Since I found my lost password to the blog: Single Flash

Qi An
Single Flash Self Evaluation
This is my first experience of flash photography except shooting still life. The two
scenes I shoot are both indoor activities and have some environmental light but not
bright enough.
In the dancing class scene, the room was lit by a few light tubes on the ceiling. I
tried the bouncing technique but it seemed to be not enough to make the subject bright;
so most of the pictures were direct flash light. The shadows were very hard and
unnatural. Another problem I found was that I could not release the shutter too
frequently, since the flash needs some time to restore energy. Sometimes I forgot this
and just pressed the shutter button whenever I felt it was a good moment. The result
was that the flash light did not work on some pictures.
In the Tai Chi class scene, the ceiling was so high that it was impossible for the
small flash light to reach. Some of the walls were blue in color. The only choice for
bouncing was the wooden floor, but the effect was not obvious. On one side of the
room there were some windows, so I tried shooting the subjects from another side, so
everybody in the frame was back-lighted but only the one subject I chose was lit by
flash. However, it still looked unnatural.
For this assignment I do not come with many specific questions because I know
too little in flash photography; everything is unfamiliar, one assignment is only an
unsuccessful experiment. Possibly I need more practice and then I know what I need
to improve.