In this article Raymond K. Dauphinais discusses his personal test with a Nikon and a speedlight.

On camera flash photography has always challenged me. I learned photography, in West Germany during the early ‘70s, using natural light only, black and white film and developed my own prints. My first experience, in the early ‘80s, with a flash gun was a reunion of flight school classmates and our families. We paraded the kids through the living room, onesies, twosies, you know the drill, and I took whole family photos too. The garish, over exposed pictures with that damn hard edged shadow (like the top center picture) was embarrassing when the color prints arrived. Who needs a flash? Not a REAL photographer anyway; so, back to natural light for more than 2 decades.

Although I messed with studio lights for a while in the 90’s, I stayed away from on camera flashes. Now that I’m back doing studio work and portraits, lugging the Photogenics everywhere is a big pain. Most times outside the studio I just need fill light. The Nikon D-300 and SB-800s allow me to use CLS and Commander Mode (off camera) but even that can be troublesome and, in a crowded area, a SB-800 may turn up missing. So, my old nemesis, the on camera flash came back.

This was just a quick test to see and study the effect of: room light, pop-up flash, naked SB-800, Omni-Bounce OM-SB5, and RS-DF100 FlexiDome Flash Diffuser; direct and bounced flash with and without diffusers upon the human face. The one result of on-camera flash not depicted by the manikin head (my daughter ran screaming from the house when I, yet again, asked her to let me ‘take just a couple of test pictures’) in this test is the ‘red eye’ effect produced by flashing directly into the eyes before the retina can adjust. Ever see a photograph of the sweetest 2 year old girl in the world with eyes of the devil? Think back to paragraph one.

The equipment and settings I used are listed below only for those of you that care, any combination of camera and flash should give similar results.

• Nikon D-300
• Nikon SB-800
• Lens = AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8 IF-ED
• WB = Auto
• ISO = 100
• Aperture Priority = f 5.6
• Focal Length 60mm
• Picture Control file = D2XMode1 (for me, this test was for light and shadow, not color rendition)(See my Picture Control File test here)

My test examples are straight-on head shots to see the effect of the flash and the resulting light and shadow on both the face and the background. A simple test I thought I’d share which is educational (at least to me) and not intended to be instructive in nature.

The setup:

• Camera about 4 feet from head
• Head about 4 inches from background
• Both the D-300 and SB-800 set to TTL mode
• The shadow on the far right edge in the top row, second photo is from the lens hood.

I had hoped for an ‘Aha, that’s the way I should always do it’ picture; did not happen. I expected the images would be useful, but until I placed them side-by-side I did not have a good understanding of the differences. PunkToadHendrix, the first commenter of the test photo strip on my Flickr Stream, summed it up best “They each have their own personality”. If I learned anything from this quick, non-scientific, flash test, it’s that each style of flashed light, like people, have their own use and personality. Just as you try to pick the right employee for a job or contractor for work around your house; you must understand the requirements of the job and choose the correct one to meet both the requirement and purpose of the task at hand.

Another commenter left this; “I bounce without diffusion at weddings 90% of the time … except … I never bounce straight up … usually over the shoulder to create 3/4 light …”. He’s absolutely correct in pointing out that there is no one ‘correct’ on camera flash technique. Although I stated above that any camera and flash should give similar results, my equipment is not your equipment; you should do your own tests and experiments, get comfortable with how each change in flash position and/or diffuser used affects the personality of the photograph and your subject.

For more of Raymond K. Dauphinais see his website RDK Photography in Euless, TX

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