Back after the Summer Break

Many factors contributed to me having a blogging break during summer.

The biggest contributor was definitely the Dubai summer heat , as most of my experiments would require to be outside to have enough space. But there has also been a general lack of time and the annual vacation. Now the Eid al Fitter is here, temperatures have moderated a bit and I acquired some more second hand toys to play with. All a good combination to call the official end of the blogging break.

In this small season opener I want to repeat what the blog is about, what is the general plan and where we are:

The highly developed external flashes that are state of the art today include a multidude of settings and modes how to operate them. This technical diversity might be confusing to anyone, who has not followed the development of flash technology and techniques over the last 30 years.

I will look into each layer of the technical development and make some experiments to explain and see how they work. At the end we all might have a better understanding of the many current possible settings, their advantages and disadvantages.

From time to time I will also post a general flash related post, or if I made an observation regarding current equipment.

So far in the blog I

- played with fully manual flash, and how to calculate an aperture from a Guide Number

and (here).

- experimented to find out Guide Numbers.

- measured the trigger voltage to determine if a flash is safe to attach to a modern camera.

- explained the CAT system from Canon.

- introduced the Metz 45 flash family and some accessories to play with automatic flash.

The grand plan to continue the Blog is:

- finish the experiments with automatic flash and the Metz 45 family

- remote set up with automatic flash

- (Film based, "simple") TTL

- look at the different "advanced" TTL methods

- remote set up with "advanced" TTL

- "mixed" remote set up

The immediate upcomming installments will deal with automatic flash and the Metz 45 Family as laid out before the summer break:

- A number of experiments with automatic flash- comparing it to the modern marvels.
- Finish the introductions of the flash accessories.
- A number of experiments wit the flash accessories.
- An overview of the 45 family then and now.
- Experiments with a set up of multiple remote controlled automatic flashes.

From time to time I will also just throw in some flash pictures as they come along.

During the holiday back home I shot the followwing three with the SB-900 that accompanied me in the small kit. (I consider one fully grown flash essential and will rather leave a lens at home instead.)

1/4 second, f4, ISO 800, no flash

The first shot shows the ambient light shortly after sun set.
The ambient light is quite blue in nature and only the street lantern give a more warmer light to their lightened up area.

I thought how it would look like to get some light into the trees.








1/4 second, f4, ISO 800, flash

The second shot has the flash in the hot shoe turned on. Mainly the street in front of me is lightened up the trees are still quite dark.

1/4 second, f4, ISO 800, flash swiveled 45 degrees up.

What a funny light pattern on the street! Look at how even the tree on the right gets some light.

Conclusion?

More Swivel - More Fun!