PHOTOGRAPHY -15

 PHOTOGRAPHY -15

LIGHTING BY ‘FLASH’

Mere triggring of camera shutter can release light from flash provided the camera is set to work on ;flash mode’. In all basic equipment nothing better or bigger can be hoped for.But, the matter deserves detailed understanding if one wishes to work for a firm as a photographer. To be of reasonable profit the % success eliminates loss or low returns. Besides every improper shot implies loss of an occasion or something candid –never to return again.This understanding must pervade a photographer’s being to be absolutely alert ready to plunge the trigger all set to happen at the most opportune moment. Those who lep groping/ tuning back and forth unable to pitch on the right focus, would just be hob-nobbing and make shots too often re-enacted while the real ones have slipped by due to inept functioning bereft of anticipation. My question to those workers is simple and straight , standing at the arena for over 8 hours what were you doing without even keeping the ‘action zone’ in optimum focus needing just a touch to get the precise focus?  Such stupids stand the ignominy of ridicule from all quarter shamelessly parading as photographers though in reality they are Topographers surveying the area for young objects . Excellent photographers are those who work in grand silence and unobtrusive effort  in capture of candid moments, throwing up delight in all frames delivered as ‘album’.

Leaving aside the unproductive workers, it is important to understand a reliable method in assessing the output from a flash gun.  Always 3 parameters determine the ‘uniform success’ in most attempts using flash gun.                                                                                                                                                1 FLASH OUTPUT   2 FILM SPEED [SENSITIVITY AS KNOWN FROM ASA ] 3 THE SPACE BETWEEN THE LIGHT SOURCE AND THE OBJECT BEING ATTEMPTED FOR REGISTRATION IN A PICTURE       All three are important and inclusive. So, there ought to be a near thumbrule since all the governing factors are quantifiable.

OUTPUT FROM FLASH                                                                                                                                                   Refers to the intensity of light reaching the object [ determined by distance/ inverse square law]

As the subject –light gap widens , the light intensity decreases significantly and may ‘rob off details ‘ in a picture. So, a compensation in Aperture value –letting the light in , is a judicious option. Lowering the shutter speed does not help since the ‘stay of light’ is far lower than the fastest shutter speed –meaning that light would already have disappeared without synchronising the shutter-flash unison in operation.

2 Film speed  is the ‘responsive ability of a film or a recording devise’ expressed in numerical values as ASA / IS / DIN –the last of which is in Log scale and the preceding ones are Arithmetic. Being a numeric quantum –the efficiency iseasy to recognize simply as ‘the loer the number-the lesser the efficiency to respond in image capture [expressed as slow or fast films in traditional parlance]

3 Distance between subject –flash emitting source

With objects near by the light looks ‘rich or bright ‘ to light up all visible facets, while the same out put tends to decease in brightness by ‘fade off effect’.

These criteria remain firm and inflexible all the time –a boon to evolve a strategy of estimating the light output by a simple method called GUIDE NUMBER or GN generaaly furnished by flashlight manufacturers [in two places -1 by a movable or rotable dial on the flash gun] and 2[in the literature accompanying every product that is marketed]. We have scant value for printed pamphlets and they reach the dust bin faster tan any other domestic rubbish around.

The GN is a reliable index to follow for a year or more for a new flas gun, whereafter, thelight source may get  weaker ; well bfore that sets in ,  our familiarity would help us to make compensatory alterations in determining –the best possible choice of aperure . Altenatively, one can get to cultivate the habit of ‘bracketing’ as a work strategy for capturing moments that are not easy to recur.

More to follow.      Prof. K.Raman