Moment Of Force In Photography

The term " moment of force "used to bother me in high school physics. Actually, sitting down in the classroom and opening a Physics text used to bother me, and everything thereafter was just the icing on the urinal cake. But one day it changed.

I was in shop class and trying to free a rusted nut with a crescent wrench. I applied great force on a short hold - to control the application of the force - and got nowhere. Then I lengthened the hold on the wrench and applied mild force - still no movement. Then I applied a great deal of force to the outer end of the wrench handle and was rewarded with the thing turning rapidly and delivering my knuckles to the nearest sharp surface. A lesson writ in blood...

So, having understood moment of force by the most practical means, I was able to diagnose an equipment failure last Saturday night and remedy it in time to save the job.

My rig was the trusty Nikon D300s with the Stroboframe Press-T bracket attached and an SB 700 flash on top of this. My standard flash rig for the last few years when I need to move around at a bellydance show. I can flip the flash from landscape to portrait mode and still have it positioned over the lens axis.

This time I decided to gild the lily and add the Gary Fong Lightsphere II to the mix to soften the light blast. It was to be indoors so the top of the Lightsphere was also needed.

All worked well for a while as I played paparazzi at the party, but halfway through the flash started playing up. Nikon flashes don't play up - they are mega-reliable - so when the thing missed firing intermittently I looked to see if there was another explanation. Sure enough, I had over-egged the pudding with the Lightsphere. Out there on the front of the flash, it was perfectly balanced when in the landscape mode, but once it was headed sideways in the portrait mode on the Press-T, the extra weight of it pulled the contacts for the flash away from the corresponding spots on the hot shoe....no flash.

The moment of force was too great for the flash and shoe contacts.

Moral of this is that it is either one or the other - the Press-T and a bare flash for chasing stage events or the SB 700 mounted directly on the camera with the Lightsphere for interiors and people event shots. I quickly demounted the bracket, shifted the flash to the camera shoe, did the Fong Shuffle, and carried right on. My thanks to the decorator of the country club who decided upon white walls and ceiling.

Well That'll Teach You...

See what you get for opening this blog on Monday morning. You'll know better next time.

My sentiments exactly when I went to a family party last Saturday. It was a cheerful affair - a 21st birthday - and things seem to have moved on somewhat form the 1960's. In this one the boys did eventually mingle with the girls. The girl guests were still better dressed and better looking than their male counterparts, but at least the strict segregation of sexes has been relaxed - no morre keg to stand around.

Where was I? Taking party photos with the D 300 in a dark cave of a restaurant in Cottesloe. SB700 on top, diffuser on the front, 400 ISO and TTL Bl. 1/125 of a second and f:8. It could not have been easier - push the victims together ( " Grip and Grin, Kids..") press the little button on the front of the handgrip, and look round the place to see where the girl with the tray of spring rolls had gotten to. Every. Picture. Worked.

I expected no less as the Nikon system has a seamless integration of the pre-flash, the camera computer, and the main shot. The little diffuser on the front of the SB 700 is not as good as a Gary Fong Lightsphere II but if you angle it a little it spreads things out. You will get enogh power from the flash for a good shot with a little of he ambient light as well - if you want more ambient, drop the shutter speed a couple of steps and open up a stop. Simple.

I found it sobering to watch some of the partytographers try to do the same thing. Equipment ranged from telephones to full-frame DSLR's , and the former more successful than the latter. I zeroed the settings on the DSLR and set it up for the lady who was using it but I am afraid she was not convinced that it was a good idea - she changed them all evening. I do not envy her the time she will spend on post-production...

Moral of this is simple - it is moral to be simple when the situation demands. Nothing is fully automatic, but you can set yourself up to be nearly so, and then just go and trust to your eye to find the subject. And make sure that you watch the kitchen door, because that is where the girls with the trays of food come from.

Under The Radar At A Wedding With Lightsphere

Please note the dome in the heading photograph. This is not the targeting guidance system for an Atlas E missile - though they are nice as well. It is a Gary Fong Lightsphere - in this case one of the collapsible ones. Beside it is a packet of gel filters made by Honl. They are the absolute bullet for event and wedding photographers.

Those of you who reel back in horror at the thought of a flash at a wedding - like M. Cartier-Bresson - are welcome to move further down the car. By all means ramp your ISO up and clap a 2.8 zoom to the front of your DSLR and hover over there in the shadows. I'm sure your photographs will be all the better for your artistic decision. I should de-saturate a few of them and tilt a horizon to provide variety. Remember to browse the salad bar at the reception...

I shall be running around in the meantime popping up out of prepared positions to ambush the bride with my camera and the flash attached. That'll be me down there at the front of the aisle as they exchange vows - look for the balding head and the occasional electrical discharge. Note that I will have the Fong Lightsphere firmly attached ( and it does attach firmly ) to my DSLR and a short zoom on the front. And I will be elbowing interlopers out of the way.

If the wedding is to be held in the warmth of a tungsten-lit church I will push one of the amber Honl filter gels down the throat of the Lightsphere to match the prevailing light. Likewise I will push in a slightly weaker amber if I am filling an outdoor shoot in the last hour of the day. My flash will be about the same as the sun then and the subsequent computer work will be so much easier.

If, horror of horrors, the wedding is in a filling station lit only by flickering fluorescent bulbs and the demonic eyes of the guests, I will substitute one of the green filters. Don't laugh - I once covered a wedding where the groom chased the bride through a burial ground with an axe. Nice colours. Nice axe.

The Lightsphere softens and spreads the flash so that there is s pretty good agreement between the illumination on the main subject and the stuff that filters through to the background. Of course you can force the flash to put out more or less light with the controls on the back - all flashes can do this to some extent - and you can force the light to spot the subject by your choice of positioning and distance, but generally you can set a ratio and then just chase the bride at will.

The amazing part of it is that even if you think that your flashes are disruptive, it is unlikely the happy couple will notice. I spoke with the bride from two weeks ago and she did not realise I was working as much as I was until she saw the video from another guest. Thats under the radar. Mind you, if I wanted to promote the brand I would have to have a sign on the back of my shirt advertising the studio to the wedding guests.