[miss_alexx]

Hi, I just bought a AF540FGZ flash. This is my first flash unit and I don't know how to use it. I don't mean the unit by itself, but more that I don't know any flash technique. Do anybody knows a good flash tutorial or book that will explain everything I need to know about using a flash.

Thanks in advance.

[cwood]

I don't know if you could actually write a good "flash technique" book. The closest you could come would be a good "lighting" book - which all photographers would benefit from reading and reviewing. Learning to use a flash is a bit like learning to drive a car... there is no substitute for experience.

Why did you buy the flash? Do you plan to use the flash indoors or out? Perhaps with at least that information for guidance someone might be able to give you a tip or 2. You can do wondrous things with a bare flash once you start to really figure it out.

[SpecialK]

At the risk of reducing "flash use" to one sentence...

Bounce when possible indoors, and blend into existing light in daylight.

I'd get a book.

[clm]

Here's a website: Strobist.
And two books: Hot Shoe Diaries, and Light, Science, and Magic

[miss_alexx]

Why did you buy the flash? Do you plan to use the flash indoors or out? Perhaps with at least that information for guidance someone might be able to give you a tip or 2. You can do wondrous things with a bare flash once you start to really figure it out.

I bought the flash for many reasons. The first is that I'm paid to photograph every student in my university program. I shot the first 100 students with my popup flash and a diffuser. I got decent result, but I will invest that money in an external flash to get better results. The second reason is that every time I want to shoot indoors and that there's not enough light to shoot at iso 1600 with my K-x (too much noise IMO at 3200) I have to use the popup flash and the results are awful. For example, cats always close their eyes.

At the risk of reducing "flash use" to one sentence...

Bounce when possible indoors, and blend into existing light in daylight.

I'd get a book.

Yes I knew that... That's how to do it that I don't know. I'll get a book for sure.

Here's a website: Strobist.
And two books: Hot Shoe Diaries, and Light, Science, and Magic

Thanks for the information.

[cwood]

I bought the flash for many reasons. The first is that I'm paid to photograph every student in my university program. I shot the first 100 students with my popup flash and a diffuser. I got decent result, but I will invest that money in an external flash to get better results. .

You should buy a bracket and a ttl cord as well given your desired application. If you keep the flash on top of the camera you will control the shadow better. An on-camera flash firing straight ahead in portrait orientation (even with a stofen) will yield worse results than your current on-camera setup. I don't know the context of your assignment but it seems like a more controlled shooting environment - with an umbrella - may be the way to go

[atupdate]

Here is a great site with tutorials. Be sure to check out the hotlinks on the right for other articles.

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

Tim

[ozzi-paul]

I was going to post the link to the same site as Tim did, I found it to be very helpful when I got my flash earlier this year.
Bounce the flash of a wall or a ceiling if inside and get a flash diffuser for softer light. You could also get some cheap wireless flash triggers like the Yongnuo RF 602 units and a flash stand and umbrella or 2, this will really help with better lighting and reducing any unwanted shadows.

[davidreilly3207]

Best site on the web. A couple of series of tutorials on flash, Flash 101 and Flash 201 are great.
Strobist: Welcome to Strobist.

[Ash]

Once you've gotten the hang of flash photography (The Wonder of Light website also comes to mind with decent flash tutorials) then you may want to consider a good reflector/diffuser system for your flash when going to do student portraits. Then perhaps backdrops and stands if necessary.

To me, just bouncing flash will give you good results if the walls/ceiling are the right height/colour, ambient lighting is not objectionable and the walls in the room are arranged well enough to create the right light effect to your taste. I've found this rarely to occur, So I know to avoid being at the mercy of these uncontrollable elements and control my own lighting. A simple off camera wirelessly triggered 540 diffused by an umbrella on a stand does very well for portraits. This too takes some knowledge and skill to set up for the right results but once this is worked out it gives consistently good results.

All the best with your new flash

[egordon99]

I wrote the following for Canon, so just replace ETTL with PTTL and note that your sync speed is 1/180s (Canon's are either 1/200s or 1/250s)

Basically, with flash, the FLASH exposure is solely determined by flash power (actually duration, how long the bulb is actually firing for), aperture and ISO. Ambient exposure is determined by ISO, shutter speed, and aperture (just like without any flash), so the trick is balancing the two. If I'm indoors in a smallish room (such as in someone's house), I usually just forget about ambient since the flash is powerful enough to light up the entire room (hence the 1/200s below, if the flash didn't fire, I'd have a more or less black picture) Now although you're shooting MANUAL Mode, that's only for the ambient exposure (the exposure needle in the viewfinder will blink warning you about underexposure, but ignore that). The camera's E-TTL metering will determine the needed flash output for a proper exposure.

Here's something I wrote on another forum -
"Easy" recipe for great E-TTL flash shots -
1)Point flash at ceiling/wall (to the side or behind you, experimentation is the key!)
2)Put camera in MANUAL mode on the mode dial
3)Set FEC to +1 on the flash head

4)Shoot RAW (this allows you to recover some highlights that might get blown as a result of #3 above)

5)Set ISO to 200 (to start)
6)Set shutter speed to 1/200s
7)Set f-stop to whatever DOF you want


Now if the flash runs out of "power" because of high ceilings, you can raise the ISO or open up the f-stop to compensate. Or you can slow down the shutter to bring more ambient light into the exposure (in addition to adjusting ISO/f-stop) If the ceiling is REALLY high (like in a church), you may need a reflector to throw some of the light forward (I use the Joe Demb Flip-it).

