Daylight Flash Sync/ Fill-in Flash Assignment
2 prints due April 25, 2003
GENERAL INFO ABOUT FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

see the example

Using your flash as a fill is a way to reduce shadowed faces when shooting in daylight. You may also try this with backlit subjects. There are several ways to pair fill-in flash with the ambient lighting of the scene. You may choose to light your subject to match the lighting of the overall scene, you may choose to underexpose your background slightly so that your correctly exposed subject stands out, or you may want to overexpose your background, so that the background becomes light in relation to your subject. For this assignment, you must do 2 prints. In one, the subject and the background must be balanced. In the other, the background must be dark in relation to the subject.
To do this, you must match your flash-recommended aperture with the aperture required to shoot the overall outdoor scene.

Meter the overall scene. Remember that your choice of sync speed might be limited by the make of your camera. For instance, if you have an old Nikon, you will have to shoot at 1/60th or slower, so keep this in mind when you are picking your film ASA and later deciding on your f-stop/shutter speed combo.

To balance the subject and background so that they are equal, the f-stop to correctly expose the background must be equal to the f-stop necessary to obtain a correct exposure with your flash unit as determined by consulting the chart on your flash.
To darken the background, you will need to reduce your shutter speed. Again, do not reduce your shutter speed to the point at which your flash will no longer sync up with it.
In regards to fill-in flash, the shutter speed controls the background exposure and the f-stop controls the exposure on the foreground.

Your pictures must be compelling in and of their own right, and not just because they are correct completions of the assignment. Find outdoor locations which are interesting and dynamic. Work with your subject. Make them comfortable. Ask them questions. Engage them. Ask them to do something ridiculous.

If you would like to work in color for this assignment, you may shoot slides and we will project them in class for the critique. Slides are convenient because you will not have to work in the darkroom, but transparency film is finicky and nowhere is this finickiness more apparent than when shooting with a flash. Correct exposures are required. Blown out faces will not be tolerated.