Share a Few tips on using a mounted flash gun please.

jasonsony735

jasonsony735

jasonsony735

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Hey guys I've just invested in a much need flash gun so its totally new too me but I've spent a few hours watching youtube vids and learning about how to use it correctly , I'm photographing a friends blessing the weekend at a reception so I know its going to be pretty dark inside so will need to use bounce flash a lot ,

I was planning to stick my camera in manual mode and select iso of around 500 ISO up to max 1000 ISO on my Canon 6D and Use E-TTL mode or should I use the manual mode for flash also ? I'm not planning on firing the flash direct in front of me , more of less sticking the light over my right or left shoulder and letting the flash bounce of the white walls. I believe this is the correct way to go about using it.

I have seen all that to get some of the cool effects I need to bring the Shutter speed down and then move the camera to get light trails again is this correct ?


Basic two things I want to know , How can I guarantee Sharpe images using the flash , what settings ? And also what settings will give me Sharpe images but light trails ?

Cheers
 
I don't generally find I need that much ISO. In fact, usually 100 gives me a nice exposure with flash, maybe a little more depending what it's bouncing off.

I guess the best thing to do is charge your batteries and have a play. Usually TTL works pretty well, I find... but manual works best if you're firing it off somewhere - though you can play with flash compensation I think once you have a rough idea of how much you need to tweak things. Did your flash come with a white card/diffuser?
If you're in a big big room (reception?) then unless you're right up against a wall bouncing it won't work so well. I use a soft diffuser thing, which seemed to work pretty well :) It cost about £5 off amazon.

Basically - learn what works and doesn't work before it's the weekend! Find a friend and a big room / outside and go and play.
The light trials will be from a slower shutter speed, but with the flash set to fire rear curtain sync. I think. However you do it.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-second-curtain-sync-on-your-canon-eos-6.html
 
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Conversely, ill often use ISO 6400 with a flash. My basic process is:
1) Set the aperture to achieve the desired DoF, i might verge on slightly wider but I want to make sure the subject is properly focused, and when dealing with people moving or not aligned to the focal plain, a group of 3-4 people etc then you really need a much narrower aperture than you might expect.
2) ISO is set to expose the background properly given the aperture. If you let the flash expose the foreground subject and ignore the background you will get a black hole and a subject in the spotlight, which looks very amateurish. Auto-ISO works fine for me, it will often be at ISO 6400 but the end results are more than acceptable, noise on the subject is minimal due the proper exposure form the flash. However, under certain conditions auto-iso will lead overexpose subjects if using ITTL.
3) I Use iTTL on the flash but with use flash compensation to tune the power to balance exposure between foreground and background. Typically its dial back 1-1.5 stops and bounced off a ceiling.
 
Jono said:
D.P. do you have any examples you can share of what you discussed above?
Click to expand...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/timstirling/albums/72157650208256169

this is a typcial example:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/timstirling/16434317232/in/album-72157650208256169/
f/9.0 because I wanted all 3 in focus, ISO 6400, 70mm, 1/25th with a flash. The ceiling was too high to bounce so the flash is direct ut through a diffuser. because of the aperture even ISO 64000 didn't expose the background sufficiently.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/timstirling/16433489041/in/album-72157650208256169/
Since there was just the single subject this was shot at f/2.2 and allowed an ISO 2000 although I think the background could be exposed more.
 
Raymond is it best if I force my Camera to work with say 640 to 1600 ~Iso I'll be using 24-70mm 2.8 but for the groups I'm going to have to go for F5 or 5.6 for group photos and bump the iso up to 1600 I'm guessing.

I don't want my photos blurry or noisy
 
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jasonsony735 said:
Raymond is it best if I force my Camera to work with say 640 to 1600 ~Iso I'll be using 24-70mm 2.8 but for the groups I'm going to have to go for F5 or 5.6 for group photos and bump the iso up to 1600 I'm guessing.

I don't want my photos blurry or noisy
Click to expand...

As Raymond says, it all depends. You want the background exposed sufficiently, that depends on the lighting and your aperture.
 
My approach would be to take a shot with no flash to get the background exposure I'm looking for, then add flash and dial it up or down to get the overall effect I want.

Lighting 101 on http://www.strobist.com is well worth reading about using flash.

And if you can get your hands on a copy of Damien Lovegrove's Speedlight Mastery video, that's worth a watch.
 
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