Flash Photography - Off Camera Flash

First, if you want to know more about Off camera flash photography , check out the Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 guides from Strobist Blogspot. The website is all about learning  how to use off camera flash starting from the beginning to all technical aspects.

 

Once you have tried a few times of your onboard flash, you will quickly realise the limitation of the very week onboard flash. Not only it is very weak (but still useful for some occasions) and has no  FP High Speed Sync mode, the lighting is very much directional and produces very harsh shadows to your subjects.

 

External flashes (Speedlights) helps to create a much more natural and balanced image by offering:

• swivel flash head to allow bouncing the light off walls or at least a diffuser can be attached to help diffuse the harsh light,
• a much longer flash shooting distance range (higher Guide number)
• off camera trigger to operate as a remote flash, forming a powerful Creative Lighting System (CLS)
• act as an commander to wirelessly trigger remote flashes (SB-900 and SB-800)

 

Nikon SB-900 and SB-600 triggered by Nikon D700 onboard commander

Off Camera

With the luxury of external flashes, don’t be afraid to use them off camera. Off camera flash often produces less harsh shadow due to being able to position the flash off axis . This is much more desire than placing the flash on the camera to light up your subject front on.

 

Diffuser

A Diffuser is used to diverge the light (less concentrate) to give a soft light. The most simple way without any additional equipment is to bounce the flash light to reflective ceilings and walls. This effectively turns the ceilings and walls to a huge spotlight to create a much softer light source. There are many diffusers that can be used in conjunction with the speedlights:

 

;
Flash Diffuser Dome	Flash Umbrella	Softbox

Here I illustrate one of the most simple lighting setup, which works very well. First, position an umbrella on the left hand side about 45 degree towards the subject and then a silver reflector on the right hand side (or vice versa).  The idea here is to use the umbrella to create a diffused light source off centre and then use the reflector to fill in the shadows.

and the results

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Adobe Lightroom 3 - Noise Reduction (NR) Comparison

Adobe Lightroom 3 has added and improved many features to make Lightroom 3 a one complete workflow package. I have listed many of its new features, but one of its new improved feature is its noise reduction engine. This is what Adobe says about its superior noise reduction:

“Achieve amazing, natural-looking results from your high ISO images with all-new state-of-the-art noise reduction technology. You won't need more than what's built into Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 to get the cleanest images at any ISO.”

There are many noise reduction (NR) packages out there that also claims to be number 1 in removing noise and grain from digital images.

Here, I present the images (100% crop) after applying some of the most common NR software. The test candidates are:

 

| Lightroom 2 | Lightroom 3 | Noise Ninja | Define 2 | Noiseware Professional | DxO Optics Pro |

 

Let’s first check out the test image -  An image of Hong Kong skyline taken with a Nikon D700 @ ISO1600, f/2.8. It has a lot of dark/shadow areas where noise is a lot less tolerant.

 

Here is a comparison of the NR results (100% crop 800x600) from the five different NR software. The NR settings used are as follows:

• Lightroom 2 – 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Lightroom 3 - 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Noise Ninja – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Noiseware Professional – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Define 2 - Default settings, automatic profiling
• DxO 6 - Default settings, automatic profiling

Click image for full resolution

My preferences

1. LR2 – Maintain a lot of details similar to the original, some noise still presence
2. Noiseware Professional – Similar results to LR2, but reduced contrast
3. DxO 6 – Still some noise especially chromatic noise, a bit smudged
4. LR3 – Very clean , but image became a bit soft. Perhaps a lower NR setting will help
5. Define 2 – Similar results to LR3, but losing contrast and details
6. NoiseNinja – Feels a bit smudged, image became a bit soft, losing contrast and details

Second test image - An image of Xiamen skyline taken with a Nikon D700 @ ISO5000, f/2.8. It also has a lot of dark/shadow areas where noise is a lot less tolerant.

Here is a comparison of the NR results (100% crop 800x600) from the five different NR software. The NR settings used are as follows:

• Lightroom 2 – 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Lightroom 3 - 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Noise Ninja – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Noiseware Professional – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Define 2 - Default settings, automatic profiling
• DxO 6 - Default settings, automatic profiling

Click image for full resolution

 

My preferences

1. NoiseNinja – Some noise remains, but maintained most details and contrast
2. DxO 6 – Some noise remains, a slightly soft
3. Define 2 – Some smudged and image became soft
4. LR3 – Very soft, but not as patchy as others
5. LR2 – Smudged and patchy, image became soft
6. Noiseware Professional – Smudged and appears to have halo effect

Remarks
LR3’s NR algorithm is capable of removing image noise very well without adding artifacts to the image. However, in the test results above,  the images became a bit soft. Perhaps the NR settings at 70% luminance and 80% colour were too strong. NR is a compromise really, you are prone to lose some of  image details (i.e. image becomes soft) when you remove too much noise.

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• Adobe Lightroom 3
• Niksoftware Define 2
• DxO Optics Pro

Adobe Lightroom 3

Adobe Lightroom 3 is now officially out of beta. The release came after some significant testing from the two beta releases (beta and beta 2). I have received my copy of LR3 today and will have more reviews once I had a proper go at it.

 

Here’s the official announcement

So what’s new in Lightroom 3? Quite a lot really

Check out the Lightroom 3 resources to find out more details

Here is an extract on what’s new from computer darkroom.

 

 

Workflow and Library:

• Faster thumbnail scrolling and module switching
• Completely redesigned import dialog
• Publish Collections
• Backup on exit
• Enhanced sorting (i.e. sort by aspect ratio)
• Enhanced collection and smart collection functionality
• Import CMYK files
• New thumbnail badge to show when photo is in a Collection
• Import DSLR video files
• Tethered Capture
• Animation in Library Histogram
• Optimise catalogue command included in File menu
• Improved preview quality
• New Library module keyboard shortcuts for more efficient module switching
• IPTC extensions in Metadata panel
• Lens and focal length added to Metadata filter bar and Smart Collections

Develop:

• Improved raw conversion
• Improved sharpening
• Improved colour noise reduction
• Improved luminance noise reduction
• Point Curve in Tone Curve panel
• Process versions renamed to 2003 and 2010 (Current)
• Process version switch via pop-up menu in Camera Calibration panel
• New Grain filter
• Improved Post-crop vignette
• Collections panel added
• Simplified local adjustment brush and graduated filter panel
• Automatic profile based lens corrections
• Manual lens and perspective corrections
• New develop presets

Output:

• Enhanced slideshow export, which includes HD video
• Export video files as originals
• Ability to limit file size on export
• Music selection on Mac simplified and decoupled from iTunes
• Sync slideshow length to duration of selected music track
• Custom Print Package allowing free-form layout of multiple photos on a page
• Enhanced watermarking
• New templates for Web and Print modules
• Enhanced Software Development Kit (SDK)

The new import interface

The Develop interface. Notice the lens correction applied the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens profile automatically.

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