Project 17: adding light at dusk

For this project we are required to take photographs at sunset and use some additional flash to add light to an object in the foreground. I completed the exercise on the shores of the Firth of Forth when I knew that I woulod be able to use foreground rocks to light iwth the flash. I had the added bonus of coming across someone fishing who was happy to be a subject for my experimentation. I am used to using flash as fill in for my macro photography of insects but this proved to be a learning process. I began by using the same flash setting as I would normally use for my insects ie -1 2/3 compensation. This didn't register at all and I had to gradually increase the flsh until I got to +3 compensation which I used for the images below. Having looked at them on screen I could have increased this even more or maybe for the fisherman angled the flash up slightly to include his head. I was using a canon 580 EXII flash gun.

I found this a fascinating exercise.



No flash in this shot.











The same shot with the flash set to +3











No flash.












The same shot with the flash set to +3. In retrospect I should have increased this or better angled the flash up.











What have I learned:


Depending on the situation I like the results obtained from this project. I wouldn't have used it for the yachts in the harbour or the Forth Road Bridge (impossible here due to distance involved), but for the fisherman it is an ideal technique although I do need to refine it somewhat. I have seen other examples of this in Outdoor Photography Magazine and the Landscape Photographer of the Year book, where the photographer used flash to light up a standing stone. The image that really inspires me though is one I have seen taken on Rannoch Moor in Scotland where a very long exposure was used during which the photographer used a very powerful torch and 'pianted' an islet in a lochan with light as a foreground to a wonderful sunset. Definitely some ideas to play with in the future.