As technology increasingly advances in the development of cameras and camera devices, there is one issue that remains constant: What is the best method to illuminate the object to be photographed. There are many new photographic devices coming into the marketplace, which only adds to the myriad of devices already present in the marketplace. The only issue that all photographers can agree on is that illumination needs to be above the object to be photographed. Especially in the art of photography in relation to people, proper illumination is critical. Everyone remembers the old blue dot flashbulbs and “red-eye” from the 1970's. Illumination devices have progressed greatly, using pre-flashes to eliminate red-eye and the old blue dot flashbulbs, are replaced with high-powered intelligent flash devices. Cameras have progressed from instamatic to Digital Through the Lens or DTTL technology, where what the camera sees in terms of distance to object and amount of ambient light, are relayed to the many different illumination devices, where on-board computer chips calculate proper amount of illumination necessary based on the camera settings. As cameras can capture images through either portrait or landscape mode, devices have been made to bring the illuminating devices to be properly displayed above the camera lens. Photographing people, whether inside a studio or outside, demands rapid sequencing of photographs to be taken, while the subject often moves or adjusts themselves to highlight a particular feature. Cameras have been adjusted to accommodate these rapidly changing subjects with high-speed winders, lens and film. In studios, illumination is placed strategically to produce the intended effects, where outside of the studio, the photographer must bring their own illuminating devices, usually attached to the camera itself. Devices are made to hold devices at varying angles so that illumination is always available whether in the portrait or landscape mode. Japanese Application 2002-032044 to Junichi Et al filed on Aug. 2, 2002, discloses an invention that correlates the position of the flash to the position of the camera, and synchronizes a slave flash unit to the built-in flash unit of the camera. Unfortunately, this only correlates to lateral motion, in a single horizontal plane. Until now, there has been no device created that will allow for the proper illumination to be activated upon the camera demand, regardless of the camera's co-planar orientation, either portrait or landscape. Since the photographer only wants illumination from the top, currently the photographer has to either move the flash devices or manually turn off those devices that are not needed. This invention allows for immediate response to camera co-planar orientation, eliminating the need for manual adjustments. A photographer can continue to take pictures in either plane of orientation as quickly as the illumination devices allow to be processed. This is especially critical when photographing people at weddings, athletic events or even the paparazzi on the red carpet at movie premiers or the like.
The current state of the technology has evolved with the development of Through the Lens or TTL technology. Using the information gathered from sensors inside of the camera on the film plane or on the camera lens, illumination devices are fed analog information via direct connection to the camera through the camera's hotshoe or through synchronization cords or sync cords attached to remote devices. This process of Through the Lens data gathering is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,275 to Hasegawa issued on Nov. 16, 1982 and has become the standard interface for professional style cameras.
There are many patents relating to the technology of synchronizing the camera's action to the illumination devices. U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,306 to Shono, issued Dec. 8, 1998, describes a synchronization of the illumination devices or strobes to the camera's shutter action via the hotshoe of the camera. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,148 to Hibino et al issued Oct. 29, 1996 describes synchronizing a flash device to the shutter speed set on the camera, through the use of information transferred through either the camera's hotshoe or sync cord attachment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,512,890 to Kawasaski et al issued Jan. 28, 2003 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,947 to Tokunaga issued Jun. 13, 2000, uses TTL information and then synchronizes multiple flash devices, designating some to emit pre-flashes to better determine how the remaining flash devices are to function. All of these patents stress the need for proper illumination of the subject matter, but only accomplish it in a single plane. Great effort and time are necessary to adjust the illumination to a camera's new planar orientation.
There is prior art which describes the switching of illumination devices to be either on or off. U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,012 to Tsuruta et al. issued Mar. 29, 1994, discloses a device that turns on the illumination device for a video camera, once the control circuit identifies current flow to the camera's motor circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,295 to Scott issued on Jun. 28, 1988 discloses the need to have two cameras on a mounting device with only one flash device. This patent discloses the need taking photographs in rapid succession where reloading time is not available as the subject of the photography would not still be present. This discloses the need for rapid photography but this manual switch does not allow for re-orientation of the flash device to match the camera planar orientation. There does not exist an automatic switch for camera's that senses the proper illumination angle to match the camera's planar orientation.
There are devices that are disclosed that hold illuminating devices along with a camera. Published Japanese Patent JP2004109770 discloses a multiple lamp photography system that realizes the proper exposure based on the photographic condition. U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,859 to Mulcahy et al. issued on Dec. 14, 1999, discloses a device for use by a person to orientate a camera in either a horizontal or vertical position while allowing the person to position the light source of the flash unit to be above the lens. This device is simply a holder for the flash attachments and the user is forced to manually attach and detach the sync cords from the flash units so that the flash above the lens is the flash that is being used. Other patents detail illuminating device holders, but fail to compensate for the planar orientation of the camera in an automatic mode. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,000 to Heredia issued Mar. 31, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,794 to Bohannon issued Jun. 21, 1988) These patents would not be applicable to situations, herein described, where rapid succession of pictures need to be taken, without time to manually adjust for photographic camera planar orientation.