Is good bokeh possible with a single flash?

[forrest_croce]

Hi,<br /><br />

 

I've been taking photography seriously for about six years, but only started

with portraiture a few months ago. I've done all of my portraits outdoors so

far, and while I've made some bad mistakes, I've always at least tried to find

the most interesting background available. I'm using a Canon 5D and 135 mm f/2,

which has incredible bokeh.<br /><br />

 

Three people have asked me to shoot holiday family portraits for them, two in

their homes. It seems like I'll need a flash to accomplish this, since outdoors

in Seattle in December is pretty hard to tolerate. These are mostly people

who've seen my portrait page, and seem to like what they've seen, so even if

I'll be shooting indoors, I'd really like to produce something that's similar

in style to what impressed these people enough to hire me.<br /><br />

 

For an idea what I shoot, have a look at: <a

href="http://www.forrestcroce.com/Galleries/Portraits.html"

target="_blank">http://www.forrestcroce.com/Galleries/Portraits.html</a>

 

<br /><br />

 

Trouble is, I don't know anything about lighting or flash photography. Knowing

that the inside of a house looks different from a park with trees, but will I

be able to achieve anything like this with a single flash and a fast lens? With

some experimentation I can find something that should work out of focus, but if

the flash illuminates the main subject, will the background just be dark and

uncrecognizable?<br /><br />

 

And am I better off trying to bounce the flash ( in RAW mode ), or getting some

kind of diffuser? I don't know much about either, except that bouncing can

introduce a color cast and I'll need to correct it.<br /><br />

 

Thanks!

[fisher]

With indirect flash you probably will be able to achieve <a href="http://foto.c3d.hu/cgi-bin/yaweg?ShIMG:fisherteahazb:img_6141.jpg">natural looking</a> lights. Distant background <a href="http://foto.c3d.hu/cgi-bin/yaweg?ShIMG:fisherteahazb:img_6137.jpg">will fade</a> anyway.

If the ceiling is not too close nor too far, you can use it for bouncing. Also can use the wall, especially if it painted white or at least something light color.

The luminuquest sells small bouncers you can put on the flash but this will not help to light up the background too.

If you use wide-angle lens then probably <a href="http://foto.c3d.hu/cgi-bin/yaweg?ShIMG:fisherteahaza:img_5665.jpg">no way to evenly light</a> up the scene.

I recommend a big flashgun. My favourite is the Metz 60 CT-4 hovewer it has no TTL function but has own great sensor and is really powefull lighting device.

[todd peach seattle, washi]

If you've got some time, maybe get yourself down to Glazer's lighting store and play around with a softbox on a lightstand. They rent the stuff, so you don't have to jump in with both feet if you don't want to.

 

A single diffuse light source off-camera beats the 'on camera flash' look.

[w.smith]

If you've got a seriously powerful flashgun (e.g. like GN55 in meters or better) you can use

it as a main lightsource by bouncing it off of a big piece of foamcore (no more than 3 feet

from the flashgun) onto your subject (no more than 5 feet between reflector and your

subject).

 

Another big piece of foamcore on the opposing side can fill in/open up the shadows.

 

You will probably need to setup your flashgun off-camera, triggered with a cord, optical

slave, or remote radio control. Obviously the latter is the most expensive by far (even if it

does have a range of 1600 feet. Who needs 1600 feet range?). I recommend optical

slaving, because it's cheap and effective. There are optical slave triggers on Ebay for

US$ 9.99. And a range of 18 feet has always been more than sufficient for my applications

in the last 25 years...

 

Set WB to flash or daylight, and shoot in RAW: you'll get no color casts and can adjust WB

later if required.

[steve_levine]

"Bokeh", is an optics thing, that has nothing to do light sources. What you need to learn is flash basics. And then perhaps read a primer on posing and studio lighting.

[nathan_stiles]

To rephrase for the poster, b/c I think I understand what he means by good bokeh w/ a single flash. To get significant blur you need the background far from the subject, outside of the DOF. If he uses a single flash, the flash will fall off before reaching a background place so far behind the subject, thus not getting really any background in the pic. His other option is to place the background closer to the subject, but it will then be closer to being in focus.

[beauh44]

Lots of ways to skin the cat, but here's one that I just happened to shoot a while ago: The model was standing about 10 feet in front of very tall, brown grass on a cloudy day. 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens with a 550EX flash dialed back a stop, AV mode shot wide open at f/2.8. She actually has pretty decent catchlights in her eyes but when I "shrunk" the image for posting they went away.

 

Anyhoo, my basic ingredients are a reasonably long telephoto (85mm will work but I'd prefer longer ~200mm), put the model pretty far from the background/backdrop, and with on-camera flash - at least with my camera - I have to dial it back a bit to get rid of the deer in the headlights look - usually 1 stop or more and shoot in Av mode if I'm outdoors. Works for me!

 

But the lighting and bokeh are really two separate issues: You can have a lens that has excellent bokeh but crappy lighting and vice-versa. So my .02 cents is to get the fastest, best glass you can afford and practice with your flash, shooting wide-open. Good luck!<div></div>

[beauh44]

D'oh! Sorry.. I didn't read your post carefully enough but it's basically the same ingredients if indoors. Shoot wide open. Use a tripod, manual mode and dial in or out more flash as needed. Here's an indoor shot taken in my living room, that if you could see all the junk in the background, you wouldn't believe it. Shooting wide open's like getting a free backdrop almost anywhere! ;-) Your 135mm f/2 should work great. I'd personally position the subject(s) so it's a relatively dark background - no bright light, etc. but that's just me.<P>

 

Again, same setup: 70-200mm f/2.8L IS at f/2.8 on a 1DsII with a 550EX flash on the camera, dialed back a bit.<P>

 

I realize there's not much to see, "bokeh-wise" in this shot but you can totally eliminate background clutter.<P>

 

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/3924560-md.jpg"> </center>

[forrest_croce]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the advice, and the sample images to give me a better idea what to expect. Especially with regard to the backgrounds; I feel like this has a lot to do with why I was hired. So I like the thought of dialing the flash back to use more ambient light in the exposure. I think I'll have to head over to Glazers and play around.

 

Thanks!