Zoom-Zoom: Flash Technique

I didn't know I could do that with my flash! You know, the gear we use today is so sophisticated - heck, just look at the size of the manuals available when you purchase that loved camera. That a good understanding of all the camera/flash features can be a great benefit to us on the job. Let's talk about just one today - I call it Flash: Zoom, Zoom!

I first got the idea a few weeks ago when we were down Florida on that big wedding. I had just taken a photograph of the outdoor ceremony location with my 10-22mm lens with the on-camera flash acting as my fill light. The first image shows that the camera was reading a much further focus distance and consequently signalled the flash to deliver more light than was necessary for the foreground area.

When I checked the back of the flash, it was reading it's widest setting of 14mm, that's because the wide angle diffuser was also covering the flash head. The default setting for the flash without the diffuser is 24mm. I knew I could "zoom" the flash manually by pressing the "zoom" button and then rotating the big dial on the back of the flash. I "zoomed" it to 80mm and re-shot the space - now I had a hot spot in the middle. Dialing back the zoom a bit made the final image just right.

Now fast forward three weeks to this past weekend's wedding. I'm shooting some groups and tables with my 17-85mm lens on the 40D. I remember the Florida experience and think - hmmm "Maybe I can create a vignette look on the subjects by "zooming" the flash. I "zoomed" to about 80mm again which threw a "cone" of light right on my group creating a natural vignette on the scene with the lightest part of the image being the group itself. Check out the group image. The accent light is coming from my assistant hold his Quantum T5d at about the 10 o'clock position to the group - more on that in a future posting.

How about one more use of the "zoom" technique. I was outside photographing my subject and wanted the light to only fall on her face. One method was with my "Hollywood" lighting technique we talked about several weeks ago in our blog (here is the link right here and the update article right here.) With the "zoom" technique, I can get almost the same result. I had my assistant hold my off-camera 580EX flash in a position that gave me a nice loop lighting pattern. I set the "zoom" to 80mm to get maximum light output from the flash on this sunny day, and fired away. Look how the "cone of light" illuminated just her face against the dark sky - almost like a spotlight - which in essence, it was. The result shows the usefulness of the "zoom" technique in yet another situation. Why not post some "zoom" technique photos to our Flickr group right here - let's see what you guys and girls come up with. Remember to give the specifics of the shots, and tag them zoom-zoom.