Daytime Fill Flash

So I'm out in the yard and I see a male Texas Spiney Lizard up in a tree, about 8 or 9 feet off the ground. I go inside and grab the camera with the flash attached. The flash has a small box on it to soften the effect. I play with intensity and I believe wound up on 1/2 intensity for this shot. The lens I had is an 18-135mm Sony (on a Sony camera) and at full zoom. The first image is the original, the second is cropped with some minimal post processing.

I grabbed the flash as the sun was to my 10 or 11 o'clock which put me on the shadow side of the subject. Without really thinking when I saw the lizard I put the flash on the camera as I knew it would help, and it did. Not perfect but for my feeble attempt I was pretty pleased with the result.

99% of camera owners don't know that using the flash in daylight can make pictures 'pop' by providing contrast the sensors pick up vs just a dull/dimly lit subject - especially on the shadow side of the subject as you shot.

Now poke around on your settings to see if that flash was actually compensated by YOUR adjustments, or if done via TTL metering and figured it out on it's own.

Yet in most cases, deployment of a flash in daylight will improve virtually every shot by most people.

Don't know about new cameras but when I was flash filling, the shutter speed has to be 1/60 or slower to sync the flash. That can be difficult with some lens and lighting situations.

That photo looks to be in the shade of a tree but when you can it is often better to use a large 19% grey board for reflective fill light. This works great outdoors and you always see it on beach photos like the SI swimsuit edition.

I keep forgetting about reflective surfaces! Thanks for reminding me. My shutter speed on this was 1/250. On other shots where I tried more and less on the flash intensity it was noticeable. Some were too bright.

I didnt mention reflected light as it wasnt part of the OP.... But yeah, lignt is liight no matter how you get it

SL350 said:

Don't know about new cameras but when I was flash filling, the shutter speed has to be 1/60 or slower to sync the flash. That can be difficult with some lens and lighting situations.

That photo looks to be in the shade of a tree but when you can it is often better to use a large 19% grey board for reflective fill light. This works great outdoors and you always see it on beach photos like the SI swimsuit edition.

Click to expand...

Now yer talkin'!

Not Dave said:

I keep forgetting about reflective surfaces! Thanks for reminding me. My shutter speed on this was 1/250. On other shots where I tried more and less on the flash intensity it was noticeable. Some were too bright.

Click to expand...

You shoot with a Nikon? Canon goes to 1/200, which is plenty of speed for me, but I would venture to guess that 99% of photogs do know about fill light.

SL350 said:

Don't know about new cameras but when I was flash filling, the shutter speed has to be 1/60 or slower to sync the flash. That can be difficult with some lens and lighting situations.

That photo looks to be in the shade of a tree but when you can it is often better to use a large 19% grey board for reflective fill light. This works great outdoors and you always see it on beach photos like the SI swimsuit edition.

Click to expand...

OR, the Photoflex or Monte's folding reflectors. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.

I like the second pic.

lowrider said:

You shoot with a Nikon? Canon goes to 1/200, which is plenty of speed for me, but I would venture to guess that 99% of photogs do know about fill light.

Click to expand...

Sony. I know about fill light just hardly use it. Years of leaving cameras on "auto" mode, point and shoot have dumbed me down!