MU freshman Shivani Vaid dances in Brady Commons during the festival of Diwali on Saturday. The event included a dinner featuring Indian food followed by singing and dancing. Diwali is known as the “festival of lights,” and is celebrated by both Hindus and those of other religions. Because the festival signifies a renewal of life, many wear news clothes for the festivities as a symbol of this renewal. (See illustration below for exposure details)
Self Critique
My select for this assignment is a pop flash picture I made at the Diwali festival on campus. Finding the right exposure was really difficult to do because everyone dancing at the festival was near several lights that were constantly flashing on and off. To make matters worse, the lights had different color gels on them. So I tried a number of different exposures. This was actually one of my first tries, but I think the exposure is decent. At first I tried shooting in TTL, but it was sending out a pre-flash, and I was afraid there would be too much light, so I ended up shooting manual. For this shot I was about 10 feet away, and my camera was set at f/5, 0.6 sec, 200 ISO with a custom white balance. My flash was powered down about 1/16th, and I had a green gel. There were fluorescent lights in the room that were on, but I think the weird, flashing tungsten lights were overpowering these, so I may have made the wrong choice in gels.
The picture is of a Diwali celebration, which is the festival of lights. I think the picture is appropriate because the blending technique emphasizes the colored lights in the background by blurring them. The composition of the picture could obviously be better, but I do think the exposure is pretty good here.
The picture is of a Diwali celebration, which is the festival of lights. I think the picture is appropriate because the blending technique emphasizes the colored lights in the background by blurring them. The composition of the picture could obviously be better, but I do think the exposure is pretty good here.
When trying fill flash, I went to Hickman and photographed a class playing football. Looking at shots where my flash fired versus shots where it didn’t, I can tell a huge difference. It is a much easier technique than blending, and I can see it becoming something I use all the time. I shot on TTL using the flash underexposed 1 2/3 stops. Some of the shots use the flash well, but in some of them I think I was too close, and the flash couldn’t power down that much. Next time, I’ll have to be sure to use a higher aperture on the closer shots.
Lighting Setup
