and hitting the sensor. If the subject is very bright, it shuts it off before the camera actually does have enough light. In this case it was causing the sink to come out gray, not white, and the cat was far too dark.

Remember, all cameras are programmed to produce subjects of a medium gray. So even if you're photographing a white sink, the camera wants to make it gray. Normally, with average-colored subjects, the camera creates a good exposure. But with subjects like a bright beach or white snow--or a white sink--the camera gets fooled.

The solution? If you're using a flash around a very bright background, use your exposure-compensation feature to add an extra stop or stop-and-a-half (experiment to see which works better) of light. I added 1.3 stops of compensation to this shot and it kept the sink white and the cat was almost perfectly exposed. I did have to lighten the cat a bit during editing, but no where near as much as I would have without the compensation.

So, today's lesson: use exposure compensation with flash in bright surroundings--and keep the sink clean!

Watch the Quick Bounce Video

As long as we're on the subject of flash photography, my friend Quest Couch who owns a company called Lumiquest has come up with a really interesting flash-softening accessory called the Quick Bounce that will be of interest to anyone who shoots portraits with an accessory flash, but especially to those who shoot events or weddings. I'm trying very hard to keep this blog how-to oriented and not product oriented, but this product seems like such a useful idea I thought I would include it. Not to mention that there is a good video to watch!

Lumiquest really transformed the quality of on-camera flash years ago when they introduced a handy little diffuser called the Pocket Bouncer. That device (still a big seller) attaches to your accessory flash and provides a bounce surface that lets you soften the light falling on your subject. Most professionals prefer to bounce off of a white ceiling since the larger the bounce surface the softer the light, but there's rarely a nice low white celing around when you need one. The Pocket Bouncer works great and I wouldn't think of not carrying one, but if you're a wedding or event shooter and you're in one room that does have a ceiling you have to pull the diffuser off, then re-mount it if you go into a darker room without a good reflective ceiling. No big deal, but one more thing to do.

This new invention, the Quick Bounce, from Lumiquest solves that problem because it has little barn doors in the top of the reflector so that if you don't have a good ceiling, you just leave the doors closed and have all the light you need and a nice soft flash. But if you enter a room with a celing, you just pop the doors open and you can bounce about 80% of the light off the ceiling and use about 20% of the surface of the reflector to bounce the rest. It's really a pretty cool invention. Also, the unit mounts to your accessory flash along the narrow axis (you'll see this in the vide0) so that you can switch from a horizontal camera position to a vertical one without having to change the position of the Quick Bounce. Watch the video (just scroll down on that page), you'll see Quest demonstrate it.

By the way, if you don't own an accessory flash but use built-in flash, LumiQuest has another produce called the Soft Screen that mounts right over your built-in flash--kind of a cool and useful (and inexpensive--under $15) accessory.

Speaking of interesting products, I'm going to add a posting on the new Nikon Coolpix P90 camera in the next few days--it has an amazing 24X (equivalent of 26 to 624mm!) time zoom lens. It's not shipping yet, but I'm wondering if I can resist ordering one.

Avoid "Green Eye" in Pet Pictures

Everyone knows what "red eye" looks like in pictures of people--that weird red glow in the pupil that is caused by flash reflecting off of the retinal surface in the eye. Flash photos of pets can cause the same thing but I call it "green eye" because with most cats and dogs the result is either a green or blue-green pupil. It looks positively demonic!

You can use your red-eye reduction flash mode to get rid of the effect in both people and pets, but I hate that mode. To eliminate the red eye the flash fires a series of pre-flashes that cause the pupil to contract and thereby avoid reflections from the retina. The trouble is that people and pets can see the pre-flashing and it makes them aware that you're taking their picture--and usually ruins the moment.

With people it's easy enough to just keep the flash in its normal mode and then change your position slightly so that the flash is not firing directly into their eyes. If you shoot from slightly to the side, or above or below your subject, that slight shift in position pretty much solves red eye. With pets, if you start to move, what happens? They think it's time to play or get a cookie and they follow you. I've found with my cat that the better thing to do is to have the camera ready (I shot this photo in my office while sitting at my computer) and then just wait for her to look away naturally. Once her head is turned slightly there's no chance of red eye. If I had put on the red-eye mode or tried to move my position, she would not have that nice natural pose she has here.

