Using Umbrellas with Flash

I've just started to experiment using an umbrella with strobes. I learned a lot; that is, I made lots of mistakes. Luckily, I had a patient model (myself). So I had to hang out throughout the experience.

Some Background

In the past I used the plastic dome that came with Nikon flashes, rather than other diffusers. The reason was simple:  I liked the diffusion, and could control the entire portrait shoot with modifiers or the built-in zoom of the flashes. Also, since I was using Nikon's CLS system, I could trigger my key Off Camera Flash (OCF)with the built-in flash of the Nikon D200. My main use of the CLS for portraits has been in Manual mode, for both key and fill lights. CLS has been used with only my SB800 to modify its flash exposure from the D200. When I use other flashes, including the SB80-DX, I use Manual flash settings all around. If I use, in addition, my Sunpak 422D I use a Wein manual flash trigger.

This shoot was only with one flash, the SB800, using CLS in manual Mode. My built-in flash was in "--" mode, which meant it added nothing to the exposure, but did trigger the SB800. The D200 was also in manual mode for aperture and speed. Note, this shoot was typical David Hobby "cross-lighting" setup.

Step 0:

Manual exposure made with Matrix metering, without flash. Note background is same exposure as portrait (of course it appears slightly darker, because of the color--and it was in shade.

Step 1:

Figure out manual exposure of background, which I wanted to be at -2 EV with Matrix metering. I was not concerned with depth of field, so the f-stop was f9.0. BTW, the background is ugly--dark and unfocused, because camera was on manual focus for my self-portrait. Nikon D200, if on auto focus, would focus on the background before I would have time to get into position for the picture to focus.

Step 2:

Figured out the manual flash power with SB800 and dome on the stand. I positioned the flash with broad lighting for my face to ameliorate the reflections from the flash in my glasses. Normally I would use short lighting. If my subject did not have glasses, the position of my main would be more flexible. Flash angle from the camera was about 40 degrees, and the flash was placed at about 6 feet high, with flash pointed at my head (to taper the light on the rest of my body--so that the focus of the picture would be on the face. 

First exposure guess was slightly underexposed. Note background is -2 EV, but there is slight spill in each of these Steps. I did make sure the background was about 8-10 feet from my portrait, so that it would not be affected much. The spill did not affect the background that much, due to square root law. Flash on portrait is good (near 
0 EV):

Step 3:

Set up the umbrella. Whoa, it wasn't quite as easy as pulling out an umbrella to shield me from the rain. The Wescott double-fold umbrella has a black cover on a white umbrella, to better direct the light, with no reflection of light to walls; this is especially useful indoors. The best exposure seemed to be +1 EV from the exposure of the non-umbrella'd SB800 w/dome.

But I was outdoors, and tried the SB800 w/ the dome, flash set at 28mm. This wasn't the widest, but I was experimenting. What I learned is that the flash from the umbrella, when setoff in real time, was not quite bright. Looking at the flashing light, I could not imagine the image would have been soft. But it was. Note, the exposure was about a stop more than with the dome, only, w/o the umbrella.

I also did a picture w/o the dome:

Hard to tell which I liked better.

Step 4:

I finally had to figure out how to take off the black cover on the umbrella so I could take shoot-through (the white) umbrella portraits. Here's where the setup/takedown instructions failed to mention the effort needed. I had to take off each of the 8 tips (on the black cover) from the spines of the white umbrella. PS: it's easier to do when the umbrella is semi-folded, not stretched out. At least these spines were attached (sorta permanently to the black cover, so they don't quickly fall out; with much use, they probably will be lost) I also had to unscrew the middle of the black cover from the umbrella. This screw was plastic, and not attached to the black cover. Wow, this will probably be lost after my first real shoot.

Figured out the exposure to be 0-1 stops less than with the black cover on. Remember, this is shoot-through the umbrella, not reflecting it off the umbrella. 

