As promised, I was going to experiment with artificial light, which isn't something I usually use in photography as I like my images to be as natural as possible. I took the chance to experiment with light whilst my nephew was eating, which I thought might be successful in trying to capture him with a messy mouth.
I used a speedlite which I attached to the top of my camera and adjusted to suit my needs.
The photos below, which are all unedited, are of both the natural light used in the room and the speed light. I didn't have a light meter to hand, so I used my own eyes to determine the best light, power and aperture to use.
The room I shot in had one fairly large window which, as you can probably tell, was located to the left of my nephew. It doesn't let in too much light because it's situated behind a wall, the most light it sees is around sunset. However, I was shooting in the afternoon on a winter's day. The most obvious thing to me is that the images have quite a lot of noise. They aren't sharp, they're all slightly blurred, which is due to having to have a lower f-stop to let in more light, which delays the shutter speed and ultimately the movement from my nephew (and indeed me) creates blur. The natural light creates natural shadows and light on my nephew's face, which I like as it creates depth and tones that I don't think a flash could achieve.
By attaching the speedlite to the top of my camera and adjusting the angle of the light towards walls to bounce the light off, I achieved these images. Similarly to the first set of photos without the flash, they are all blurry. I think this was because I hadn't yet adjusted my camera's aperture, I was simply trying to find the best way to attempt to create a natural-looking light. My first thoughts were that the flash was too strong as it was bouncing off the chair my nephew is sat on, which creates a harsh light in the photos. Also, I wasn't angling the flash correctly, as it wasn't capturing my nephew's face, but was getting the background objects. When I did adjust it slightly (as seen in the last photo), the light did bounce off my nephew's face, making it lighter, but was too harsh. I therefore adjusted the speed light's power, lowering until the light looked "right". Noticeably, the natural shadows shown in the first set of images had disappeared.
In these last three photos, I angled the speedlite from pointing to the ceiling to looking at the side wall (to the right). I also added a diffusion card to soften the light, as the previous photos came out too harsh, even with the power of the light turned down to its lowest. I also adjusted the aperture to work with the new light settings. Overall these images came out well once I'd got everything "right"! The first image is too light for me, too unnatural, I'm not sure why this one was different to the other two as I was using all the same settings - possibly the particular angle of either me or my nephew. The last two images came out well - they are generally focused, much more than without the flash, however his fringe is still blurred, but that probably has more to do with my own focusing (I was using auto focus, which can be temperamental when taking photos close up). The diffuser definitely helps to soften the flash, as shown by looking at the chair - in the second set of photos using a harsh flash, the light reflected off the chair which created a very unnatural effect. However, the diffuser (along with the different angle of the flash), help to eliminate this harshness.
Although not perfect, the speed light does have its advantages. Once all the settings are right and the correct balance is found, natural looking photos can indeed be achieved in poor light. The most important parts are angling the flash correctly and making sure I'm using the right aperture. The aperture ultimately changes every time the flash changes in any way. If I hadn't constantly changed f-stop, then the images would have been either overexposed or dark and noisy.
Although I do see the benefits of using speedlites, and indeed mono lights, soft boxes and light umbrellas (which I have experimented with before in my past projects), the nature of my project this year (and indeed last year) suggests that natural light is better. Obviously I am bias as I much prefer to shoot in natural light anyway, as nothing can compare to natural shadows, light and tones, however I do honestly believe that using natural light is the way forward for me with this project. Adjusting the lighting takes up precious time with my nephew, who constantly moves and wants to do this or that - why faff around with lights when I can take photos in well lit rooms? Or indeed, outside, where light is generally not a problem in the day time.
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