Hey! So Ill finally get to go back underground in a week!
Anyway....Ive been playing with my new flashgun a LOT and its really handy to use in a lot of situations. However, I've noticed there is a harshness of shadows with it, something I didnt see with lightpainting (that used to be my only technique available so its what I always used). I heard/saw/something mention of mixing the flash with some additional foreground lighting softens the shadows and edges so you dont have the stark contrast in the images.
I have a few questions regarding this (and other ides are welcome!):
1) White balance...My new awesome duo (thx bif!) is neutral but the flashgun seems on the warm side. Will this cause a problem? I know mixing warm and cool has screwed up colour in photos before but I wonder if having one be neutral makes it less of an issue.
2) These kinda all go together...: What kind of settings do you use on your camera? How much light to you paint with? I assume it all goes in one exposure so you'd turn the flash gun lower and lightpaint on low too since its adding the light? Or do you take two photos one each and overlay in post processing? (I know this could be kinda a "depends on situation!" question, but some ideas would be helpful so I have an idea going in...none of the trips Ill be on will be small groups of friends, mostly larger grotto trips, so Im not going to have time to play too much with each shot.)
3) I think perhaps due to the harshenss, I also see more grain in my photos taken with the flashgun, whereas the lightpaining has smoother images. I dont always mind it, the grain look often makes it look like it was old time film photo so I tend to convert to black and white and use it artistically, but is there a way around this? (other than getting a larger sensor/better camera/investing in more and expensive lights? Right now just trying to work with what I have. I already shoot around 100iso to help, oh I am using a Lumix LX3 if that helps at all)
4) Would fitting a diffuser to the front of the flashgun (I have some old milk containers...) help with either issue or both?
Thanks! =)
Anyway....Ive been playing with my new flashgun a LOT and its really handy to use in a lot of situations. However, I've noticed there is a harshness of shadows with it, something I didnt see with lightpainting (that used to be my only technique available so its what I always used). I heard/saw/something mention of mixing the flash with some additional foreground lighting softens the shadows and edges so you dont have the stark contrast in the images.
I have a few questions regarding this (and other ides are welcome!):
1) White balance...My new awesome duo (thx bif!) is neutral but the flashgun seems on the warm side. Will this cause a problem? I know mixing warm and cool has screwed up colour in photos before but I wonder if having one be neutral makes it less of an issue.
2) These kinda all go together...: What kind of settings do you use on your camera? How much light to you paint with? I assume it all goes in one exposure so you'd turn the flash gun lower and lightpaint on low too since its adding the light? Or do you take two photos one each and overlay in post processing? (I know this could be kinda a "depends on situation!" question, but some ideas would be helpful so I have an idea going in...none of the trips Ill be on will be small groups of friends, mostly larger grotto trips, so Im not going to have time to play too much with each shot.)
3) I think perhaps due to the harshenss, I also see more grain in my photos taken with the flashgun, whereas the lightpaining has smoother images. I dont always mind it, the grain look often makes it look like it was old time film photo so I tend to convert to black and white and use it artistically, but is there a way around this? (other than getting a larger sensor/better camera/investing in more and expensive lights? Right now just trying to work with what I have. I already shoot around 100iso to help, oh I am using a Lumix LX3 if that helps at all)
4) Would fitting a diffuser to the front of the flashgun (I have some old milk containers...) help with either issue or both?
Thanks! =)