Since I found my lost password to the blog: Filling / Balance

Filling / Balance Self Evaluation

Qi An

   I believe I am getting familiar with flash… several weeks ago when I began using flash I felt I was stuck in a bottleneck and could not find a correct way out; however, now I begin to feel that I know something about it, though still too little.

   Take 1 is taken under the columns in front of Jesse Hall; I passed by the lawn and noticed the girl sitting on the base of the columns, with Macbook on her knees and bicycle at her side. I guessed that would make a beautiful composition. The sun was in the back so the columns made the girl sitting below in shade. She was wearing a hat, which put her face in shadow. I tried to shoot her from an angle as low as I could reach, so that the flash could brighten her face under the hat; but after checking the outtakes, I realized I was still not low enough. I also asked her to raise her hat several times, to make it more convenient to light her face well; but the hat kept falling down probably because of her hairstyle.

A problem I met was the shadow caused by flash: it was difficult to hide the shadow completely behind her. Decreasing one or two stops could make the shadow less distracting, but when I moved farther from her, I was afraid the flash became too weak. Also I tried bouncing the light on the columns; it may be a good solution if I could have done it correct…the fact is that in many of the bouncing pictures, the columns are over-exposed.

Take 2 is taken at the corner of the stairs in RJI second floor. The girl sitting in the sofa seemed to be quite enjoying her private, cozy, warm, little space, and I asked her if I could take pictures. Against the window light, it was not easy to decide how bright the flash should be. I made several over-exposed shots before I got some correct ones. It took me some time to make the flash light look natural and harmony with environmental light. It was a problem that the bouncing technique seemed to be useless, since it caused shadows on the glass window, no matter bouncing from the ceiling or the walls. I hope to know how to solve this.

Actually the biggest challenge for me in this assignment is the weight of camera: with camera in one hand and flash in another, I could not control my hands shaking, and many of the pictures taken later were blurred…I am now considering some practice with dumbbell ^^