Note, the SB800 sits above the middle of the umbrella, and positioning it toward my head was challenging. I think it will be much easier when I'm not doing self-portraits.

Step 5:

Tried this w/ SB800 w/o dome, which I like better because it seems to focus the soft light (at 28mm). 

Finally, I shot w/dome and at 70mm, rather than 28mm. Of course it was less soft, so I just gotta play with flash focal length to see what I like about it. Wider focal is softer, longer focal is less soft (but still softer than the dome only, w/o umbrella.

Ending the shoot.

I had to retrace my steps with putting the umbrella and black cover back together again. When I do a real shoot, I will not put the black cover into each of the 8 spines, again. Anyways, they come out after I folded the umbrella back together again. Also, weights on the light stand will probably be necessary. A previous learning was that I had the SB800 pointed in the wrong way into the umbrella. I need to make sure in my "standard" mode, that the light end of the SB800 is facing into umbrella, with the back of the LCD facing the other way (so I can read it more naturally). The one exception is that if I need the SB800 sensor to be on the other side, then I would have to have the light and LCD both facing into the umbrella. This is one reason for my needing radio activated flashes. With radio-activated (rather than IR CLS-activated) flash, I can always use the SB800 in "standard" mode. The radio-activated flash can work anywhere, even behind corners.

Main Learnings:

• When I shoot and chimp with flash in manual, I seem to underexpose--and not realize it. This means I should always make another exposure that the +1-2 stops more than the first "good" exposure--and then to compare.
• Umbrella is nice, but I must be very near subject, like 2-4 feet near. I think I really like the SB800 w/o dome better. 28-35 focal length is good. 
• If I've got the exposure nailed down w/o umbrella (and SB800 w/dome), then if I switch to umbrella it is best w/o dome, and about +1 EV more exposure! But this doesn't account for the fact I would have to move the lightstand nearer to the subject--at least 1-stop nearer!
  

Next Steps:

I am still not sure about focal length. I need to experiment w/ a new set of batteries, and these started to fail (take longer than usual) about the time I was doing the shoot-through, especially when changing the focal length.

Next I need to figure out how to use the fill light, as the shadow side of my face is too dark. This would require a reflector (best bet), but I would need another lightstand. Or another flash, also requiring another lightstand, and working w/o CLS but manual flash all-around, including the built-in.

BTW, the final learning from this project is that I planned to have the sun as my 2nd flash. By using manual, I was able to have the sun backlight my outline, to separate myself from the background. It was nice being able to use something natural for a change.

Manual Mode with Different Flashes

I've been experimenting with Manual mode on my SB-800 & SB80-DX and Sunpak 422D with Nikon's CLS (for the 1st two flashes), and with optical Wein slaves for the third.

These two pictures confront different scenarios that I shoot a lot.

The first pictures is one taken in shade. I made sure my manual setting was -1 for the background, and then I placed the SB-800 on camera right. This meant I had to switch the SB-800 so that the sensor was on flash left. This placement allowed my on-camera flash to pop the SB-800. With a difuser on the SB-800, I dialed the CLS Manual so that the on-camera flash was at "--" (no flash, but controlling the Sb-800), and the main SB-800 on Manual about 1/8th power. The difficult aspect was to make sure I didn't have flash in my glasses (I had to switch viewpoint 180 degrees), and that my shirt was not over-exposed. The later was done in Lightroom with the recovery feature. I liked this picture because it looked natural, with hardly any flash.

The second picture features David Hobby's cross-lighting. The setting sun was coming off my right shoulder. Manual exposure for the background at EV -1.7. I placed the diffused SB-800 on camera right, again switching the SB-800 so that the sensor was on flash left, about 50 degrees and well-above my head.  At ASA 400 that meant the flash was set at 1/8 or 1/16th. I tried flash from the on-camera flash to moderate the shadow on my right side of the face, but that lit up my glasses frog-eyed. As it was, I had reflections in my glasses. As a self-portrait that could not be helped, with out more exposures. But alas, the sun set too quickly (or maybe I was too slow!) A better solution would have been to use a reflector, but I had no one to hold it. I really wanted the waning sun's rays to backlight my back, to separate myself from the background--that's why no 2nd flash. You can see the effect of the sun's rays on the car's rear view mirror next to my right elbow. Next time it will be with 2nd or 3rd flash.

