Week 3 - Flash

Meh.

The point of this blog is to shoot something every week and talk about it, in an effort to focus on and get better at my photography. Unfortunately, that means that not every week is going to be amazing. I almost didn't want to write something this week because I don't think the photos I did are very good, but I'm gonna power through.

I decided that it was time to get over my hatred of flash photography. I actually already owned a flash that would work with my camera if I got an eight-dollar coupler, so I ordered the part and decided to spend the week experimenting.

First of all, let's look at this thing. I tell people that the flash for my camera is comically gigantic and I don't think anyone fully believes me. Here it is, next to a gin bottle for scale (and also because I was drinking gin). It's probably 150% as tall as the camera. It is a hilarious monstrosity and I almost am ashamed to take it in public. And to cap it all off, it has not one but two flash heads on it.

To be fair, that second flash head is pretty cool. It's fairly weak and is just there to soften shadows on peoples' faces. But the whole package just screams LOOK AT ME I'M A FLASH in a glorious, angular, 1980s way. This camera and flash set are from the era of the boombox; small wasn't really "in."

So I mounted that thing up and took some pictures of Rachel. Here's the first shot I took:

As you can see, the exposure is fine but it's kind of boring. I angled the flash head and bounced the light off the ceiling to  keep it from being too harsh. Unfortunately, this is about as good as it was going to get.

We went out to eat and sat on the patio. There was obviously no ceiling from which to bounce anything, so the shots I took there were with the flash head dead-on. Sometimes it's almost passable:

A little harsh, but it'll do.

And other times it's not.

People do not actually glow.

We came back home and I bored her to death by making her sit for something like 20 shots in which I angled the flash head differently every time and took careful notes.

So what did I learn? I still hate flash photography. But I could stand to practice it more and hate it less. I can see that it could be useful in a studio setup, where the flash isn't on the camera itself but on a second tripod and at a different angle. That requires either a network of sync cables or very expensive modern wireless flash heads, neither of which I'm in the mood to acquire right now.

I may play with making a bounce card or a diffuser for the flash head, but I'm beginning to wonder if this is even worth my time. I'm not an event or wedding photographer, and I don't know if flash is something I need to learn. Part of me thinks that it's a waste of my time, but I suppose that if I become passable at using a flash and then intentionally never use it, I won't be worse for it.

Who knows, maybe it'll come in handy. I'm going to try to line up some natural-light portraiture this week, though.