An earlier post on graffiti under the St. Clair St. bridge is now officially an archival document. The original subject matter no longer exists, so the only record of it is in photographs like mine. The city’s anti-graffiti people have grey-washed the concrete footings on the east side of the St. Clair St. Bridge. Why, I wonder, would they deem it necessary to spend public funds covering up murals that aren’t even visible to the public? To see them, you have to make a special effort. Predictably, some of the grey-washed walls are already covered and others have been outlined in preparation for future murals. Below is a sampling of new art.
But never mind questions of responsible public spending. I went there with a different question: when photographing graffiti under bridges, which works better: flash or no flash? From my own unscientific investigations, I have concluded that the answer is: it depends. Here, I’ve presented 6 photos, 4 taken with flash, 2 without. Can you guess which is which?
A bit of technical info: I was shooting with a Speedlite 430EXII and a Gary Fong diffuser mounted on a Canon 5DS body using a Sigma 24mm Art lens.
The answer to my quiz is: the first & last shots are without flash.
The first worked without because it was a north facing wall in an evenly distributed (shaded) light. Shots with a flash compromised the evenness of the existing light and produced some glare.
By comparison, the shot immediately below worked with a flash because it was on a south facing wall with light coming from the left. The flash compensated for that. Unfortunately, it produced glare in the centre of the mural. I used Lightroom’s radial filter to retouch the glare. Without flash, the image was either blown on the left or underexposed on the right.
My recommended best practices:
1) If you’re shooting tight shots that give nothing of the mural’s context, shoot on an overcast day, tripod, no flash.
2) If you’re shooting in permanently dark spaces, (e.g. photo #3 where the rising slope of the hill comes to a wedge with the underside of the bridge), then a flash is always better.
3) If direct sunlight enters the scene, start playing with your flash (and post-processing tools) to compensate for uneven lighting, but don’t expect miracles.
4) Even if you don’t use your flash, always keep it handy. I’ve heard that, in the event of a zombie attack, a flash will temporarily blind a zombie and give you a few extra seconds to make your escape.
