Help With A SIngle Flash Setup.

Most all of my photography experience comes from dealing with natural

light. I use the sun for landscape photography, and the night sky

for astrophotography. I recently became a grandpa, and want to start

taking some baby photos so I purchased a Vivitar 285HV for indoor

shots.

 

I shoot with a Mamiya RB 67 Pro-S, and I shoot mostly black and

white. I have gone through three rolls of film trying to teach

myself the best way to use this flash unit without getting a harsh

shadow�so far, no luck.

 

I have a tripod, and a homemade flash bracket that will allow me to

move the flash closer to the subject, but I do not want to blind my

granddaughter in my attempt to get a good photo. I have thought

about making a hood that would work something like the big bounce

made by Lumiquest, but hate to waste more film with trial and error

on something that has been tried.

 

I know I could bounce the flash off my ceiling, but was hoping to put

together some sort of setup that would allow me to repeat a �good

lighting look� without depending on the height or color of the

ceiling.

 

Photography is a hobby, and I make most of what I can to keep my cost

low. I do not have the money or space for a lot of studio type

equipment�that is the reason for the Vivitar flash.

 

I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction

for a single flash setup that will take decent photos. Any advice

would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Tim

There are hotshoe lightstand/tripod brackets that have a clamp for an umbrella. You might even be able to get away with a regular c clamp or spring clamp. Probably the easiest thing to do is get one of the umbrellas that have the removeable black cover so that you can use it as a shoot through or bounce umbrella. I forget the brand, I think it is photogenic. You can get one for less than 20 bucks from B&H. An umbrella is easy to use and store. If you use it in the standard way you get a much softer light, if you use it as a shoot through umbrella you get a little more directional light yet still soft light. Keep the umbrella fairly close to your granddaughter.

 

Also, if you get some white ripstop nylon you make can a wood or pvc frame and shoot your flash into that.

 

The easiest, cheapest most reliable way to start out is with an umbrella. Softboxes have a nice effect but are more expensive, take a little more time to set up.

 

You can also try just using a reflector on the oposite side to reduce some of the contrast. A peice of white foamcore will do but an umbrella or softbox will look nicer.

I would agree with the umbrella or other softening devices. However one of the easiest things to improve your flash pictures if you are still using direct flash is to get the flash mounted directly over the lens perhaps 6 to 8" above it even a little higher would be ok. You might have to tilt down a tad. What this will do is put your harsh shadows behind the subject and you will also not get redeye. There are some brackets on ebay that will do this fine. This is what most wedding photographers did for many years and it works quite well.

Tim,

 

Try this link, it should help you with your 285HV.

 

http://webs.lanset.com/rcochran/flash/equipment.html

 

Wayne