Flash Unit No. 1

Image Bank

Richard Avedon was born in New York City in 1923. In the early 1940s, he served in the U.S. Merchant Marines. In 1945, he became a staff photographer for the Harper's Bazaar - a job he kept up until the mid '60s. Apart from printing, Avedon has also written a couple of books about being a photographer.

I chose this photograph in particular because the lighting really caught my eye, and that is what we have been working on in class. I also think the pose is very interesting, as is the facial expression. Of all the photographs I have seen doing my image bank, I think this one is one of my favorites.

source Contact Sheet: A 5.6 F 4 T 4
Printing Compositions:

This test strip was exposed at aperature 5.6, filter 4, and 2 second intervals from 8-14. I took the lowest time and made an A4 print.

This was an A4 print, exposed at aperature 5.6, filter 4, and 8 seconds. It was a little dark, so I cut off a second for my first big print.

This is my first full sized print. It was exposed at aperature 5.6, filter 4, and 7 seconds. It is kind of dufficult to see on this scanned image, but there is little clear definition between the subject's coat and the bushes in the background. So, for my final print, I just subtracted some time.

This is the final print, with aperature 5.6, filter 4, and exposed for 5.5 seconds.

Diary Entry

I had to reshoot for this project because I didn't like the first set of pictures that I got. We shot in the studio, with the studio lights and flashes, but I felt like the lighting on my portrait could have been much better. I shot my second set of negatives outside on a grey and dreary day. I still used my flash, and I positioned it so that it would shoot off and reflect from the bushes in my front yard. I also crouched down and shot at an upwards angle, so I could enhance the shadows o the neck and the eyes. I liked these pictures much better than the first set. I did not have too much trouble in the darkroom. The only problem was that I struggled to properly define the line between the black coat and the bushes that formed the background. That was easily solved by subtracting a few seconds from the exposure time.

Theory Notes

Fill-in-Flash: Used to show the details (i.e. eyes and facial expression) that would normally be lost to shadows and the contrast between light and dark. The fill-in-flash helps the user to find the middle ground of lighting. A general guideline for using the fill-in-flash technique is to reduce your flash exposure by 2/3 of a stop. Another helpful tip would be to put a "warming" gel on the flash to lighten or "warm" the scene. If you look at the image below, you can see the exact effect of the fill in flash. The picture on the left uses no flash, and the woman's face falls completely in teh shadow of her hat. The image on the right, uses a fill in flash, and the details of the face are more easily seen.source
Built-in Flash: These types of flashes are already somehow attached to your camera. Some built in flashes are completely inside the camera, whole other may pop up. Even though, they are built in, there is usually a way to change the settings of the flash, especially in modern digital cameras. The top image is a camera with a pop up flash resting just above the top of the camera. On the bottom, the flash is located to the left of the lens, and is completely built in.

Flash Guide Numbers: The numbers indicate how much light will be emitted in relation to a specific filmspeed. The higher the number, the more powerful the light is. You can also use the numbers to determine the proper aperature by dividing the guide number by the distance from you to the subject. This is an image of a flash with digital guide numbers, but on some flashes instead of the digital screen, there might be a chart to read the numbers instead.source