Why use flash for Portraits

[sillbeers15]

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I have been learning and understand more on using lighting on portraits for quite some time now and I admit that I am getting bored on this subject and looking to move over to another new challenge soon. With the smartphone offering users the avenue to take pictures anywhere anytime, I somewhat feel that as a photography enthuse where do I differentiate myself from anyone taking a picture using their mobilephone? I therefore actively look for challenges that I can learn to take pictures with improved skills. As Sal Cincotta puts it: 'How do you differentiate yourself from another wedding photographer'. Partially also due to the limited SL lenses available, so I quickly run out of new toys, so lighting quickly became my exploration. I also value mobility, so 1000W lighting strobes becomes a strict No for me as I hope to bring lighting outdoors and while I travel rather than indoor studio style locations.

I came across the following article in Fstoppers site and wish to share:

https://fstoppers.com/originals/seven-reasons-why-flash-portraits-are-better-natural-light-304578

[SiggiGun]

Hello

I agree and can confirm. Before I never used flash or artifical ligth, but now I am convinced

I had participated over the last 2 years at 2 workshops in Arles on Portrait and Lighting with this 2 gentlemens:

https://www.modds.fr/photographer/jerome-bonnet/portraits

https://www.modds.fr/photographer/olivier-metzger?back=1

 

Please find a link here to my personal work

https://siggigun.wordpress.com/photography/portraits/
https://www.flickr.com/gp/siggigun/m8R316

 

[ynp]

Thank you for the link to the article. 

Unfortunately for all of us, there is no TTL/HSS Leica triggers for any popular battery strobe systems. For some reasons Leica was not interested in getting their cameras supported by the battery strobe manufacturers. 

Yevgeny. 

[mmradman]

27 minutes ago, ynp said:

Thank you for the link to the article. 

Unfortunately for all of us, there is no TTL/HSS Leica triggers for any popular battery strobe systems. For some reasons Leica was not interested in getting their cameras supported by the battery strobe manufacturers. 

Yevgeny. 

Real photographers don’t use flash 😉

Joking aside there is a reason why people making living with cameras usually go to well known other brands, poor flash integration by Leica.

[ynp]

https://fstoppers.com/strobe-light/pushing-gear-extremes-having-fun-f095-lens-and-flash-306841?fbclid=IwAR14a7RbxIqrUGghR9uv5mGCggVZmHx6NzQIbaW1gCsehjedleNqguRzfP8

That’s why I still have a Sony camera ....

[sillbeers15]

5 hours ago, ynp said:

Thank you for the link to the article. 

Unfortunately for all of us, there is no TTL/HSS Leica triggers for any popular battery strobe systems. For some reasons Leica was not interested in getting their cameras supported by the battery strobe manufacturers. 

Yevgeny. 

There aren't many choices of battery powered strobes that support the Leica brand as most lighting supplier see a very limited customer base from Leica to bother supporting Leica users. I know cause I wrote to Profoto before asking them if they would consider supporting Leica cameras. Their reply to me was like telling me not to bother them as they are not interested at all.

I just whish them luck as I see not much technical barrier for cheap Chinese flash/strobe makers like Godox to copy and compete with Profoto on pricing unless Profoto can keep coming up with innovative products at lighting speed endlessly, else I see that it is a matter of time the become the victim of their own success.

I am hoping that the L Mount alliance will follow the path of Panasonic - Olympus micro four thirds path on a common flash protocol. The economies of scale will get third party flash producers interested to develop flash/strobe support. So I rather bet my horses on Leica camera + lenses and work around it to get flashes to work than to stick to some know flash / strobe brands that can go away in no time. Pocket Wizard was promising wireless flash trigger producers a few years ago sell their products at tier A pricing. Now with flash producers offering built in wireless receivers and coming up with their own wireless triggers, Pocket Wizard's dooms day is just round the corner.

[sillbeers15]

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4 hours ago, mmradman said:

Real photographers don’t use flash 😉

Joking aside there is a reason why people making living with cameras usually go to well known other brands, poor flash integration by Leica.

The Leica you've mention is the Leica in the past. 

I wrote to Leica in Q4 2017 complaining about no wireless trigger support for TTL/HSS and Leica replied me that they are working on a solution to be released soon. I waited and by June 2018, Leica released SF60 & SF C1. 

[ynp]

Another solution is to spend money with Leica, buy a bunch of their expensive SF60’s and use them all in a cluster.  But for the price of five of them I can buy a Broncolor. 

Because the Leica market is small, it’s Leica who shall pay the premium strobe manufacturers to make the Leica version of their product. Or change the flash protocol on their “professional bodies”  to something more supported. 

 

Yevgeny. 

[lx1713]

I've stuck with Profoto largely because of the quick recycling and consistent color quality (Broncolors are better but Profotos are good enough for me). That's pretty important when you want consistency in your output. The unseen issue of cheaper flashes is when you push them hard, they will fail you in subtle ways. Colour quality is the most subtle and irritating defect to me.

Shooting manual in most cases will solve most problematic scenarios with the exception of high speed sync. Again manual output delivers consistency. Under certain conditions you can even push higher shutter speeds and not see the effects of an unsync flash but not when you really want the environment to look darker than your flash. Once you master manual flash, you will use TTL only for really fast moving events. Even then you can tip the scales in favour of manual flash. The SL's post shot review by holding down the shutter button is the quickest way I know of checking a good exposure and remedying it by adjusting your power. Better than a DSLR in most cases. The caveat though, is when you are frantically shooting 2-3 frames per second in a run and gun situation, it will drive you nuts. 

A consistent result means you don't have to go thru each and every picture to tweak colours and exposure. A strobe by nature has a limited gamut of colours, great compared with artificial building lights but it can never beat the spectrum of the sun, so it's a critical balancing of priorities you are aiming for. What do you want to achieve?

Manual flash is rather like shooting manual exposure. It takes time to develop a preference.

Hope that's helpful.

Edited November 14, 2018 by lx1713

[Chuck Albertson]

Me too. I'm quite happy with my ancient Elinchrom head (and its ancient modeling light), a flash meter and a dark room to start. It's not the sort of rig I'd take skydiving, as the cost of the extension cord would be prohibitive.

[ynp]

1 hour ago, lx1713 said:

Shooting manual in most cases will solve most problematic scenarios with the exception of high speed sync. Again manual output delivers consistency. Under certain conditions you can even push higher shutter speeds and not see the effects of an unsync flash but not when you really want the environment to look darker than your flash. Once you master manual flash, you will use TTL only for really fast moving events. Even then you can tip the scales in favour of manual flash. The SL's post shot review by holding down the shutter button is the quickest way I know of checking a good exposure and remedying it by adjusting your power. Better than a DSLR in most cases.

Thank you for your post. I concur.

And I do not feel any need for TTL. l just feel annoyed that I cannot use HS with my Broncolor lights. 

[sillbeers15]

10 hours ago, ynp said:

Another solution is to spend money with Leica, buy a bunch of their expensive SF60’s and use them all in a cluster.  But for the price of five of them I can buy a Broncolor. 

Because the Leica market is small, it’s Leica who shall pay the premium strobe manufacturers to make the Leica version of their product. Or change the flash protocol on their “professional bodies”  to something more supported. 

 

Yevgeny. 

I did that.