Mike Hodgkiss
Senior Member
Further tip , do not gaze longingly at the fishes head with a baleful look on your face . Don't know why but I always find this vaguely disturbing . Much prefer a snap with big cheesy grin on the captors face 
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Taking photo's with a flash
- Thread starter Richard Booty
- Start date
Terry Harman
Senior Member & Supporter
Wayne Pevy
Senior Member
Gazing longinly at the fish usually tells you its an ex carper,they all seem to do this,a bit strange
David Maddison
Senior Member & Supporter
Gazing longinly at the fish usually tells you its an ex carper,they all seem to do this,a bit strange
That crossed my mind with some of the pics I've seen!
Bill Walford
Senior Member & Supporter
Further tip , do not gaze longingly at the fishes head with a baleful look on your face . Don't know why but I always find this vaguely disturbing . Much prefer a snap with big cheesy grin on the captors face
I tend to look at the fish 'cos I HATE looking into a camera. Anyway Mike if you saw me looking directly at you with a big cheesy grin on my chops you'd find that quite disturbing !!
Anthony Pearson
Senior Member
Derek said: 'in your cropped picture, it looks like you've been 12 rounds with Tony Bellew in the Sahara Desert'
Cheers Derek, I'm away from home and have just read this. It was one of those balmy March days (17 degrees) and in of those swims where the tide was out and every time you took a step you were in danger of slipping into the river. I had quite a bead on by the time it came to photographing the fish (after unhooking/resting/setting up the camera) hence the appearance!
Two more tips passed on from another photographer:
If using an air release cable/bracket/air ball (which I do) press the ball down with your heel rather than the front of your foot. It tends to reduced the pained/strained look on your face!
If you are wanting to go down this route for self-takes, buy the bracket for SLR cameras rather than for compact/bridge cameras. Yes they are slightly more expensive but they are much more versatile.
Cheers Derek, I'm away from home and have just read this. It was one of those balmy March days (17 degrees) and in of those swims where the tide was out and every time you took a step you were in danger of slipping into the river. I had quite a bead on by the time it came to photographing the fish (after unhooking/resting/setting up the camera) hence the appearance!
Two more tips passed on from another photographer:
If using an air release cable/bracket/air ball (which I do) press the ball down with your heel rather than the front of your foot. It tends to reduced the pained/strained look on your face!
If you are wanting to go down this route for self-takes, buy the bracket for SLR cameras rather than for compact/bridge cameras. Yes they are slightly more expensive but they are much more versatile.
Terry Harman
Senior Member & Supporter
At night it's hard to look at the camera when you have lights pointing at you ...like being interrogated by the gestapo
Nick Coulthurst
Senior Member & Supporter
Just wondering what people are using these days for night time self portraits with an iPhone. I don’t carry a camera anymore but have been disappointed with my iPhone shots at night as the front flash is useless and I haven’t found a suitable external flash.
Clive Kenyon
Senior Member
There are multiple problems with taking a flash shot of an angler and fish in the dark. Light loses 3/4 of its luminosity if the distance from the light source to subject is doubled so only a small section of the front to back scene will be correctly exposed. A fish will reflect light whereas an angler's drab clothes absorb light so it is difficult to get both correctly exposed against a dark background. And direct light from an on camera flash often gives a flat or 2 dimensional effect.
One simple trick for those using a camera phone with flash it to take three shots from three different distances. If you have a mate taking the photo ask him to take one, step back and zoom in a little and take another shot then repeat. If you are taking a photo of a fish on a mat do the same, three shots from three distances. That way one of the shots should be correctly exposed.
If you have a camera with night portrait mode then use it. This reduces the power of the flash and balances it by having a longer shutter lapse so you and the camera have to keep still for longer, but the image will be better exposed. Some cameras have a fill in flash mode which is basically the same. If the flash is too powerful and you keep getting bleached out images you can on most cameras adjust the flash exposure down 2 stops or more. That will reduce the bleached out effect. Practice by taking photos of your unhooking mat and some tackle at different distances until you get to know what is the best for your circumstances.
To give a more 3D effect you can buy what are called a slave flash. These are small self contained flash guns that react to an on camera flash and create a second light source. If you have a set position where you know that you will be posing for a photo you can place the slave flash in a position of around 45 degrees to where the camera angle would be, around the same distance, but not closer, and a set a little lower. Switch it on and leave it. The slave flash will only operate when your camera flashes. The effect will be to fill in the shadows caused by a single light source.
One simple trick for those using a camera phone with flash it to take three shots from three different distances. If you have a mate taking the photo ask him to take one, step back and zoom in a little and take another shot then repeat. If you are taking a photo of a fish on a mat do the same, three shots from three distances. That way one of the shots should be correctly exposed.
If you have a camera with night portrait mode then use it. This reduces the power of the flash and balances it by having a longer shutter lapse so you and the camera have to keep still for longer, but the image will be better exposed. Some cameras have a fill in flash mode which is basically the same. If the flash is too powerful and you keep getting bleached out images you can on most cameras adjust the flash exposure down 2 stops or more. That will reduce the bleached out effect. Practice by taking photos of your unhooking mat and some tackle at different distances until you get to know what is the best for your circumstances.
