Blog Keywords

Popular Posts for the Month

  • Zuiko and the Swing
    Watching children play is a delight. Watching them having fun, pure fun, is God given delight. One day, I brought my daughter to the playgr...
  • E-P1: A Short Review
    It is not often you can get a sense of affection from an inanimate object. To get that affinity, the object must have a soul. That is exactl...
  • Zuiko and E-5: Day 1
    . As promised, I picked up the Olympus E-5 test unit from the Olympus Malaysia office at Mont Kiara during lunch. Weather-proofing legacy fr...
  • Zuiko and a Football Legend
    . This picture was taken quite a while back, around June. Santokh Singh aka Iron Man was one of Malaysian football stalwart in the late 70s ...
  • Zuiko and Students of Photography
    Wow... I just conducted a basic course in D-SLR photography. And I had 10 students attending it. It was a hands-on, in-the-field session, to...

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Zuiko and Outdoor Flash Photography

Blog Keywords: , , , , ,
Playing with wireless flash, the primary on the right and the fill on the left. I set the flash to Super FP mode allowing high shutter speed capabilities, so that I have full control of the aperture range from f/2.0 to f/16.0.

My intention was to get this darkened effect. What did I do?

E-3 with Zuiko Digital ED7-14mm F4.0 & FL-50R + FL-36R
7mm, f/4.0, 1/4000s, ISO100, -1EV

Camera setting:
  • Select aperture priority with remote commander activated
  • Lower the overall exposure by -1.0EV (dial the exposure compensation)
  • Lower the RC flash to -3.0EV; this is to reduce the fill-flash from the RC
  • Set RC panel at Channel 1 & High
  • Set RC panel for Channel 1 A at +3EV with FP TTL; this is the FL-50R on the right (Main)
  • Set RC panel for Channel 1 B at +3EV with FP TTL; this is the FL-36R on the left (Secondary)
Flash setting:
  • Set both flash 5 feet away from the subject with 45-degree azimuth angle
  • Set the flash height at the eye-level of the subject, and tilt down towards the guitar
  • Put a diffuser on the Main light (adjust the FL-50R to +1EV to compensate for the diffuser light loss)
  • Adjust accordingly to get the desired illumination
My test shot showed perfect exposure for the image, but that was not I was looking for. I was looking for a darkened effect. The easiest way was to meter the blu sky directly above.

So, I just looked up and lock the camera Auto Exposure using the Spot Meter (in which I programmed in the AEL/AFL button). With the exposure locked, the overall exposure was pushed -2EV (camera already -1EV, the blue sky forced another -1EV). Hence, the darkened effect.

Some say it was underexposed, and I agreed.

To get more detail, I lifted the shadow areas using the simple Contrast Mask procedure. Whilst the effect is still darkened, you can observe the more details coming out from the shadows without sacrifing the highlights at the background.

The GIMP v2.4 with Contrast Mask at 40%
&
High Pass Sharpening at 4.0 points

Either image, that was what I wanted - a darkened effect. And I like them both.


Click image for slideshow of the whole photoshoot.

Posted by Razi at 4:30 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)