Y2K digicam and flash revival

• The flash reaches only what is near it, so shadows and background fall to black.

Shadow edges

Shadows with crisp outlines, cast by a small or distant light: direct sun, a bare flash, a spotlight.

Shadow depth

Shadows with no fill at all that fall to pure black with no detail, so parts of the subject disappear.

Shape & form

Light from the camera’s own position (an on-camera flash, a ring light, a frontal softbox) fills every hollow, so faces and objects look flat, with little shape.

Highlights

The brightest parts burn out to pure white with no detail, on purpose or because the light was too strong. Small, bright glints where the light reflects off wet, oily or polished surfaces: glistening food, dewy skin, the sparkle of jewellery or chrome.

This plan is worked out from the style’s choices, so it is drawn as a schematic. The set-up at the top of the page is the one we rendered, to scale. One way to get the light, not a record of how any photograph was lit.

Then

28–85 mm · f/2.8–f/5.9 · 1/60–1 s · ISO 80–400 on a small-sensor compact, documented. Small-CCD compacts of 2000–2010 with 3–4× zooms, e.g. Canon SD960 IS (28–112 mm eq., f/2.8–5.8) or Olympus FE-230 (38–114 mm, f/3.1–5.9); flash frames near 1/30–1/60 s, unflashed frames at 1/4–1 s smear (specimens, ISO 80).

White balance

Small compacts on auto white balance, set by the flash; without flash, stage, bar and street lamps keep their orange or coloured tint uncorrected (inferred).

Focal length

Roughly the eye’s own perspective; no visible distortion.

Angle

The camera at the height of a standing person or of the subject.

Distance

Within arm’s reach: faces, hands and details fill the frame.

The photographer

The camera held at arm’s length, often turned on oneself.

Balance

The subject in the middle, the frame balanced around it.

Instant

A casual, unplanned instant, taken quickly.

Duration

Moving things smeared across the frame.

Friends squeeze together facing the flash, cheek to cheek or arms round each other, eyes to the lens, grinning, laughing or pulling faces; others are caught mid-dance with arms waving, mid-blink or turning away, and those frames are kept. Mirror and arm's-length shots too; performers on stage are caught singing or playing, faces raised or bowed.

Head & gaze

Looking straight into the camera, so the subject meets the viewer’s eye.

Line & energy

In-between moments a conventional photographer would throw away, kept on purpose: half-blinks, mid-chew, limbs at odd angles.

Expression

A smile, posed or natural, lips closed or showing teeth. Pouts, puffed cheeks, wide eyes, tongues out and other faces pulled for the camera.

Several people

Bodies close together, overlapping and leaning in: friends, a band, a family on a sofa.

The moment

Ordinary photographs by and for ordinary people, or images that look like them.

With the sitter

An insider’s view of friends, lovers and family.

Nothing is set up: friends in their own going-out clothes and make-up, often Y2K-inspired (small tops, slip dresses, baggy jeans, glitter), in real bedrooms, kitchens, clubs, cars and gig crowds, with drinks and clutter left in shot.

Clothes

Outfits the wearers put together to be seen, designer labels included: layering, sneakers, statement pieces.

How much is styled

Nothing dressed, made up, moved or added for the picture.

Colour

Strong, dense colours.

Digital & other

Cheap cameras and their flaws: leaks, soft corners, built-in flash.

Texture

The flaws of digital capture and sharing.

Post-production

Words or graphic marks added to the photograph.

Shown in

Pictures made for a scrolling feed.

Stay away from clean digital capture, large-format sheet film, hyper-detailed, heavy retouching, hdr & tone-mapped, shallow depth of field, soft studio light, fully art-directed, rounded, modelled form and held highlights.