So, with pets, just be sure they're not looking directly at you (especially at your eye level) and wait for a natural moment. As long as their head is turned you won't get "green eye."

Use Fill Flash for Outdoor Portraits

Though most of us tend to think of flash as something to be used indoors in dim lighting, in fact, one of the best times to use flash is when you're taking informal portraits outdoors. Outdoor portraits are nice because there's a lot of available light and also, it's easier to find a simple and attractive background. The problem with shooting in portraits in sunlight is that the sunlight often creates a lot of dark shadows in eye sockets and under chins and noses.

The solution is very simple: just turn on the flash. Most digital cameras will automatically adjust the exposure between the flash and the existing light and create a very pleasing balance. This "fill flash" provides just enough flash to prevent dark shadows while still exposing for the ambient (daylight) correctly. And I have to tell you that automatic fill-flash is a genuine miracle of simplicity compared to the calculations and math that I had to perfom with the manual accessory flash units that I used when I was learning photography.

By comparison built-in flash is totally simple to use. I shot the portrait here using my Nikon D70s's built-in flash and didn't even look at the exposure settings! I trusted the camera to create a good balance between flash and daylight and it did. I also intentionally placed the light behind the two young woman so that they wouldn't be squinting into the light. I knew that because I was working within the distance limitations of the flash, the flash would provide enough light to correctly fill the shadows.

If you are using a DSLR with an accessory flash you'll have even more control over the balance between the flash and ambient exposures. Most flash units will let you set the exact flash-to-daylight ratio, increasing or decreasing flash power as needed. If the skin tones are coming out a tad too light at -1 stop flash exposure, for example, you could switch to -1.5 stops of flash exposure and just tone down the flash a bit. Your flash manual will explain the use of fill-flash in greater detail.

Next time you're taking portraits outdoors, turn the flash on and see if you don't like the exposures much more. Your subjects will be a lot happier without all of those dark shadows and because they'll no longer have to squint into the sunlight.

Avoid Flash Reflections

As much as I don't like using on-camera flash very often, there are times when you're in a relatively dark room and you have no choice. And for the most part built-in flash does a respectable job of lighting nearby scenes. It's especially useful when you're taking people shots indoors. One danger of using flash indoors though is that flash will bounce back from any reflective surface, such as mirrors, windows and even shiny painted surfaces.

Flash reflections are not only distracting (it looks like a car headlight outside the window in this shot) but they can fool your camera's meter into underexposing the main subject. (In fact, I had to lighten this shot in Photoshop just to get some detail back in the faces.) Because the reflective surface is a far more efficient reflector than your "average" subject, it reflects back much brighter. The meter sees that bright light and thinks the entire scene has enough light.

You can avoid flash reflections easily by just being careful about what's behind your subjects. If there's a window or a mirror, for example, just alter your shooting position a bit so that you're not firing the flash right into the surface. If you can't get rid of a window, try just closing the curtains or the blinds. If I had closed the blinds all the way for this shot I probably would have still had a bright highlight, but it would have been much more subdued. Another option, if you have an accessory flash unit that has a bounce feature, is to tilt the flash head up and bounce the flash off of the ceiling (provided you have a white ceiling at normal height). The ceiling will act as a big diffusion panel and not only prevent flash-back, but also soften the overall light.

Listen to the Light

Whenever the light gets low photographers reach for the flash. And in some low-light situations flash is your only option. But often turning on the flash is like using dynamite to clean out a gutter: it's a bit of an overreaction. Instead, sit quietly for a moment and "listen" to the light around you. Unless you're sitting in complete darkness, light is speaking to you, luring you to its presence--you simply have to be still and hear its call.

It's surprising, for example, how many wonderful photos you'll find just by listening to the quiet light pouring in your north windows; soft, curvaceous and very neutral, window light is the portrait light the masters' used. I found my cat sleeping in the dim but quiet light of a bay window and while I was tempted to pop on the flash, instead I let the gentleness of the north light speak and shot only with existing light. I rested the camera on the arm of a couch to steady it. Light will speak to you, it is there, just perk up your eyes and listen!