Why Press Photographer Use Direct Flash
© 2009 Wazari Wazir | The Photographers
Why PRESS Photographers use direct flash? Lately there is misunderstanding among my friends of photographers about why PRESS photographers especially doesn’t use “Bounce Flash” doing their coverage of news related matter. Some of them think that shooting with a direct flash considered to be unprofessional, there will be harsh shadows if we use direct flash compared to bounce flash, to some extend they are right about those harsh shadows when using direct flash especially when the distance between the person that we photograph and the background, the wall for an example is close.
The number one reason why PRESS doesn’t use bounce flash is because “time”, we don’t have much time, we were rushing to get the shot especially when covering our leader, Prime Minister for an instance when shaking hand with another President or Prime Minister, we have few seconds to get those perfect handshake shot, if we try to bounce the flash to the wall or to the ceiling, the time that the flash need to fully recharge will take few seconds and by that time we will lost few great shots, maybe the eye contact, the smiles between two leaders and a great facial expression between two leaders, every single frame is important and we can’t repeat that moment. In Photojournalism, we captured the moment, we are not making the moment.
So to be on the safe side we have no other choice but to shoot with direct flash where we will be able make full use of camera burst mode and keep shooting without worrying too much about flash recycle times since it will recycle fast when shooting in direct flash because the power that being use in direct flash is much less than when we bounce the flash to the ceiling. There is a time when we have more time, when we are not rush to get the shot that we will bounce our flash, for an instance when shooting for a press conference or when taking a picture of our leader speaks at the rostrum.
I don’t want to write long article about this matter, I wanted to make it clear that, we know what we are doing, we know when to use which technique for which situation, like I said, the number one reason why we don’t use bounce flash is because we don’t have “The Luxury of Time” and let’s not forget most PRESS photographers does not equipped with extra battery pack to make fast recycle time for our flash, the most important thing to PRESS photographers is to get the picture that will tell a story, we know that bounce flash will create much more “beautiful” picture to the eyes but capturing the story without missing the moment is more important to PRESS photographers.
19 Comments
zic.ahmad
i’m aware about this matters since it’s became a hot topic lately and I totally agree with you wazari. I don’t think the PRESS photographer have that much time to adjust the flash to bounce or what not in the middle of the massive photographer crowds.hehe
admin
Thanks, we did use “Bounce Flash” technique, when we are not in rush, like for an example during Press Conference or when VVIP speaking at the rostrum, but most of the times, we were rushing to chase one shot after another and in this case we can’t wait for our flash to fully recharge to get the next shot.
shamshahrin
Well said my friend… well said…!!
Hafiz Pesona
another great article and explanation …….. well done sahabat ..
qayyum
thanks sbb explain ttg pkara nih 🙂 sy jd lbh fhm ttg keadaan ni..thanks again! 🙂
hz
Well explained, Mr Wazir. Thanks for sharing 🙂
syish adam
thanks for sharing bro..!!harap2 semua akan faham tentang situasi tersebut..
ImAn
good write up bro!!!
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Hazwan
Great explanation! But how did you as a PRESS photog overcome the distracting shadow issue? it’s not well-explained in the article. Is it just acceptable in press photography line by both photog & press firms?
Wazari Wazir
@ Hazwan, actually I did explain about the “flash” issue in this article, in Photojournalism, the most important thing is to tell a story with a picture, sometimes we don’t have much choice especially when we are rushing and it just not practical to use a bounce flash, we are more worried about losing a great moment than worried about whether our picture have a “harsh shadows” or not, have you seen any world press winning photo lately, some of the great image that won are not technically perfect or artistically beautiful but most importantly is that, it tells a story…
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budak-budak
nice..
mohamad haris
now I know why! thanks!
awgku deen
for more gud preview…
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simona
thanks, well said 🙂