Mayan near Tulum


     This gentleman is a Mayan near Tulum in Mexico.  Him and a partner were dancing and putting a show on for us touristy sorts.  I shot the photo with a f90x camera on Fuji Velvia 100 ASA film and scanned it using a slide scanner.  I thought about putting the whole image on, but I kind of liked the framing with the rule of thirds—body line in a third, arm swinging down a third, and the head dress on a third.
     I just love shooting with fill flash.  For those of you who don’t know what fill flash is, quite simply put fill flash is a simple way of adding light to a picture which doesn’t need the extra light but will benefit by having it.
     Basically what you do is set your camera (film or digital) up so that you have a nice low aperture and a shutter speed to allow the right amount of light in to give the picture a normal exposure.  Then, you turn your flash on.
     When the flash fires, it adds just a hint of extra light to the picture.  This does a pile of things.  First of all, it fills any shadows from the sun.  That way there are no really dark spots on the image.  Second of all it separates the image from the background just a hair – it makes the subject a little more three dimensional.  Lastly it adds contrast and saturation to the subject—the extra light makes the colours jump and snap a bit more.  Overall you get a pleasing shot.
     If you aren’t sure what to do, try this.  Take one shot the way you normally would, then take another shot with the flash turned on.  If you have a digital camera, check out the difference.  If you have a film camera, well, you know the procedure.
     A couple of quick hints for those who really want to learn to do fill flash:
·          If you have a film camera, set to shutter priority and set shutter speed as high as possible with the flash turned on.  Take fill in flash shots at this setting.
·          If you have a digital compact camera (non SLR) choose aperture priority and set aperture to lowest possible value.  Shooting in wide angle better than telephoto because you will get better flash distance.  If flash does not go far enough, increase the ISO to 200
·          For digital SLR, do as above for film camera, play with ISO if necessary.  The Nikon D70 and (s) model is great for fill shots because of high flash synch speed (1/500).  Use external flash for best results.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Garter Snake

Image
     Hi there, I’m Eric, and this blog thing is new to me but I thought that I would try to do a once or twice a week posting of a blog and see what kind of response I get.  If you read this, please be kind enough to email me at eric@ericspix.com to let me know that this actually fell on somebody’s eyes.  Thanks.      This is a Northwestern Garter Snake which I found resting in a wild rose bush not too far away from my home.  It was enjoying the sunshine and sitting about 3 feet off the ground at the time.  If you look at it’s eye closely, you can see a reflection of me shooting with my D70 and flash unit.       Garter snakes are really common in Canada, although there are many varieties.  I have enjoyed catching them since I was a kid.  They are very versatile in their diets and need for habitat, which is why they seem to thrive so well in so ma...
Read more

Depth of field

Image
In photography, depth of field is huge.  It is defined as the distance that is in focus, front to back (away from the camera at right angles), in the image. Depth of field allows you to control what is in and out of focus, and by how much.  It is used to help draw your eye to a desired location.  It can make the difference between an average, good, or excellent shot.  You can control depth of field using several methods.   #1:   The size, or f/number, of the aperture is very important.  A small f/number means a wide open aperture.  It also means less depth of field.  A large f/number means a small aperture; it gives you more depth of field.   #2:   The focal length of the lens has a great impact.  Wide angles settings (28 mm relative to a 35 mm film camera) gives you more depth of field than telephoto settings (105 mm).   #3:   The point of foc...
Read more