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CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / People and Places Indoors

Using a flash or flashes

When there is not enough window light (or other

light) in the room, the best solution is to add

some of your own. The dedicated flash units that

are available today are really great for this type of

work. They are small, light, and powerful, and the

light can be changed easily with a variety of small

flash modifiers. The dedicated flash units can be

mounted on your camera’s hot shoe and will fire

when you press the camera’s shutter release but-

ton. Now when the flash is mounted on the cam-

era and aimed straight towards the subject, there

really isn’t much improvement over the built-in

flash, but you can adjust the flash unit to fire at

different angles, allowing the light to bounce off

of nearby surfaces. Flash units can also be fired

when not mounted on the camera, either by using

a built-in controller or a third-party trigger. Once

you position the flash away from the camera, the

creative possibilities really open up.

But first I need to talk about some limitations and

settings that come into play when using a flash.

The first is called the flash sync speed, and it has

to do with the shutter speeds that are available

when using a flash. The flash sync speed is the

highest shutter speed that you can use a flash

with, and it usually isn’t that high. You can check

your camera manual, but the usual sync speed is

around 1/250 second.

To understand this, you need to know what

exactly happens when you press the shutter

release button to take a photo. Most digital cam-

eras have what is called a focal plane shutter that

is made up of two shutter curtains. When you

press the shutter release button, the first shutter

curtain moves out of the way and starts to expose

the sensor. When the amount of time that is set

One last word: When using window light, keep a
lookout for how you can use it in all types of situ-
ations. I saw my nephew sitting down in a big
green chair being lit by a window as the light
played across the scene from right to left. Instead
of trying to set up a photograph, grab a flash, and
have him turn this way or that, I just framed the
image and took the photograph, which you can
see in Figure 4-5. I don’t think he even knew I
took a photograph.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO I first noticed the pattern of light from the
blinds against my office wall late one afternoon and was reminded of it
when I neglected to pull the blinds out of the way when setting up this
model shot. This was not taken in a studio or with a complicated setup,
but against my office wall with the photos removed. Taken at 1/160 sec-
ond, f/5.6, and ISO 200.

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