Basics of using your flash thread

[ryan_lau100]

This is an extension of my other threads.

How come all of my photos from my DSLR look as bad as my point and shoot? The most common reason for this is how you are using your flash. I’m guessing you see harsh shadows behind the subject and really washed out looking faces. Add some red eye to that and you have yourself a really expensive and heavy point and shoot rather than a DSLR.

So how should you shoot with flash to create more pleasing photos? Personally I rather NOT use flash unless necessary. Using light from a window or being outside is always best in my opinion. You should always start by using the available light without flash first to get a better understanding of how light affects your photos. Even with available light you can get have many variations and qualities of light. Think about direct sun light versus light diffused by the clouds. The results are very different. Anyways that is a whole different topic altogether. Moving on I want to discuss the different ways to utilize a flash properly if you so choose to use it.

On camera pop-up flash: These are the flashes that come on all intro level SLRs. It is simply a pop up flash on the top of the camera. I find this type of flash useless 99% of the time. The flash is still very close to the lens, just a few inches above it on the camera. This causes red eye. The further the flash the less chance of catching red eye in your subjects.

The only time I find it acceptable to use on camera flash is for fill flash. It may sound counterintuitive but using flash outdoors when it is really bright usually helps. If you’ve taken photos of people when the sun is directly on top of then you probably noticed some harsh unpleasing shadows. On camera flash helps this by filling in those shadows. Try it sometime and you’ll see what I mean.

If you don't have money to invest into a flash I would try to use high iso and slower shutter to utilize the ambient. A noisy photo that is slightly blurry is more acceptable than on camera flash in my opinion. Try to not use your flash if you can.

Hot shoe flashes: These are independent flashes that can be attached to the top of your hot shoe on your DSLR. They range in price anywhere from $100-$600 or more depending on brand and type. These are great tools and can create very pleasing light. they are widely used among all camera brands and models. What are some of the basic features on these?

TTL – This is an automatic setting in which the flash will fire the proper amount of light to expose the subject properly according to their distance from the camera and the surrounding light conditions.

Swivel/tilt – This allows the flash head to be turned in any direction (more on this later)

Power – The more power a light is able to the provide the better

Stops of light – The more increments of light from lowest to highest power the better

Light spread - How wide or narrow the beam of light can be concentrated

Where do you go from here? Personally I find bounce flash the most useful indoors and easiest to do even for amatures. What is bounce flash? Well remember when I told you about the swivel and tilt feature? This is when you can use it. Aim the flash upwards instead of directly at the subject. This makes your ceiling a huge light source creating a softer type of light. A few things to consider when trying to bounce. Is the ceiling high? The higher the ceiling the more power you will need out of your flash to illuminate a subject properly. Is the ceiling white? If it is a different colour the flash will cast that colour tone onto your subject. Another issue you will find are shadows that are cast below the eye lids. This is more prominent when the subject have deep eye sockets. A good way to solve this is by tilting the flash head so that it is directed behind you. If there is a white wall behind you it will create a flatter light and create less shadows. Of course you will not always have a wall behind you though so you are limited with this.

What if you want to create depth? Try to bounce flash off the side wall rather than ceiling or behind you so that the flash head is directed to the left or right of you. This will create an almost 3D type of photo. Combine this with a shallower depth of field and your subject will “POP” off the page.

Like the on camera flash, you can use the hotshoe flash to act as a fill on your subjects outdoors when shadows are present.

These are the advantages of having TTL because it automatically illuminates your subjects according to the settings you have dialled in on your camera body.

Like the automatic settings in a camera, TTL can be tricked as well giving not so good results. After experimenting with bounce + TTL take it off TTL and dial in your own power settings. This will give you more consistent results and give you a better understanding of how distance and power affect your photos. When I do event photography and have time to figure out my surroundings I never take my flash off manual. As I said before the TTL gets tricked very easily and can throw off my photo making it either under or overexposed.

It gets a lot more complicated with off camera flash and mixing ambient with flash and using light modifiers. The best place to learn more about it is probably strobist.com. They have great articles on manipulating light.

[faken]

raining outside again lol?

[chino]

raining outside again lol?

You beat me to it!

Another sticky worth having up there.

[CSAgent]

Nice article Ryan. My, we are getting a lot of rain lately..hehe...

For quick manual settings that I find most useful outdoors on a sunny day to fill in shadows underneath eyes, nose, mouth and neck - use 1/128, flash exposure compensation at -0.3 to -2. Otherwise, a well placed reflector underneath in front of the subject also helps as well. If you're doing above the chest portraits, have the subject hold the reflector with their hands instead.

[Lulz]

Matt, when you say 1/128 and then -0.3 to -0.2 do you mean that after reducing the light from full power of 1/1 to 1/128, you reduce it even further by 0.3 stops, making even less light than 1/128?

Is that to? if yes, isnt that a little too low of a light?
also, lets say you are shooting outside with cloudy weather and you want to use some fill in order to avoid heavy shadows under the eyes (those dark bags). Would it make sense to just use circle white reflector in front of model's face, or is flash better idea? I just dislike direct flash because its harsher...and outside you can't really bounce of anything if you are in the open

[CSAgent]

Matt, when you say 1/128 and then -0.3 to -0.2 do you mean that after reducing the light from full power of 1/1 to 1/128, you reduce it even further by 0.3 stops, making even less light than 1/128?

Is that to? if yes, isnt that a little too low of a light?
also, lets say you are shooting outside with cloudy weather and you want to use some fill in order to avoid heavy shadows under the eyes (those dark bags). Would it make sense to just use circle white reflector in front of model's face, or is flash better idea? I just dislike direct flash because its harsher...and outside you can't really bounce of anything if you are in the open

On camera, not flash since you can't go below 1/128.

It may seem low but on a bright sunny day it works - especially when you point it directly at the subject at this low power output.. For cloudy conditions you can dial in more output - a light meter will solve the guess work if you have one. Your shutter should be above 1/100 or higher at iso 100 or below (if you can).

If you don't have a hotshoe flash and have built-in flash instad, you can also use that too. It's great as a fill-in flash believe it or not.

A reflector generally gives it a more softer look during cloudy conditions, I use a 44" circular reflector myself.

[pmc]

I like my P&S flash images

[B0000rt]

Off camera flash for studio shots was surprisingly easy.

I used a SB600 and SB800 with 2 shoot through umbrellas and a D90 in commander mode. I set both flashes to the strongest, 1/1 and the D90 on camera flash to 1/128. I put the camera into full manual mode at f8 kept adjusting the exposure the images looked good and just kept firing away. White seamless paper was on the background and the images turned out awesome, everyone who looks at it asks if they were shot at a professional studio heh

[mk5gti]

i will be the first the thank him again.... even thou a lot of people read this thread already

[FotoPete]

Funny when your bounce surface changes colour on you haha.

[scubadaddy]

Nice writeup.

Thanked.

[puneet]

requesting the pro's here to enlighten the noobs on:

* Guide #
* How to select correct flash for your camera (not over / under buying)
* Any thing else that you might think be important