Any quick tips for flash use?

[CGrieves]

I've been roped into being the "official" tog for the office Christmas part this evening. Just out to pick up a Canon 430 EX II during my lunchbreak, will be on a 50D with an 18-55 f2.8.

The venue's the Hippodrome casino, so probably well lit initially, lower light for dinner, and then dancefloor stuff...

Having never used a flash with a DSLR before, any bullet-point tips?

Cheers all!

 

[CGrieves]

10th Jan.... Christmas party? Sheesh.

Ha 10th of Jan because nobody ever seems to attend pre-Christmas parties if they're on a Friday...

Learned a lot as I went along. First ten minutes were spent trying to figure out how to rotate the bloody flash head

I'm sure it becomes more instinctual, but I missed a few shots while trying to work out where to bounce from. I'd bought a small Rogue flashbender with the EX, but neglected to bring it. Wish I had....

I set up second curtain flash as it seemed to give more natural results with the inevitable subject movement, but it meant shouting to everyone "Wait for two flashes!" before each shot, at least for the group/posed ones. Will experiment with first curtain a bit more though...

Got some half decent stuff though.

 

[CGrieves]

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner. But here are a few tips for anyone else just getting into flash photography:

• Lower shutter speeds (below 1/30th) will let in more ambient light. This doesn't just mean the picture will be brighter; it also means that more colour from the surrounding objects and area will be absorbed by the image.
• Remember most of the exposure in the image will come from that flash, so if you do have a low shutter speed and you move the camera or the subject moves, there will be ghosting/streaky effects. Sometimes you can use this to your advantage to get creative effects, but other times it will look like crap.
• If indoors, aim the flash at a wall or ceiling. The flash will bounce off and give a much more appealing image of the subject.
• If outdoors, a good idea may be to let someone else hold the flashgun from the side so that you can avoid hitting the subject straight on. Use the camera's built-in flash to trigger the external flash.
• Practice. Get to know how your flashgun works both in manual and TTL mode (if it has it). See what effect the various levels of flash strength and your camera's aperture, shutter speed and ISO have.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional photographer. Just a big enthusiast who has taken a lot of pictures with various equipment.

I wish you'd seen the thread earlier too

Seriously though, thanks- I did do a bit of reading beforehand, and one thing that I did learn was to use the exposure to capture the environment.

It was my first use of the 17-55 f2.8 IS, coming from a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non-VC, and it's a revelation to have IS on a general purpose zoom- I reckon it more than doubled my keeper rate. In fact the unusable shots are 95% due to subject movement rather than missed focus or camera shake.