Here is a simple technique that, with practice, can give you greater flexibility in your pictures.

In the following photos, notice the difference in the exposure of the background. The slower the shutter speed, the lighter the background; however the exposure on the subject remains constant. How is this possible?

In order to achieve these results, the following conditions must be met:

• The background must be far enough away so as to not be affected by the flash. In other
  words, the background must be “out of range” of the flash.
• The subject must receive most of its illumination from the flash.

If these two conditions are met, here is what you can achieve by simply changing your shutter speed and exposure:

The subject is exposed from the flash, while the background is exposed from ambient light. By changing the shutter speed (keeping within flash synch speeds) the exposure on the background will change. However, changing the shutter speed will not change the exposure on the subject, since the slower shutter speed (1/250 second or slower) will always let the entire duration of the flash (1/1000 to 1/4000 second) through the shutter.

Remember the five components of exposure for flash photography: ISO, aperture, shutter speed, flash power, and flash distance to subject. You can use these characteristics to control exposure in different parts of your scene. The shutter speed only affects the parts of the picture that are out of flash range. The flash power and distance only affect the components that are within the flash range.

In these photos, aperture, ISO, and flash power were kept constant. The photo with the darkest background was taken at 1/250 shutter speed. The photo with the brightest background was taken at 1/30 shutter speed. Give this a try on your own; it’s a lot of fun to play with.

Hint: Many times it is acceptable, even desirable, for the background to be blurry, so you may want to use very slow shutter speeds to brighten the background.

Hint: If your background is too bright, use a neutral density filter to darken everything and increase flash power.

Taken with Graslon 4100D Dome diffuser

Taken with direct flash only

Photographers understand that when it comes to light sources, bigger is definitely better.  A studio may have a diffuser the size of an entire wall. The problem comes when you want to take the soft light with you. You don’t really want that umbrella mounted to your camera.

The Graslon 4100 flash diffusers offer a large, effective, soft light source by transforming your on-camera flash by enlarging the size of the source, not just putting a diffuser in front of your flash. This is accomplished by a series of carefully engineered reflectors and openings that bend the light before diffusing it, and is designed to be most effective when you are lacking close objects that would normally give you good bounce. The Graslon 4100 literally provides its own bounce.

Applications include weddings and events, outdoor and wildlife, product photography, portraits, macro, still life, and sunsets (just kidding). Anywhere you need a big, soft light on the go. Also works great on your slave units, and sits perfectly content on table, shelf, or tripod using the optional 4140 stand.

It’s like having a serious light panel. Only brighter. At much less cost. Even comes in amber for tungsten color balance.

We like it. We think you will too.

Sometimes the ambient lighting isn’t the brilliant white of the camera flash. The amber version of the Graslon Flat Flash Diffuser is specifically colored to match the warm hues of tungsten lights often found in large banquet halls and meeting rooms. In rooms with no close bounce opportunities and warmer lighting, the Flat Amber Flash Diffuser is without equal.

Click here to view the product page for more info.