People who know flash, do you find this funny?

Question

So sitting back watching a big event at night time on the TV.

Lets say the opening of the Olympics at night, in the stands there are hundreds of flashes going off.

How will the flash reach the scene and reflect back to the lens?

Do you know anyone whos tried? Did they get back dark results?

Comments?

foxfire, good one, three rows of heads isnt that bad is it? - thats my poor attempt at haha

Dr sam loverly answer, so much warmt and compassion - haha, i thought i was the only one wondered they keep doing the same thing over and over - someone has to i geuss.

Ryan you sucked me in there was about to stamp me feet and email you a nasty message - haha - thanks for the giggle

a

Yer Vance I've heard photon beams break over long distances

Answer 1

True, true, Dr Sam. But remember the image of Mark McGuire (sp?) hitting the home run a few years ago? All those flashes going off were beautiful in the background.

I am a photo lab manager, so I see concert, night race, wrestling and sports event photos at least weekly. Sometimes people get mad at me and refuse to believe that I can't magically print their photos to make them worthy of Sports Illustrated. You see the same thing in kid's school and church programs as well. Just because they can zoom in, they expect the final product to look just like it did in the viewfinder. If it's digital, let's add in some high ISO noise to make things lively!

I find myself explaining basic stuff like this over and over. A few people seem to get it and ask for pointers. Others think that a different photo lab will solve the problem, so they take their negatives (which are thin and appear completely blank with maybe a few shadows here and there except for the 3 rows of heads in front of them) over to WalMart, where I'm sure they get re-printed with the complete image intact in all its glory! **end of rant**

Answer 2

Ya'll obviously doen no nuttin 'bout flash!

First off, the light doesn't reflect off the scene and back to your camera. I thought everyone knew there weren't enough photons to stretch that far. As someone else already pointed out, the intensity of the light falls off as a square of the distance because the flash is shaped that way. With round reflectors the light falls off as you round the distance. This means that the limited number of photons the flash produces are further apart at greater distances, which reduces the effect of inter photon attraction and causes a weaker light stream. The light stream is stretched beyond it's critical stress point on the way back and the light beam breaks in two and falls to the ground. Duh!

Now, being a professional, I know a work around for that problem. Since the problem only occurs because the light beam breaks because it has to bounce back, which is asking way too much of it, you need to have the light go directly into the lens from the flash.

This is easy and you can get great photos if you put a star filter on your lens and set the shutter speed to 1/15 to 1/4 second and use a monopod. When all of the flashes go off, you get a really pretty sparkling effect which will wow everyone and you can sell it on e-bay for $1.25 each copy. If you really market it well, you could cover the cost of the event ticket!

The monopod is important. All the photons come to you in a straight line, one after the other and you want to make sure that they all go into the right bucket for that photo stream. If the camera moves to much, the photons go into the wrong buckets. When the shutter closes, digital cameras weigh all the buckets and the ones with the most photons in them are brighter because they weigh more. Film cameras use a different process called Alchemy to get the photons to show up, but you use the same method to take the picture.

It's really simple if you know what you are doing and understanding this stuff is why we are professionals and others aren't.

Now, as to the question Dr. Sam has about why people use flash even though they know it won't help because the light beam breaks and falls to the ground (as explained above), it's because the camera is a point and shoot and we all know that they have completely different ideas about what makes a good picture. Once the camera decides that flash is needed, you get flash. The people aren't necessarily stupid, it's just a smart assed camera making them look that way. Even if there is a way to turn off the flash, why bother? It ain't going to hurt the shot.

The real reason professionals buy the equipment they do is because pro cameras are smart enough to know they are stupider than you and are willing to take directions.

Vance

Answer 3

I always marvelled at the stupidity of some people. I mean, even if you know nothing about flash at all, after you had six or seven concert's photos NOT COME OUT AT ALL, you'd think people would learn. Even if it's a disposable camera, it says that the flash will only reach 8 or 10 feet (whatever).

If it's a real camera, don't you just want to say, "RTFM!!!" as some do here???

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ADDITIONAL
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Ryan, you left out the part about sneaking the camera in so they could take those photos in the first place. I suppose they are planning on selling them to pay for the tickets, which cost too much for any normal person to attend concerts any more.

Seamless_1, you are both sarcastic (so I heard) and wrong. If they did not use the flash, it WOULD hurt the shot. How else are they going to be able to relive the memories of the concert? That is — the lovely view of the back of the head of the people sitting 3 rwos in front of them. The people sitting one row in front of them - the back of whose head will form the lower third of the picture (Rule of Thirds) being so washed out as to be unrecognizeable.

Answer 4

oh yes..this is a running joke with my husband and myself. at every event or concert we laugh at the people with the tiny cameras in the nosebleed seats and the flashes going off. they get great light on about 3 rows of people's heads and the rest is black. light intensity falls off geometrically with distance. you have to turn off a flash and use a long shutter speed with a tripod or some stable surface to get shots like that.

Answer 5

I have to laugh! The ones who seem most apt to think their flash should be adequate are those with teeny tiny cameras. I've even seen them trying to get fireworks pictures with flash! Fireworks! Can you believe that? That just flies in the face of reality, but they don't get it.

My husband and I had to laugh once when we were overseas, touring the Vatican. The ceilings are huge, but this one clueless guy with a Polaroid was trying to get ceiling pictures, and didn't know why they were coming out so dark. Well, imagine that! We still laugh.

Answer 6

Ohh.. Come on now. You know all those flashes throwing photons around have an accumulative effect.

I'm sure even them nose bleed seats were getting shots that they could sell to the nearest gallery...

hehe

Answer 7

never been to a concert, etc. but who has tried taking pictures of shadows, using the flash? if i did i certainly wouldnt admit it.