Strobist Exercise 102-3-2 Cross-Lighting Flash in Sunlight

This exercise is to figure out how to cross-light flash with sunlight, using one main flash. I finally got off my duff to continue the Strobist 102 exercises, so I took about 20 minutes to do self-portraits (oh yeah, I'm always available...)

The first picture is the D200 on Manual, exposure figured out at ASA 100 F9.0 & 1/250. Internal flash on Manual at 1/128 power. SB-800 to camera left on SU-4 mode at 70mm & 1/4 (minus 2/3 stop) power (camera lens was 17-55mm f2.8 Nikkor set @ 50mm (75mm by 35 mm stds). Of course the background is nice, and I'm in the dark.

I don't show the next picture, because it is of me in the dark again, because my SB-800 flash could not fire on camera left, because there was a lemon tree blocking the signal from the manual flash. So it looked the same as above. Yes, this was all it took for me to desire a wanna-be Pocket Wizard from Hong Kong. I knew outdoors would be hard w/ the Nikon CLS system, and this exercise shows why. I have Wein triggers from long ago, but they might not have worked in this case.

After moving the flash so that the lemon tree didn't block the signal, the next picture is nicely done. The pose is not great, but I was more concerned about the flash on the face, not considering the shadow made by my nose.


I figured I would change the speed, so I went to 1/60 with the same setting, but the ambient light overpowered both the background and my face. Yuk, I'll have to do a sunset show for 102.3.1 to do the bit about lengthening the speed to make the background lighter.


I now wanted to try the flash with Commander mode, making my internal at 3 stops under and my external at +0.7 over. Camera still on Manual at f9.0 and 1/250. I had to play a bit to get the exposure right, but as you can see, it can work. However, the shadow side of my face is much lighter, more like 1:2.5/1:3.0 lighting ratio, if you're into that. Maybe it's luck, but strangely, I felt more comfortable with full Manual cross lighting, as I was in more control of the variables lighting myself and the background.


On the other hand, when I changed to Aperture priority (speed automatically set to 1/60) and the Commander mode above, even with the sun hiding behind the clouds, the shot is Nikon CLS-balanced, with no lighting features as in the previous shots above. I wanted to have some modeling of the face, so I was disappointed with this rather bland shot. It was okay, but the main flash (SB-800) turned off much too soon, as the shutter speed was 1/60th at f9.0. Control is better, even if it takes longer.

Photographing Ceramics

What prompted the images here was both my need to photograph my Aunt Shelle Avecilla's unique ceramics, and well as David Hobby's referral to the new Lumiquest lightbox. More importantly he designed a "flap" that I would find useful in creating a gradient background for the scoop I was using.

BTW, this exercise was not part of Strobist 102.

My take away from this self-imposed exercise was 1) I need to plan all my equipment, 2) experiment, even though I think I have finished the assignment.

I kept on going back to my equipment/materials for more and more stuff. Being lazy, each time I figured I wouldn't need it. Then I just "had" to have it.

Equipment for a studio shot for small objects that I needed is below. Items 1-9 I had ready. Items 10-18 I had to scrounge around the house.

