The fundamental difference is that with a flash your camera can communicate with the flash and get the exposure. With a reflector, you basically have to figure out the exposure yourself.

Which comes back to the same basic thing : exposure of your shot.

Yes. I admit I'm being harsh. This is because time and time again you say you're experimenting and trying this or that and asking for advise. Problem is you never take the advise.

I dunno. I apologize for being rude. Sometimes when I see your thread, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Sometimes it makes me kinda angry. Like now for instance.

I'm sorry for being rude. I've said what I have to say. So I'll be quiet now.

Thats not exactly it bro, when we look at fundamental theory

Shutter speed - control ambient

Aperture - control artificial lighting ( such as flash )


If you got HSS it allows u to sync ur flash up to 1 / 5000 at least, that allows u to decrease the ambient light while at the same time use ur flash to light up ur subject the way u want
( this allows u to just allow aperture to remain at say f1.8 so it preserves ur bohkeh )

If u dont have HSS u can only sync to max 1/200 or 1/250, then u have to stop down aperture which kills the mood and bohkeh

I use reflector so the lighting cant overpower the surrounding ambient coz its the same level or weaker



Sorry bro, my reply just now was because a knee jerk response. I have retracted my words.

Sorry, but I need to correct your statement a bit to prevent misleading information to beginning photography learners.

and talking about harsh sunlight, to me I won't even want to place my model facing the harsh sunlight directly, either find a shaded area use the sunlight to create a rim light around her hairs, that should stop up my shutter speed a lot, and still maintain a sharp image. I rarely use flash in this situation, since a reflector is already good enough to expose the shadow area of the model and make the overall image look natural, 1/500s at f/2.8 also no problem

This post has been edited by geekster129: Dec 10 2012, 11:32 AM

Ur statement is even more confusing la, a great part of explanation was replaced by the word "automatically"

OK. Noted. Sifu!

Ok. I need to add one more thing. Then I'll be quiet.


Discounting the fact of whether one is using HSS flash or reflector or any other light for that matter, isn't it important to get the exposure right?

Let's say you are using a reflector and you cannot overpower the background light. Logical to assume that reflected light will lose some intensity.

Question:

1. Why are you trying to overpower the background? In this case, the sun. Why not just meter the scene for the background and use the reflector. This will get your subject a little under compared to the ambient/background exposure. With a little PP, the shot would look better, don't you think?

2. You cannot control the light from the reflector other than it's direction but you can control your shutter speed, right? Assuming you want to use a certain aperture setting, you can adjust your shutter speed to get correct exposure level, can't you? If you have already adjusted the shutter speed to the max and the shot does not come out right, then it's an impossible shot that you are trying to get. Why not change location or try something else?


Getting into the nitty-gritty details about HSS flash and shutter speed and aperture all basically lead back to one of the most basic things in photography : which is the exposure of your shot. It goes back to how you want your shot to be exposed. Although it's subjective as to what is the 'correct' exposure, it make sense to think that one has to strive to get to an 'acceptable' level.

Suggest u explain to beginning photography learners how come u observe the following phenomenon if u really wanted to help them

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Added on December 10, 2012, 12:23 pm1 ) Because i encountered a recent shot by my favourite photographer who use a technique which overpower background light, I want to try to emulate those shots hence my initial tests on this matter which start with reflector first

Yeah got a few ppl suggest shooting under then pp again after saw this set, but sometimes shoot under the colors turn out diff a bit, later will investigate this further


2 ) The test was done at plenty of locations with background exposures of various levels http://famecherry.com/models/everglades/

Whats involved now is the relation between subject exposure and background exposure

But sure, choosing a background which is less blown out can help la












This post has been edited by Wholleymolley: Dec 10 2012, 12:23 PM

The student becomes the teachers... Pretend ask dumb question later on prey on weaker kind people giving humble comments....

haiz... seem many argument at here.

It doesn't matter what techniques & ways you use, the most important is master the technique you use to create good photos.

Wholleymolley, he use reflector to get better pictures but not effective, still need more practices. You need to learn how to change the angle and position of the reflector to get proper and balance light or reduce shadow on the subject.
Not just simply reflect the light on the subject which create "ugly" lighting on her.

shootkk, since you are good on using off hand @ wireless flash Techniques, if add a softbox at the flash, then can reduce the shadow on the subject, sure can see improvement for the photos.

You got to be kidding me.lol.You are giving a relevant comment or you are just trying to increase the number of your post?