The Jazz about fill flash

[LoveLife]

Good I got your interest. This was a very difficult shoot. The large picture windows behind the performers was over-powering. An attempt at shooting with spot focus and exposure on the conga drum produced readings of f 2.8 at ISO 400 and speeds of 1/30 second totally unacceptable. What to do? I hate the way flash pictures look but needed additional light on my subjects. The solution was fill or pop flash, just enough to pick up detail in the back lit subjects and not produce that flash look. Settings: FZ10 AE mode manual, f-stop f4 speed 160 second ISO 400, w/b set to flash mode, flash forced to manual fire and EV flash set to –2.



- Rhythmic Prophecies Latin Jazz Ensemble -



Jazz at Lincoln Center - Dizzy's Club 01/21/06 I heard this group on a whim. Just happen to be in the area. They entered an audition last year held by the Jazz at Lincoln Center with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and judged by musicians and scholars. They won and will soon go on an all expense paid, with additional monies, performing tour of the Far East. Their talents far exceed their age.



The young pianist in this group Zaccai Curtis is set for stardom. The lord gave him piano hands and he has been performing since the age of five. As a young child, he studied many styles of music including jazz, salsa and classical. As a high school student, Zaccai earned many festival musical awards and was recognized by Down Beat magazine as the top piano performer. He was also chosen as the pianist for the National Grammy Band Combo. He is currently pursuing his master's degree at the New England Conservatory. In 2003, Mr. Zaccai was chosen as a winner of ASCAP Young Jazz Composer's Competition.



























If you want to see more http://lovelife.smugmug.com/gallery/1150713



LoveLife

[fmoore]

Nice shots, Jerry. Thanks for the tutorial. One question: Why iso400? With a higher flash intensity (say -1), wouldn't iso200 have worked or would the flash have been too intrusive? Was the congo player right in the window - white background?

[LadyhawkVA]

Nice series. The lighting looks great. Thanks for sharing your technique and photos with us.

[LoveLife]

fmoore wrote:

Nice shots, Jerry. Thanks for the tutorial. One question: Why iso400? With a higher flash intensity (say -1), wouldn't iso200 have worked or would the flash have been too intrusive? Was the congo player right in the window - white background?

They were all in one window or another. This club was designed for night usage with a wonderful nighttime view. The curtains are only on the sides and cannot cover all the windows. This was a free benefit concert by the group to thank Lincoln Center for this marvelous opportunity. I tried the 200 ISO before the show and the flash was too dominant and the speed a tad slow. BTW, I even used my lens hood.

[LoveLife]

LadyhawkVA wrote:

Nice series. The lighting looks great. Thanks for sharing your technique and photos with us.

Thank you for viewing and commenting. I figured the tech stuff would avoid the questions about noise and background.

[rduve]

Thanks, LoveLife (Jerry). Great shots once again. Totally my milieu! I recently noticed that my FZ30 does not have a "fill flash" setting, but only a "forced Flash" which means it would fire at fullpower and would have to be adjusted down for fill flash purposes. If I am correct about this, I find it to be a missing feature. Or do I have it wrong?

[LoveLife]

rduve wrote:

Thanks, LoveLife (Jerry). Great shots once again. Totally my milieu! I recently noticed that my FZ30 does not have a "fill flash" setting, but only a "forced Flash" which means it would fire at full speed and would have to be adjusted down for fill flash purposes. If I am correct about this, I find it to be a missing feature. Or do I have it wrong?

It does not have a fill flash setting. To reduce theflash toggle the topside of the jog button until you reach flash. Then toggle the left jog to decrease the flash intensity. You need to set both because the strong backlight will stop the flash from firing and you do not want to over power the subject will flash.

[rduve]

Understood. A "fill flash" function would handle this automatically, but I can work with this. By the way, do you still have your FZ30 or did you go back to the FZ10?

[LoveLife]

rduve wrote:

Understood. A "fill flash" function would handle this automatically, but I can work with this. By the way, do you still have your FZ30 or did you go back to the FZ10?

I had the FZ10 with me that day because I was going to do street candids itmuch faster overall then the FZ30 for this purpose. It also excels at available light because of the F2.8 at all zooms. My FZ30 has been gathering dust as of late it is ok for all other situations where the "second" is not so critical. Both cameras suffer from shuter / EVFlag so if I have shot set up time I peer over the top to grab the action.

[rduve]

Try a Red Dot Sight to overcome EVF/LCD delay and shutter freeze.