Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/08

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Subject: [Leica] Re: a lunatic flash technique... try it.
From: "Eric" <ericm@pobox.com>
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2001 18:39:50 -0500
References: <45EDA71CFF25D411A2E400508B6FC52A031E081B@orportexch1.internal.nextlink.net> <B73C2C63.F1D3%john@pinkheadedbug.com>

John:

>Anyway, now I share a technique. Everyone knows you can bounce the flash off
>the ceiling, and walls to the left and right of you, but next time try
>this...
>
>fire the flash backwards.
>
>yeah it sounds ludicrous but if you are standing about six feet from a wall
>you will get a beautiful diffuse frontal lighting, real beauty shot stuff.

Cool!!  I played around with that on a few shots at the end of a roll.

http://canid.com/pics/cuervo_bed.jpg

Ignore the background.  This isn't meant to be an example of anything but
how the light falls on the subject.  :)  The bedpost is about 5 ft and the
wall in the background is about 8 ft behind the cat.  Firing the flash
backwards seems to do a better job of providing even illumination over more
than just the subject.  Makes sense now that I stop to think about it.
Instead of a subject at 3 ft away and a background at 8 ft away, the light
is traveling about 15 ft + 3 and 15 ft + 8.  Instead of a 7:1 difference,
it's a 1.6:1 difference.


Eric

Replies: Reply from "SonC (Sonny Carter)" <cartersn@alpha.nsula.edu> (Re: [Leica] Re: a lunatic flash technique... try it.)
In reply to: Message from "Rodgers, David" <david.rodgers@xo.com> (RE: [Leica] Minilux(non-zoom))
Message from Johnny Deadman <john@pinkheadedbug.com> ([Leica] a lunatic flash technique... try it.)