1. 2x3' table
   
2. 2x4 plastic sheet for scoop
3. lighting tripod
4. SB-800 on remote
5. SB-80DX on remote
6. flash stand
7. D200 built-in flash on Manual, with IR blocker ( xxxx )
8. ball-bungee cords for holding flashes
9. modeling clay to hold ceramics in place
10. Velcro strips for holding flags in place
11. extra batteries for flashes
12. various items to prop up ceramics
13. light stand to act as Over-head boom
14. gaffer tape
15. flags for flash
16. Lumiquest I softbox (no, I didn't buy III)
17. snoot (home-made fr plastic)
18. Car Window Sunshade (used as flag for overhead)

The first mistake I made was to use the bare flash with flags. The gradation on my scoop from this setting was crude. It looked like I had two separate gradations, no matter what I did. So for almost 2/3's of the time I just stuck with that setup, below. Note, I didn't really use the flash to the lower right, even though it's in the picture.


Here's the result, with pixelated background.

Just before I photographed my last object, a soy sauce container, I figured "Why didn't I experiment with something different for a softer light? Like a Lumiquest?" Duh....

It didn't take long to setup, I just had to overcome my resistance to take apart my main flash (overhead) and put on the Lumiquest. Really, it took about 80 seconds. Why was I so hard-headed? My first shot, without a flag on the Lumiquest produced silky soft shadows, just what I wanted for the objects:

Then I remembered David's contraption for a barndoor, right on the Lumiquest. I just put what I had on.

Adjusting the shadow gradation was a snap, an you see above.

Next time I'll use a wider barndoor, the width of the widest object. Most objects didn't need the wide barndoor; they were small enough that the light fall of on the sides were not noticeable in the pictures above. However, a wide plate did. So I will make up a wider barndoor with velcro, and a dose of gaffer tape, when needed.

NEXT POST: Flash Cross-lighting with Sunlight

Cooking Light - Strobist Lighting 102 Assignment

The assignment was to photograph kitchen utensil(s), an ordinary object, elevated to a form of "high art." Here's my entry:

Now, how did it all start? Using an opaque sheet, I tried to find the reflective angle. That was the hardest part of the assignment. The camera was set at one angle, and just opposite (at the reflective angle) was the SB-80DX flash, with Kleenex. I tried to use an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper, but had to gravitate to a 8 1/2 x 14 so that the entire set of knives were lit as shiny & sharp. Here is my poor effort:

Followed by an almost good effort. Note the background (the white platform on which the knives laid, looks gray).

To get the background white, I turned off the SB-80DX flash and put on the D200's built in flash at manual 1/8 power. That whitened up the background:

Now I turned on the SB-80DX (slightly more exposure than 1/8 power, after adjusting it for whiter sheen) , and the shot you see at the beginning was the result.

Time for experiment: 52 minutes, mostly spent on getting the angle of reflection and finding the right sized opaque sheet size.

Strobist Exercise 102-1-3 (Reflections off Glass)

There are 2 exercises here.

I will first light glass with Bright Field Lighting (Hunter/Fuqua in Light Science & Magic). I cut out a hole in a cardboard box, slightly smaller than an 8 1/2" x 11 piece of paper. That was going to be my opaque background. I would light the background w/ Nikon SB-80DX on remote, 1/16th power. I was supposed to frame the opening exactly, not less, not more. Easier said than done. First try was first mistake. I had the paper on the wrong side of the box, so the edge of the box was "blurry."

I changed it to the back, just 1/8" difference, but you need that for the edges of the glass to look black. Now I have everything okay, with the very white background (abt 1-2 stops greater than middle gray). I also found out my paper was pretty poor, as when I made it near middle gray, it showed lots of molting. Next time I should use a scoop with plastic.

My 1st image w/glass shows that I need more care in positioning the camera angle to exactly frame the opening (my opaque background). Note, the cardboard is actually brown, but the exposure makes it appear black. Nice black lines around the glass. I was amazing the technique actually works! Although the bottom third of the image is gray due to exposure, I did put supplemental lighting (not shown) that lights up that bottom to better match the top 2/3s of the image.