Quick and dirty outdoor fill flash tutorial -
Basically, if your subject is in shade and the background is bright (ie under a tree) or majorly backlit, fill flash is your friend. Think of those times when you got a properly exposed background, but the subject was almost pitch black.

Put camera into Av mode, metering will set the shutter speed to expose the overall shot (which in the situations that call for fill-flash will generally be the background) based on your selected aperture/ISO.
Make sure flash is set to HSS (in case your shutter speed go faster than 1/200s) and E-TTL. Fire away! The shutter speed/f-stop/ISO will expose the background, and the flash should output enough power to light up the foreground.

Now to control the background exposure, you use exposure compensation on the camera body (which would adjust the shutter speed), to adjust how much fill for the flash exposure, you use Flash exposure compensation. The trick is balancing the two (as it is with indoor work), and that comes with experience/experimentation.


IF the flash is providing all the illumination (which it generally is in a small-ish room with you bouncing it off the ceiling), the shutter speed AND how dark it is do NOT matter AT ALL.

Try this - Pick a room in your house at night. Have a bunch of lights on. Set the shutter speed to 1/200s, aperture to f/5.6, ISO400. Point the flash straight up towards the ceiling (make sure the flash is in ETTL). Shoot.

Then turn off ALL THE LIGHTS, so it's pitch black. Do not change any settings. Take a picture. The picture should turn out the same, AND the flash wouldn't even have to work any harder. Basically, the flash is hitting the ceiling, and turning the ceiling into a large light source. THIS light source is providing all the illumination to the picture. How much flash power you need depends on the aperture, the ISO, and the distance from the light source to the subject. How dark the room is has NO affect on how much flash power is needed.

Now if you went with ISO400, 1/200,s f/5.6, and did NOT turn the flash on, the shot should be pretty dark, even with the lights on.

Now turn the flash back on, but adjust the shutter speed to 1/100s. The shot will probably look VERY close to the first two shots (you can turn the room lights back on now ) Then try 1/50s, 1/25s....Eventually you'll see the room lights "creeping" into the picture. This leads into the next paragraph...

A "flash picture" is made up of TWO distinct exposures. The "ambient" exposure if comprised of shutter speed, ISO, and f/stop. The "flash" exposure is comprised of ISO, f/stop, and flash power (and of course the distance from the light source to the subject) In the above example, the ambient exposure is essentially nil, so the picture is completely made up by the flash "components".

Once you nail using the flash to provide ALL the illumination, you can move onto more advanced topics such as balancing flash and ambient exposures.






You need to decide the CAMERA mode (Av or M, forget about using Tv/P auto modes) and the FLASH mode (Manual or E-TTL).

Indoors if the ambient light is fairly low and I'm using the flash to provide all of the illumination, I'll use M mode on the camera (and generally set the shutter speed to 1/250s to just get an ambient exposure) Outdoors where I'm using flash as fill (or indoors if it's bright, but this happens rarely) I'll use Av as I can rely on the camera to set a good general exposure WITHOUT flash, and then the flash can fill-in.

Now as for the FLASH mode, E-TTL works great if the flash is ON camera and you are constantly changing the distance between the light source and the subject. Now keep in mind what when you're bouncing, the bounce surface (ceiling or wall) actually becomes the light source. If you try to go Manual flash, you'll be adjusting the flash power for pretty much every shot, and this just isn't practical. E-TTL will get your flash power "in the ballpark"

Now once you get the flash OFF-CAMERA (on a light stand and shooting into/through an umbrella), Manual flash makes sense because although YOU can change the camera position, the light source is NOT moving (unless you move the stand of course), and as long as the subject(s) stay in the same general area, the subject-light source distance is constant. I'm talking portait/formals setups here.

Hope that helps!

[Andrew Lang]

do the strobist blog... that's what will help the most imho

[miss_alexx]

Thanks everyone of the helpful tips. I have some questions:

The AF540 is a wireless flash... does it have to be in front of the camera to be triggered?
What kind of flash stand do I need to buy for my portraits (height?).

[cwood]

Thanks everyone of the helpful tips. I have some questions:

The AF540 is a wireless flash... does it have to be in front of the camera to be triggered?
What kind of flash stand do I need to buy for my portraits (height?).

The front of the 540 needs to "see" the flash coming off your camera. Indoors it will often pick up some bounce which will suit your needs but outdoors it needs to be direct line-of-sight. Do accomplish this you many need swivel the head of the 540 so it faces backwards. You also need to set the camera flash to be either a wireless control or master and you need to set the flash to wireless mode.

The whole thing works off a pre-flash strobe emitted by the camera's flash

[Ash]

The taller stands are more versatile - can be used as diffused downlight flash holders. But a max height of 2-2.5m isn't a bad start.