Filters & Flash COM 241 Photography I

Color Filters Tungsten (indoor) light –Tungsten light gives image yellowish cast Blue filter (80A) Lose 2 f-stops

Fluorescent light –Gives image blue/green cast Use FL or 30M filter (magenta filter) Lose 1 f-stop

To set WB –Press WB button on camera back –Set white balance to AWB or desired setting by turning dial while looking at LCD panel

All purpose filters Neutral density –Absorbs light from all parts of light spectrum –Comes in various densities –Lose about 1 to 13 stops Skylight –Used to protect lens –No lose in f-stop –Also eliminates ultraviolet light

Polarizing –Reduces reflections –Also darkens blue sky –Lose about 1 stop

Critique of direct flash Throws unnatural black shadows behind subject –Lighting usually looks too harsh Sometimes there’s uneven lighting –Subjects in front look lighter, in back darker Sometimes get bad reflections –People wearing glasses

Problems with using direct flash: Bright spots, reflections Uneven lighting (light foreground, dark background)

Dark, sharp shadows

Bounce flash Advantages: –Diffused lighting –Even illumination Usually aim strobe at ceiling and bounce flash off the ceiling –Lighting that bounces covers a larger area when it reaches subject –Scene is more evenly lit, and diffused Strobe Subject Ceiling

To photograph this drug search, the photographer used the light from a small portable strobe bounced off the ceiling. Bounce strobe spreads an even, almost shadowless light throughout the room. Joanne Rathe Strohmeyer / Boston Globe

Can also bounce light off a wall –More directional effect Strobe Subjec t

A 45-degree bounce flash can look like natural light. Here one flash was bounced off the corner between the ceiling and wall.

With strobe bounced off a wall outside the picture area, the light appears to come from the candles. Mimicking available light with strobe increases the overall illumination without losing the natural feel. Ken Kobre / Boston Phoenix

When a bounce flash works best Small to medium size room –Auditoriums don’t work Need a light-toned surface –Dark walls absorb the light

Change the ISO Use for low light situations –Allows higher shutter speed or smaller aperture 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 –Each increment doubles camera’s sensitivity to light –100 > 400 Shutter speed 15 > 60 or f-stop from f-4 to f-8

On Cannon digital cameras to change ISO: –Push up arrow on back of camera –ISO is displayed on back LCD panel –Use dial to increase or decrease ISO

Advantages: shoot in low light situations w/o direct flash Disadvantages: print is grainier, less resolution as ISO increases