Just to make sure 2 glass can both have definition of black lines, here's the proof. The back glass is not in focus, but that was not the point; just wanted to make sure the black lines defining the glass was there. Notice the reduce exposure in back, showing the molting of the cheap COSTCO paper I bought:

However, I spent too long trying to figure out now to get a reflection on Light-Field Lighting. Of course I couldn't--the reflections couldn't be light on light. Next time try a dark object; would that work?

Now on the the 2nd half, Dark Field Lighting. I pulled out a very large sheet of translucent plexiglass, and taped a large cardboard rectangle to block the light. No change in exposure that recorded my first image of dark field lighting:

Why were reflections there? My D200 built-in flash was on 1/128 power, which was not enough to record with Light Field Lighting, but with black field lighting it reflect that small bit of flash. So I put on my Nikon infared light blocker, the SG-3R. I paid $12 for it, so why not use it? Worked like a charm, especially after moving up the black card to include most of the glass. There are other slight reflections from not having the room entire dark, but I was satisfied with this final picture, w/o reflections. I now know it is glass....

Now for the final act--to show reflection in the glass. Getting these angles of reflection was absolutely impossible. I just estimated it, and here are the 2 images I came up with, far & mid. The near didn't make anything but a glob of reflections.


Next time to work on:

1. Make better props, translucent panels and black cardboard. Use a scoop, for heavens sake.
2. Create a seamless bottom, all black. Do I need to use a glass table?
3. Better position the camera to get really black lines on glass for Bright-Field lighting.
4. Figure out whether a dark object on Bright-Field lighting will show up as a reflection. It should, so I should also try some sort of color diffusions sheet positions.
   
5. Figure out a way to measure possible diffusion sheet positions for lighting Black-field lighting reflections.

Next Post: Cooking Light

Strobist Exercise 102-1-2 (Outside Flower)

After taking pictures of the grapefruit and the near-far pictures using the "depth of light," I decided to experiment with light modifier outside. All pictures were taken w/ Nikon D200 on Manual ASA=200, built-in flash to trigger Nikon SB-800 on SU-4 Remote. Built in Flash was at 1/128 power, not affecting exposure. No post-processing, jpegs straight from the camera.

First exposure without Flash, Aperture Priority f4.0 (I got a bit "arty" in this image, as I wanted the background t/b blurred. The exposure w/ f7.1, which I'll be using as a base, looks exactly like this one, except for DOF:

With Flash at 30-40 degrees to camera right, the next is D200 on Manual at f7.1 and 1/250. The flash was set about 1/32 power--my best guess after 1 chimp picture:


It's about the same, except--the the background rocks--are slightly darker. The results are better. The main daff and leaves were better exposed, with a better gradation in the background. That is, IMO the background was lit better. I didn't change the background exposure of 1/250, because I didn't want the background to be lighter. In example case, off-camera flash was not tremendously better, because I had an optimal day for flowers--light-cloudy skies.

Here's the picture I liked:

Here's another shot, with flash nearby, shot through a white screen (Impact modifier). Seems to have better sparkle of specular highlight in H2o:

Note, I didn't try other modifiers like the Nikon built-in plastic lens or the add-on translucent or the Lumiquest, because the soft light through the clouds provided a good picture to begin with. I would not have gained anything, if at all, with modifiers. I even tried the Impact White Screen, but it didn't do much, except darkening the flower--leaving the background light; in this case it didn't look natural at all.

On to another subject, some leaves that had fallen on our apple tree in back of the house. Here's the image in Aperture priority mode, f5.0 at -2/3 EV. The leaves are nicely lit, but the background is too bright for what I wanted:


So I put on a flash, with the small Nikon diffusion add-on. It added some separation between the leaves and background. The flash & camera were on Manual. My guess on exposure is coming closer, only 1 chimp shot needed to figure out the camera had to be on f7.1, and the flash was about 1/32 power--I'm not keeping notes, because the chimp is very close-on the correct exposure I wanted:
While some may feel the background is too dark, that's what I wanted. At least now I have some control of what the background should be--that was my goal of this Strobist exercise. The best exposure was when I put flash on the right, aimed upward, and used the Impact light white modifier circle as a bounce to the leaves. Great shadowless shot, but unfortunately one of the branches on the left got the shadow on the leave. I even tried to modify the modifier by folding it over. Oh well, the next time I will more carefully aim the modifier, and I really must get another light stand to hold the modifier!




