Originally posted by gatorguy Great article on using a flash and geared towards artificial light beginners.
Very good article.
Incidentally I would endorse their recommendation for a Godox TT350P as a good affordable starter unit for Pentax. It's very well featured, compact and lightweight and easy to use. (I find it easier to change the key settings on this than on my Metz 58-AF1, for example.) It can be wirelessly-controlled off-camera either by another Godox unit (e,g, another TT350P) or Godox XProP (or Flashpoint equivalent) - that is, you don't need line of sight (as you do for an optical trigger), you don't need a separate trigger, and it works in PTTL as well as manual mode and it works with HSS (that is, you can use a faster shutter speed than the camera's sync speed, which is 1/180th second on the APS-C models). The only real limitation is that Godox hasn't yet released Pentax versions of their larger standard on-camera TTL flash units (e.g. TT685). (They have a Pentax version of their round-head speedlite, the V1-P, but this is rather a specialty item.)
Originally posted by CarlJF Bare flash. The bouncing surface is in itself the light modifier. For example, a white wall will act somewhat like a very large softbox. Since a lot of light is lost when bouncing, you also don’t want to lose even more by adding any unnecessary modifier.
This point is well illustrated by Neil van Niekerk in this video, in which he compares various flash modifiers with bounced flash.
He also shows how well bounced flash can work with a directional flag - in this case his home-made "Black Foamie Thing" - which prevents or controls the amount of direct light from the flash spilling onto the subject.
Originally posted by swanlefitte Strobist is a great place to start.
This is a great recommendation.