“I don’t like flash, I only take photos under natural light.”
I keep hearing this phrase at the moment, and it drives me nuts. There are many times when natural light is just great, but refusing to use flash at all is senseless on many counts.
Firstly, natural light is very often either flat and uninspiring or too contrasty and uncontrollable; this limits the times that a photographer can take beautifully lit photographs. There’s a reason that landscape photographers return to the same spot night after night for that perfect photo; they’re waiting for the perfect light. Beach-based fashion shoots are done underneath a giant diffuser to reduce the contrast to a manageable level.
Secondly, there’s often no natural light to use. When we’re inside the light comes from man-made light sources; should one not take photos under these extreme conditions? In fact, the above utterance that started this article often comes from someone who really means to say ambient light, rather than natural light, which is scary because those overhead fluorescent tubes are going to completely flood the room with overhead light, resulting in terrible flat photos of green people with dark eye sockets. “But hey, didn’t need flash!”
Finally, not liking flash is senseless because light from a flash is light like any other. A flash photographer can choose to recreate the type of lighting that most people think of when they say “natural light”, which is soft directional light with a warm colour tinge. Alternatively a flash photographer can decide not to use a flash because the natural light is just perfect, or do both by using the ambient light alongside flash to get the best of both worlds. A flash photographer can have beautiful light just about anywhere (landscapes apart!).
I can’t think of any valid reason to treat flash with distain.
Before I go on, here are four images to ponder over:
One is taken under natural light only
One is taken using flash alone
One is principally lit with natural light with flash used to lift the shadows
One is principally lit with flash with natural light playing it’s own role
Can you determine which is which? You can click to see bigger images.
l’ll give you the answers in a minute, but first let’s talk a little about light.
Light
Beautiful lighting is achieved through beautiful light, wherever it comes from. There are four important things to bear in mind:
1. The direction of the light.
2. The quality of the light.
3. The contrast of the light.
4. The colour temperature of the light.
The direction of the light
The direction of the light will determine where the shadows lie, and it’s the shadows that’ll model the subject, telling the viewer about the object’s form and three dimensionality.
The quality of the light
When we talk about the quality of the light we’re really talking about the size of the light source relative to the subject.
If the light source is much bigger than the subject then the light will wrap around them and soften the shadows – ideal for a child’s face, for example. This is known as soft light.
If the light source is small the shadows will be strongly defined and will emphasise the texture in subject – perfect for that sumptuous chocolate pudding. This is known as hard light.
In the home the most beautiful natural light images are often taken when the subject is asked to move next to a window. Why? Because it’ll result in soft, directional lighting.
The contrast of the light
The contrast in the image is very important as it will set the mood. However, too much constrast can also be hard to work with – We’ve all seen photos of a silhoutted person in front of a stunning sunset…
Hmm, maybe a flash could help there?
The colour temperature of the light
Light isn’t all white. Candle light is orange, sunsets are a more yellow, a fluorescent tube gives off green light, and tungsten is blue. This colouration is known as the colour temperature of the light. Flashes have a colour temperature that’s very close to daylight.
The colour of the light can also set the mood of the photo. Evening light often has that indiscernible tinge that can even make the most ugly of mankind’s monstrosities look beautiful. David X Tejada masters this fact, as witnessed by his industrial photography.
Putting it all together
Each of these aspects of light is of utmost importance, and it’s surprisingly rare that the natural light conditions are ideal. The reason that the evening light is the most appealing is because it is often directional and warm in colour. On the other hand taking well lit photos under the midday sun or on a grey overcast day is often much more challenging.
With flash the photographer has control over all of these aspects. The direction of the light can be chosen by moving the flash. The quality of the light is controlled using softboxes, umbrellas, or simply by bouncing the flash off a nearby wall or ceiling. The contrast is controlled by adjusting the power of the flash, and the colour temperature can be controlled with filters.
Mastering flash gives you creating lighting possibility when natural light can’t. Why deny yourself?
Answers
OK, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.
The 100% flash image is that of the iron artist, taken with an off-camera flash camera left (shot through an umbrella) with on-camera fill to reduce the shadows.
The 100% natural light image is that of the restaurant. Are you surprised that there’s not more contrast between the back of the room and the window lit table? It’s actually a blend of several photos each with a different exposure; a subject for another blog article…
The back light in the photo of my baby daughter Annouk is a veiled window, Annouk herself is lit by flash bounced off my living room wall so as to create a soft directional light. This was probably the easiest image to get right since the window was a big clue.
Finally, the image of the ceramist is mainly natural window light with flash used to fill the shadow areas.
Conclusion
If you didn’t get the above answers right and you’re one of those people who “don’t like the look of flash” then you need to take another look at your stance. When used correctly flash can create beautiful images.
If you’re not using flash then you should seriously consider it – it’ll open up your photographic world. Reading the Strobist website is a good place to start.
“I don’t like flash” is code for “I don’t understand how to use flash”.
All nice shots, but the restaurant and the iron artist are stunning.
(Protocol here says that I should say the pic of your daughter is best, but I’m commenting on the photos, not the subjects, so I’ll risk being honest
Hi Jeffrey,
Thanks for the praise.
The iron artist is part of my Artisans project, and is a good example of the necessity of flash. Most of the ateliers had no natural light whatsoever so the only way to control the lighting, in order to create the style of images I was after, was to use flash.
Natural light made more sense in the restaurant since I had a lot of photos to do in a short period of time. Setting up flashes for interior photos can be quite time consuming. Besides, the natural light here was perfect.
Tim
P.S. But I prefer the photo of my daughter, obviously
I too hate when people make the no flash statement. My name is Paul and I use flash when I need it.:-)
I was very impressed with your flash work. The iron worker was my favorite, and you daughter was my least favorite (from a lighting stand point). However, what is not considered here is the importance of the angle of light or multiple sources of light. Just like a direct flash is unappealing, the wrong angle of or intensity of natural light can give displeasing effects. Flash has its place, but it will never replace natural light. Just like it takes skill to work the flash, it also takes skill to work natural light; including the selection of the lens, aperture, and ISO in order to communicate the mood of the scene as interpreted by the author.
Hi Reece,
Don’t get me wrong. When it’s right, natural light is sublime, and I’ll use it whenever it’s right, or can be modified to be so.
The point of my article is really to get across the fact that, often, the ambient light doesn’t give the most pleasing effect. This is especially true in an indoor environment. Outdoors you’re at the mercy of the the gods.
When the light’s not right good flash can dramatically improve a photo, so constantly hearing photographer’s dismiss flash as a solution for those who don’t know how to use natural light can become a little frustrating – especially when most of them know little about good flash technique.
Tim