I am slowly making progress with my wide-angle lense, a Sigma 10-20mm.

I have a decent Nikon Flash on top of my Nikon DSLR and it works pretty well when I'm using a normal 35mm lense.

However, when I'm using my 10-20mm wide-angle lense and using the hotshoe Nikon flash on top, the shots end up with darker shadows around the edges, typically on the ceiling and or along the left/right edges (vertically) of the shots (see below).


Any easy suggestions to eliminating these undesirable shadows without resorting to additional and/or off-camera slave flash(es)?

hot shot mounted flash on top of 10-20mm lense



Chris Olsen, Broker, Owner, REALTOR
Olsen Ziegler Realty
 Cell: 216.702.0537
Serving the Greater Cleveland, Ohio Residential Real Estate Marketplace

www.olsenziegler.com    Add Chris on Facebook    Follow me on Twitter    Connect with Chris on Linkedin    Subscribe to my ActiveRain Blog    E-mail Chris

Bookmark and Share
 

8 Comments on question: how to eliminate shadows from hot shoe mounted flash using wide-angle lense?

AUG
02
2010

That looks like vignetting to me which has nothing to do with the flash. Essentially the camera is starting to see the shadows of the edge of the lens. Since the sensor is square and the lens image is circular, this shows up in the corners of the image which is the only place the sensor gets close to the image circle.

I know you've posted it before but which camera? Also which flash?
12:53am • #1

OK I went to your prior post and you say you're shooting a Nikon camera with the Sigma 10-20. That's the exact combination I use (both with a D40 Aand D5000) and I've never noticed vignetting that bad.

Oh BTW, if your flash is capable of it, you will want to use bounce flash. Man flashes are capable of being pointed up towaqrd the ceiling. This disperses the light quite a bit more evenly and leads to much better  lighting and will work seasmlessly with the TTL metering. In a significant number of cases, I can just go bounce flash and not have to monkey with off-camera flashes.
1:02am • #2
556,759 Points 11 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Hi Eric -- I did have the flash pointed up to the ceiling, but I took a lot of photos and I don't know for sure if it was pointed more towards 50 or 90 straight up.  Does 50 or 90 make a difference?  Thanks Eric! :)
12:02pm • #3

I would guess that you had it at the 50* angle given the harsh shadow behind the ceiling fan. I would try the 90* - it does make a difference. Just guessing but the flash probably doesn't cover that wide an angle of view - flashes can cover different field of view.

As an example, I snapped these really quickly (not meant to be listing quality but lighting examples) - D5000 with Sigma 10-20 set at 10mm, SB 400 set at direct then 60, 75 and 90

However I don't see any of the vignetting you have going on except in the direct flash photo - I'm not sure what is causing that. Is it in all your photos, or only those with bounce flash set at 50*?
1:30pm • #4
556,759 Points 11 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Hi Eric -- Thanks so much for the advice.  I changed the angle of the flash a few times, and I'm not sure what angle I had -- I just checked the properties and it captures some flash related info (mine said: flash, auto, no strobe return) but no angle.  I think you are right based on looking at your photos and mine, and I can see what you are talking about making it 90 degrees...I think what I've learned so far have the flash at 90 and back off on the wide angle a bit, perhaps not 10mm (1.5 crop factor/Nikon) and shoot at say 15-20, and that may get rid of the vignetting.

I read something the other day that said to shoot in manual, no flash, 3-4 sec shutter speed at f22 and it does the same thing.
7:52pm • #5

Actually if you'll notice, I'm getting a bit of the same vignetting on my direct flash shot so it must be tied to the flash not having wide enough coverage for the 10mm setting. On my bounce shots at 60* & 75* it did OK so it must be somewhere between 50* and 60* that the problem creeps in.

I;m not sure what manual long exposures on a tripod do (& you'll be dealing with diffraction at f22) but they're a gigantic pain and shooting without a flash is always going to presetn problems with the windows. That's why you shoot with a flash in the first place - to even out lighting throughout the room as much as possible.

BTW if you want some flash tutorials, you can find more at strobist.com (more general & not real estate specific), http://photographyforrealestate.net/, http://www.flickr.com/groups/photographyforrealestate/ & Lee Jinks here at ActiveRain has a ton of other great links specific to real estate. I now have a complete setup with slave flashes, light stands & umbrellas but more & more I find that I can take half or more of my shots handheld with simple bounce flash off the ceiling.
11:47pm • #6
AUG
04
2010
206,671 Points Called Shot Master

I can get good results turning the flash around and bouncing it off the corner/ceiling behind me.
11:06am • #7
556,759 Points 11 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Hi Eric -- Thanks again for the tips and photos. I just read up on diffraction at smaller apeture openings, interesting, I had no idea.  My goal is to have as much natural light, using a wide-angle lense, without blown out windows, without having the photo being distorted.  I guess I am still struggling on shutter speed, apeture, metering, flash, wide-angle lense combinations to come up with good, decent photos.  Thanks for the additional flash resources.

Hi Bill -- Thanks for this tip, I'll give it a try.
10:57pm • #8

Login or register to leave a comment
 
Chris Olsen Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate (Olsen Ziegler Realty) Rainmaker_large

Chris Olsen Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

Cleveland, OH

More about me…

Olsen Ziegler Realty

Office Phone: (216) 702-0537

Cell Phone: (216) 702-0537

Email Me