Fill and Balance Flash

This assignment wasn't that bad to deal with, I'd even say I had some fun with it, and pushed my self a little more. Plus, it is easy to see why so many photojournalists use this effect as much as they do.
The tuckers and manager of the truck stop were really great about letting me take their pictures. I chose the location because I knew that the covering over the pumps could act like a big hat and cast a shadow for me to battle. However, it became more of an excise in light balance, because the day was over cast from the storms that morning. It was like everything outside the covering, was much like some one next to a window in a indoor situation. So it was like shooting into a big soft box, but I did have a few exposure readings for that kind of light that I was working off of, plus trying to stay with in my sync speed. Sean pointed out that the sky looked a little blown out which I can agree with, but the photo of Brian if you look under his arm you can still see the other trucks, and signs on buildings as they were that day. One other thing I needed to fight was a ton of metal around me, which really came off nicely; I was able to hide the flash, and his and other reflections.

As I mentioned once before, I know we didn’t have to shoot both fill and balance but I wanted to improve on the truck stop, and I found these guys playing soccer. While I did attempt my best Spanish with them to let them know what I was doing there, only one spoke broken English, which is very hard to get caption information on anyone, especially when they weren’t going to stop their game for me. Good chance to use my 300 mm lens and see what happened with it and the flash even though I think I messed that up. For one yes keeping the flash off camera works well for this technique, but if I was going to use my 100-300 lens again I’d mount the flash for better results. I’m enjoying the power to fill the shadows with just enough light, and give the photo that much more pop! Especially with these soccer guys I could see how my flash became more the key light as the night went on, and making a good picture like that would require a bit more power.

Yet over all I think I have a few images that worked well from this shoot. I liked the expression of Surratt in 1499 but I think the flash was too close/ too hot on his forearm, and the other man pumping gas into his red truck wasn’t bad but he wouldn’t stop looking at the camera, and it became too much of an environmental portrait. For both shoots I found my self still starting in TTL then switching over to Manuel when I was comfortable, and trying to dial down the power where needed. I read somewhere that putting a coffee filter over your flash will do a lot to diffuse the light off it. I wonder if I metered next time then added the filter and shot if that would work to make it a bit more forgiving?