To give a more 3D effect you can buy what are called a slave flash. These are small self contained flash guns that react to an on camera flash and create a second light source. If you have a set position where you know that you will be posing for a photo you can place the slave flash in a position of around 45 degrees to where the camera angle would be, around the same distance, but not closer, and a set a little lower. Switch it on and leave it. The slave flash will only operate when your camera flashes. The effect will be to fill in the shadows caused by a single light source.
Chris Belcher
Senior Member & Supporter
Small video lights have def made a difference over recent years - don't buy the carp taxed Rhino though as you can pick up the same light source for a lot less off amazon (eg Andoer). I usually use 2x of these on gardner bankstick adaptors (although one can be mounted on a camera itself in the hotshoe with the other clipped to it if required) at 45 degree angles to the unhooking mat to remove the shadowing - they are small enough to put in your pocket and weigh nothing. For carp a compact digital camera (Bridge Camera) is set at up on a small tripod at a pre determined (marked bankstick) length centred on the unhooking mat and in between each light source (in the middle). If I'm fishing light I use my android phone camera in a on a bankstick bracket adaptor instead of the camera.
The whole area is lit by the flanking lights to enable decent visibility of everything - the 2 inch square video lights kick out more light than you'd expect. Depending on light conditions I might also use a traditional compact flash in the hotshoe or the cameras integral flash but most of the time the video light sources are sufficient. Once everything is set up the fish is ready to photographed - a lot of people like to record in HD video and then freeze the shots they want from this but I'm still relatively oldskool and like the 2 second delay 'shutter click' using an intervalometer - this also saves memory space. Some of the newer phones also have this function, if not you can download loads of free intervalometer apps. I prefer this to the voice or wink command shutter when using the phone as it sometimes doesn't work that well (especially if its windy and p*ssing with rain etc)
Best to practice one night with a cat / dog / small child in the back garden first - this way you can set everything up and gauge the distances / angles / results etc in advance so that it becomes second nature - just don't let the neighbours catch you . .
The whole area is lit by the flanking lights to enable decent visibility of everything - the 2 inch square video lights kick out more light than you'd expect. Depending on light conditions I might also use a traditional compact flash in the hotshoe or the cameras integral flash but most of the time the video light sources are sufficient. Once everything is set up the fish is ready to photographed - a lot of people like to record in HD video and then freeze the shots they want from this but I'm still relatively oldskool and like the 2 second delay 'shutter click' using an intervalometer - this also saves memory space. Some of the newer phones also have this function, if not you can download loads of free intervalometer apps. I prefer this to the voice or wink command shutter when using the phone as it sometimes doesn't work that well (especially if its windy and p*ssing with rain etc)
Best to practice one night with a cat / dog / small child in the back garden first - this way you can set everything up and gauge the distances / angles / results etc in advance so that it becomes second nature - just don't let the neighbours catch you . .
Mark Kingston
Senior Member & Supporter
Or shoot in raw format and sort in post afterwards 
John Newman
Senior Member
The post above regarding intensity of an energy source relative to the subject distance from the source is incorrect. The "Inverse square rule" applies which is a basic principal in physics. More here; https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Inverse_square_law
Clive Kenyon
Senior Member
Taken from the link above; "If the source is 2x as far away, it's 1/4 as much exposure." Therefore it has lost 3/4 of its power if the distance is doubled.
In layman's terms the if the optimum power output of a flashgun gives best results at 2 metres from the subject, if you half that distance to 1 metre the amount of light on the subject will be four times as much and if you doubled the distance to 4 metres between the flash and subject the amount of light illuminating the subject would be a quarter of the optimum. That is why the scenery behind subjects always looks very dark and anything in front of the subject will be bleached out.
On cameras with manual exposure options you can adjust the aperture and / or shutter speed to compensate for the power of the flashgun, bt tht needs a modicum of photographic knowledge.
John Newman
Senior Member
My apologies, you are mostly correct, I would just always think about the remaining intensity over a given area. The light has not been lost it has just become lower in its intensity due to a larger area of coverage.
Ady Brayshaw
Senior Member & Supporter
Paul as you're/were a professional I would be interested in your reasons why you don't think tripods are a good idea. I've been using them for years , but to be honest my results using self takes are of a dubious quality to say the least. I'd be very interested in improving my results. I use a Canon G10 (flip screen) . Not an SLR.
Clive Kenyon
Senior Member
If you are using a tripod or any fixed camera support then you need to turn off the anti-shake feature. It works against you if the camera is fixed.
A flash has the effect of freezing a microsecond of time, a much shorter length than the shutter is open. So, when using flash on auto there should be no visible camera shake. But if you use the fill in flash or night portrait mode then it is better to have the camera fixed as the shutter speed is longer with a brief burst of flash. If the camera wasn't fixed you would get a strong image surrounded by ghost images or blurred images.
A flash has the effect of freezing a microsecond of time, a much shorter length than the shutter is open. So, when using flash on auto there should be no visible camera shake. But if you use the fill in flash or night portrait mode then it is better to have the camera fixed as the shutter speed is longer with a brief burst of flash. If the camera wasn't fixed you would get a strong image surrounded by ghost images or blurred images.