Using Flash

Flash used indoors can be quite powerful and a handy source of lighting. Outdoors at night though it is much weaker as there is no surfaces for the flash to "bounce" off and reflect back into the scene. The distance that flash light travels is also considerably less than whats needed for most night scenes. In an outdoor setting, the built in flash on a camera will have little or no affect on the scene. For more on Flash PHotography see our range of courses.

The flash will light anything that is within a few feet of the camera but anything beyond this will not be lit with the flash. Attachable flashguns are much stronger but even they can be stretched a bit in some situations.

Painting with Flash

fig n.5 Multiple Flash

One way of overcoming a flashes lack of distance with a flashgun is to light various elements in the scene by using the flashgun off the camera. To achieve this technique you must have near enough access to the subject you want to light and plenty of time to get there. Here we have a step by step example of how to use a simple off camera lighting technique without any special equipment.

With fig n.5 of a church and graveyard, the camera was set on a tripod. The shutter was set to the "B" setting and the aperture was set to an f-number of f5.6 for reasonable depth of field and proper exposure of the flash. A locking cable release was used to hold down the shutter button for the duration of the exposure.

Since there was very little ambient light, there was no worry of the photographer crossing in front of the cameras view while the exposure was taking place. Once moving the photographer will not register on the film as long as the flash does not illuminate the photographer or their shadow.

Three flashes off the one flashgun were used to light this scene. This was done by moving close to each area and firing the handheld flashgun using the flash's own "test button". One burst of flash was used on the headstones in the foreground and two on the church. One on the front and one aimed at the steeple.

In this case the whole exposure took about 40 seconds. Some residual daylight off the near dark sky registered but all other lighting was done by the flash.

Multiple Exposure It is possible to go about this technique in other ways. One would be to use Multiple Exposure if the camera has this feature. This would mean using one of the cameras shutter speeds and the cameras self-timer. The self-timer would allow time for the photographer to get into position for the flash. Once the shutter is opened, the flash is fired either via the test button.

Another method of lighting with multiple flash is to use a very long set exposure such as 30 seconds. In this instance though you would need a flash with a rapid recycle time to get all three bursts. Trip the timer and get into position for the first flash, once you have taken it get into the next position rapidly and fire as soon as your flash has recycled. You may find that 30 seconds is not really enough time to get all three flashes in however. These techniques can also be used in other areas of night photography.

Fig n.5 Canon EOS 500n, 28-80mm lens, B setting (approx 40 seconds) @ f5.6. Fuji Superia 100 film.