CAMERA TALK - FILL FLASH
by Mike Hill
Wildlife photography and photojournalism may seem to be worlds
apart, despite much similar equipment. Many wildlife photos are
meant to portray the beauty of nature and through this there is
always the hope that the viewer will become more sympathetic to
such natural beauty. Photojournalism, on the other hand, often
portrays the misery of the world. However, as in nature photography,
the photographer may hope to change the mind of the viewer resulting
in a more sympathetic view of the subject photographed. With some
common threads in the philosophy behind the photograph it would
seem reasonable that there should be some shared areas of technique.
The use of fillflash would seem to be one of those areas.
Traditionally flash is used in nature photography for either close
up work where depth of field is needed or in those classical bird
portraits of the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, showing a pinsharp bird
against a dark background even when the subject is usually seen
in daylight. These latter were the product of a time when flash
equipment was heavy and calculations of exposure more complicated.
The electronic/computer revolution has changed all that and we
now have at our disposal lightweight, compact, computerized smart
flashunits and cameras which take the drudgery out of nature flash
photography.
A good example of the utilization of these recent advances is
exemplified here by the photograph which was taken by my son,
Michael, already an accomplished award winning photographer at
the age of sixteen years. It is spring in Bahrain and we are looking
for subjects for him to photograph for the BBC Young Wildlife
Photographer of the Year competition 1994. He decided that a colourful
subject would be the best choice. Maybe a White-cheeked Bulbul,
a Hoopoe, a Bee-eater or one of the seven species of shrike which
are seen in Bahrain. The mesquite groves of Sakhir are a draw
for migrating birds during the spring and the new delicate leaves
will often provide an attractive surround for the main subject.
We cruised around the area on a fine afternoon looking for any
subjects which might present themselves. A number of Hoopoes were
around but never seemed to settle in an attractive setting. The
afternoon wore on and Michael still had nothing that satisfied
him. He could hear some Bee-eaters but it transpired that they
were only landing on telegraph wires or tantalizingly out of react
of the 600m lens he was using. The light was fading fast and we
were about to give up. Just then a Bee-eater settled on a dead
bush but we were, of course, on the wrong side of it and the backlit
bird lacked both definition and sparkle. The bird seemed quite
unafraid now that the light had almost gone, as frustratingly
often happens. On this occasion there was just enough light for
the Velvia film he was using but it was now so flat that the result
would only be a rather dull portrait.
During the school holidays one of the things we often do in the
evenings is to leaf through books looking at the work of some
of the great photojournalists and try to understand what makes
their pictures so outstanding and how they took them. Fillflash
is a commonly used technique which we had often discussed on these
occasions. When employed in the right situation it works very
effectively to open up the shadows thrown by backlighting and
render the colours rather more vibrant. Michael wondered why we
couldn’t use the technique here? Despite the fact that it is normally
used with rather shorter focal lengths than the 600 mm we felt
that it was worth a try although I was unsure exactly what the
effect would be.
He mounted the SB25 flash unit directly on the Nikon F4 camera
body hot shoe and dialled in the – 1 2/3 stop compensation recommended
for subtle fillflash shots. With the negative compensation dialled
into the flash computer the effective range of the flashtube is
considerably increased. Thus, providing the subject is within
this increased range, it should be partly lit by the flash whilst
the background is lit by available light. Michael managed to fire
off four or five shots before the Bee-eater flew off. This technique
certainly does work well but you must remember that with many
mammals and other nocturnal creatures there is a likelihood of
producing the animal equivalent of red eye when the flash is mounted
directly on the camera and that it may be advisable to move it
off to one side by using an off-camera flash cord.
The shot of the Bee-eater above won Michael the 15-17 year age
group prize in the competition – so he earned something and I
learned something!