Next Post: Reflections on Glass

Strobist Exercise 102-2-1 (Single Fruit- Flash Diffusers)

Varying only light/modifiers. Angle of light/camera position the same. Nikon SB-800 Flash on manual, starting with best guess exposure (differed from Minolta IV-F by half stop, with Minolta tending to underexpose by 1/2 stop). Flash angle at 50mm, Camera at ~50mm (35mm equivalent).






Light Modifer of SB-800 built-in Plastic diffuser, which set flash angle to 17 mm. Needs 1 2/3 more exposure. Note slight softening of shadows.








Light Modifer of SB-800 add-on Plastic diffuser, flash angle 50 mm. Again needs 1 2/3 more exposure. (May need more, if angles are much less than 50mm.) Note more softening of shadows.








Lumiquest Modifer, flash angle 50 mm. Again needs 1 2/3 more exposure. (May need more, if angles are much less than 50mm.) Note even more softening of shadows, as lumiquest modifier is larger light source than those above.






Completely opaque white add-on modifier, flash angle 50 mm. Needs 3-4 stops of more exposure. Note even more softening of shadows, as diffusion is greater, due to opaqueness of modifier.

Next Post: Outside Flash for Flowers, using Various Modifiers

Strobist Exercise 102-1-2b (Self Portrait, Modifiers)

As you know, I'm following Strobist exercises. I'm now on 102-2-1, and am trying to "guess" off-camera flash exposures, w/o using my Minolta IV-F flashmeter. If I can "guess" by chimping, that would eliminate 1 more piece of equipment. BTW, the Minolta is quite accurate, and for serious portraits/family gatherings, I would use the Minolta if I had any doubts. Maybe with practice I will reduce those doubts.

So my first picture is my first guess. D200 set at ASA=400, WB=Auto, Mode=Manual f5.6 & 1/250 (the fastest synch speed on the D200. Off-camera Nikon flash SB-800 set at 1/8 power. On camera flash of the D200 was set at 1/128 power, mainly to trigger the SB-800. The on-camera flash did not really have any effect on the image. All images pure jpeg, no post-processing.

Well, my self-portrait was too bright, but only by about 1 stop, so I set the flash to 1/16 power. Actually I did an intermediate step by taking a shot (not shown) at f8.0, and judge the exposure of my face to be fine. So then I reset the aperture to f5.6 (to maintain that depth of field), and then set the flash to 1/16 power. Just an easy way for me to do this, as the flash was on a stand, set at 5 1/2 feet. If I changed the flash, I would have to lower the stand, etc. etc
.
I wanted to lower the speed, but as you can see from the background, the flash overpowered everything. I tried some images, but there was hardly a change--no surprise here. So I fashioned a plastic snoot with velcro. I took this picture w/o changing exposure, and guess what, the face came out just as theory said it would--perfectly. Of course the background was dark:


So now I could play with the speed. I put the speed down to 1/50, and the background became somewhat lighter.


For more control, I place the lightstand nearer. I guessed the effect was 1 stop, so this time I reduced the aperture to f8.0 from f5.6. Worked like a charm. Of course the background was wayyyy dark:

So I next decreased the speed to 1/50, to get the effect I wanted. Well, not exactly, but I could see the improving effect:



How accurate was my f8.0 when I moved the snoot nearer? I measured w/ the Minolta, and found I was at f8.8, or about 3/4 a stop off. But you know what? I like my "GUESS" portrait better than the measured one! Compare the measured one is below with my guess above. View only the head/shoulders portion, where the meter measures the flash. Don't judge the background.


Next Post: Single Fruit