IT 1210 Flash and Macro Photography

Flash PhotographyThink of your flash as a “portable sun”! With it you can take great images, or lousy images.In order to take great images there are two important points that you need to understand.1. The Inverse Square Law of light.2. The aperture – and only the aperture - controls the amount of electronic flash light allowed to expose the picture.

Flash

The Inverse Square LawAccording to the law, the power of the light will be inversely proportional to the square of the distance. So if we take a distance of 2 and square it, we get 4, the inverse of which would be 1/4 or rather, a quarter of the original power - not half.Moving our subject 3 meters from the light (3 * 3 = 9, so 1/9) the power of our light source now becomes 1/9th of what it originally was.

The Inverse Square Law

The Inverse Square Law in Action

Object one foot away from the flash.

Object two feet away from the flash.

Object three feet away from the flash.

The ApertureAll flash exposures are 100% dependent on the right aperture being selected, and the right flash to subject distance for that aperture setting.The shutter speed only controls the amount time that any ambient light is allowed to expose the same picture for which you using a flash.The “synch” speed is simply the fastest shutter speed you can use with your flash. The speed of the flash burst is approximately 1/1000 –1/40000 of a second!

The Aperture Controls All!

Flash 100%, 2 stopsUnderexposed, f 3.5

Flash 100%, 1 stopUnderexposed, f 3.5

Flash 100%, correctexposure, f 3.5

Fill FlashFill flash is a technique used to brighten deep shadow areas, typically outdoors on sunny days, though the technique is useful any time the background is significantly brighter than the subject of the photograph, particularly in backlit subjects. To use fill flash the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to correctly expose the background, and the flash is fired to lighten the foreground.Most point and shoot cameras include a fill flash mode that forces the flash to fire, even in bright light.Depending on the distance to the subject, using the full power of the flash may greatly overexpose the subject especially at close range

Fill Flash“Correct Exposure”

“Correct Exposure” with Fill Flash

Nikon D3200 Flash Modes• Fill Flash (Front Curtain

Sync) – the flash fires as soon as the front curtain opens, shutter then remains open during exposure duration.

• Rear-curtain sync – the front curtain opens completely and remains open during exposure, then the flash is fired and the curtain closes.

• Red-Eye Reduction – there is a one-second lag after pressing the shutter before picture is taken, during which the red-eye reduction lamp lights causing the pupils to contract.

• Slow sync – Used in Aperture and Program modes, will slow shutter speeds by as much as 30 seconds, allowing ambient light to fill image.

Nikon D3200 Flash Modes

Front curtain sync/Fill flash

Rear curtain sync

Nikon D3200 Flash Modes and Guide

Macro PhotographyWe could spend an entire semester on macro photography. So, just the bare minimum for now, at least!

Macro photography is extreme “close-up” photography, in which the subject in the resulting picture is greater than life size.Essentially in macro mode, or when using a macro lens the image is photographed at a 1:1 ratio. When the image is blown-up to picture size it appears to be magnified.Using macro photography may open up a new world of photographic ideas and techniques!

Macro Photography

Photomacrograph of a common yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) made using a lens at its maximum 1:1 reproduction ratio, and a 18×24mm image sensor, the on-screen display of the photograph results in a greater than life-size image.

Nikon D3200 Macro Mode

Macro Examples

Latte

Macro Examples

Food Coloring and a bowl of water

Macro Insects and Flowers

Macro Insects and Flowers

Macro Insects and Flowers

Macro Insects and Flowers

Macro Insects and Flowers

Macro Insects and Flowers

Macro Insects and Flowers