The idea behind fill flash is that there are two light sources to light up an image. The first is a bright source in the background.

Here is an example of a photograph with a bright background:

Daydreaming, originally uploaded by ~hera~.

What’s the problem with this photograph? Depending on whom you ask, there may be no problem at all. Or, the problem may be that the subject, Gabriel, is cast in shadow. This is because the source of light–the setting sun–is behind him. The only way to avoid this is to change the aperture, found on my own point and shoot camera as “AE Metering”.

My camera’s AE Metering setting allows me three options:

Average

Entire scene is used to calculate exposure.

Center-Weighted

Large area in center of scene is used to calculate exposure.

Spot

Small area in center of scene is used to calculate exposure.

The problem with my point and shoot’s simplicity is that the exposure and focus are determined at the same time. If I try to expose for the background, I’ll have to expose away from my subject, and I will not be focused on my subject. If I focus on my subject, the exposure will be based on the dark shadow cast on my subject. To get around this, I should set my camera’s AE Metering to “Average”.

An SLR camera offers more control, but I’ve never used one, so I’ll let Wikipedia do the talking:

To use fill flash, the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to correctly expose the background, and the flash is fired to lighten the foreground.

This quote takes us to the second source of light. What if the camera’s flash fired on Gabriel in the photograph above? He would light up, but the flash would have no impact on the background. Let’s face it, the flash isn’t going to reach the sky, bounce back, and negatively impact the photograph. Since the camera is exposing for the sky (the background), the sky will come out with the correct colors and lighting. The flash ensures the same is true for the subject.

I used fill flash when photographing Alyss today:

I had the AE Metering set to “Spot”, which was the opposite of what I should have done. My first two photographs (not uploaded) had washed out white skies because of this. The one above I was simply lucky on! I should try this shoot again, using the proper camera settings. Maybe I can reshoot it in a way so that her face doesn’t have such a shadow cast on it, but at least it’s a soft, light shadow thanks to the flash.

With a fill flash, we can brighten the subject without washing out the background, and we can properly color the background without shading the subject. How’s that for nifty?

One thing I observed was that my point and shoot camera’s “Shade” white balance setting gave better results than the “Sun” setting during early morning. Do the results remain the same when the sun is up high and bright? It appears not!

It makes sense that the “Sun” white balance setting should be used when directly sunlight (or a cloudy sky) is overhead. I’m not sure why the “Shade” setting worked better in the morning, but I should probably test it out more.

One of the big problems I face is that my so-called white sunlight-colored bulb leaves everything very orange with all of my camera’s white balance settings (except for one that leaves everything a pale blue), and adding the camera’s flash to anything makes it even more orange (with little to no blue/green to speak of)!

Maybe I’m doing something wrong…

I decided to get a white subject, and then try out the different white balance settings: Sunny, Shade, Tungsten, and Fluorescent. The result?

From now on, I will use the tunsten setting when using this bulb for light, and I will avoid using the flash for these indoor/night-time photographs I take! (The truth is, I knew this is what I should be using, but I mostly used flash, so I thought I must not be using the correct setting!)

The easiest type of photograph seems to be with a sky in the background. On a sunny day, the sky is very well lit (thanks Mr. Sun!), and when it’s evening, the sun’s light casts shadows just right for a silhouette.

I took this photo just before evening, as the sun was readying its departure for the night, but before it had a chance to change the sky from blue to red. Had I stayed out longer, I could have re-taken the photo with an orange sky, with a red sky, and with a purple sky, allowing me to decide which came out the best.

What I like about this photo is that Chloë isn’t completely a silhouette. Her features are still partially visible. What I don’t care for is how bland the background is. I’d like to try a different kind of photo, where the subject and an object (such as a tree) are both in the photo, two distinct photographs, but the placement of two-story housing where I live doesn’t really lend to this type of photograph.

A little bit of light showing details is nice when the it may not be clear who or what the subject is by looking at the silhouette alone. If the silhouette is instantly recognizable, these is no need to show the details, and it becomes less of a necessity and more of an artist direction.

For this photograph, I didn’t put much thought or planning into it, and it shows. My only goal here was to get more of a silhouette, removing the ability to barely see any features. The back-light came as a foggy morning, before the sun crowned the horizon. To improve this photo, the first thing to do would be to take the photo with a different background, something fitting of the subject.

The reason I chose a figure of a ballerina for this photo is because a ballerina’s silhouette is unmistakable. The close-fitting outfit, the extending tutu, the positions of the arms, and the closeness of the legs, all speak out, “I am a ballerina, and this is Swan Lake.” (Incidentally, I haven’t seen Swan Lake yet, so I don’t know if this pose appears in Swan Lake, or if it’s a common pose in ballet, or if the figure’s designer even considered to use a “real” ballet pose when designing this figure of Rue.)

I’ll continue to experiment with photographing silhouettes. Maybe I can take some nice photographs of silhouettes during the early evening while I’m in San Diego during Comic-Con!