p.1 #1 · Advice needed on flash photography in dusty environments
Morning all!
A group of friends and I explore abandoned hard rock mines. As you can imagine, these are very dusty environments. I don't want to take my 40D down there so I've been using my Casio EX-V8 point and shoot with manual controls. It works but the flash is a major problem. It's just above the lens so the dust reflects right back and ruins the shot.
The last trip we took I borrowed an old Canon flash from a friend. I put the Casio in manual mode and triggered the flash off to the side. This worked but was not convenient at all. The exposure was a bit hit or miss and I couldn't use the timer to get us all in a shot.
Does anyone have experience in dusty environments? I'm wondering how far off axis the flash has to be to avoid the dust reflections? Is a pop-up flash good enough or do I need to go off-camera?
p.1 #2 · Advice needed on flash photography in dusty environments
Hey Mike,
I hate to make this sound too simple of a solution, but why not just use a big old flashlight to light up the space? All built in flashes will have the problem you listed, and while you could use a remote trigger for a remote flash, the only way to trigger it would be with the flash from the Casio, thereby defeating your purpose.... so I say keep it simple, and use a powerful Maglite or the such. Even a smaller battery powered video light might work for you...
p.1 #4 · Advice needed on flash photography in dusty environments
Thanks for the suggestion but a flashlight won't work. It needs to be a strobe unless I want to sit the camera on a tripod with the shutter open and paint the room. These are big spaces and they are utterly dark.
I looked back at a friends pictures and he avoided 99% of the dust using the pop-up flash so I think that may work.
