Hair

Theory Notes
Flashes
• The earliest flash bulbs consisted of magnesium flash powder nowadays the flash units are often electronic flashtubes.
Direct flash
• Most familiar with (commonly used)
• Emits a burst of light directly at the subject
• Common with a built-in flash camera
• Images will usually have harsh shadows and there will be an issue with the “red-eye”
• Can reach a long distance
Fill Flash
• Used to help balance light levels of a subject and the shadow areas, so the film can then capture both
• Can be used to brighten a subject, when there is a back light in use
Bounce Flash
• Best solution to avoid problems caused by direct flash
• Allows the flash to have the head angled in order to reflect the light off the ceiling or a reflector connected to the flash unit, this effect allows a portrait to be flattering, as the light becomes soft and diffuses its way through the photo
• However when you bounce the light from the ceiling you will lose some of the light being reflected (the typical amount is about 2 stops)
• Bounce flash is also helpful when taking photos with windows and mirrors, because the light wont be harshly reflected, due to the fact that the flash won’t be directly pointed towards the source
Slow Sync
• A combination of flash and a slow shutter speed
• Allow you to expose for low light situations (such as cars at night)
• When taking a picture of a moving object at night, the normal front curtain sync (flash), will record the subject at the beginning
Front Curtain Sync
• Normal style of flash synchronization (the flash fires when the shutter first reaches its peak opening)
• Used when you want to freeze motion at the beginning of the picture
Rear Curtain Sync
• The flash will fire at the end of the peak, shutter opening as opposed to the beginning
• Freeze a moving subject at the end of the frame
Stroboscopic
• A mode that will allow you to firs flash rapidly and several times, during one exposure, as the subject moves across the frame
• Normally would be used with a long exposure, allowing a result of a moving object frozen in the air









Light Meters
Hand Held Exposure Meters
• Measure the light falling onto a light-sensitive cell, then it converts the measurement into a reading
• The reading is used to correct the shutter speed and aperture

Incident vs. Reflected
• Two ways of measuring light
Incident- when the meter is aimed directly at the light source, measuring the light source which falls directly on the scene or subject (this isn’t due to the reflectance of the subject), can be used to measure several light sources falling on separate parts of a scene, the advantage: measure accurately, consistently, and are not affected by the reflectance of a subject or a scene
Reflected- reads the intensity of the light reflecting off the subject (this could be due to color, contrast, etc.)

• Spot meters can also be used where precise readings are made of small areas of the scene, its narrow field measure light reflected from as small as one-degree circle.
• For more accurate readings try to meter an area in your photo that is neutral grey as possible, if there is no such areas then try to meter areas that have a variety of colors to receive accurate readings (specifically when taking photos of scenery)



An example of a scene to use a light meter is a sunset.
For sunsets you need to take the reading of the light on the medium light areas of the sunset. The circle shows the area in which the sunset’s
















For more information check out the sites below:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/Product_Resources/lightmeters2.jsp
http://www.weatherscapes.com/techniques.php?cat=general&page=metering
http://www.vividlight.com/Articles/611.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_(photography