[magnum1]

Hello gang,

Could some of you point me in the right direction? I am struggling with flash photography mostly in the exposure area. Do you know of any articles, preferably on the web, that can help me out. I own a 3rd party flash that is compatable with my K10D.

I know my info is vague but it's the best I can do. I'll try to find my flash model on the net and post it here if that'll help.

Thanks.

[magnum1]

Here's the flash.

[Russell-Evans]

Strobist: Lighting 101

[magnum1]

Thank you sir!

[egordon99]

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 1/180s 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 P-TTL metering will determine the needed flash output for a proper exposure.

Here's something I wrote on another forum -
"Easy" recipe for great P-TTL flash shots -
1)Point flash at ceiling
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 1/180s
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).

Next lesson will be OUTSIDE FILL flash, which can be a little more tricky regarding balancing the ambient and the flash.

[egordon99]

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 1/180s) and P-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.

[Jonson PL]

Here are some threads from this forum :
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-camera-accessories/35492-gary-fong-lightsphere.html

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/general-pentax-photography/19497-flash-hi...tml#post326534

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-camera-accessories/31323-can-i-fir...era-flash.html

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-your-photos/35068-experiment-humming...tml#post330189



And here is a thread I made in another forum :
Show us your great Flash shots [Page 1]: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Here's something I wrote on another forum -
"Easy" recipe for great P-TTL flash shots -
1)Point flash at ceiling
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 1/180s
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).

Next lesson will be OUTSIDE FILL flash, which can be a little more tricky regarding balancing the ambient and the flash.

Great recipe
Thanks for taking the time

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Last edited by Jonson PL; 09-08-2008 at 06:07 AM.

[JCSullivan]

Magnum, any question about flash is always good - I'm still strugling.

[atupdate]

Here are some great on camera flash techniques planet neil - tangents flash photography techniques

Here is a DIY flash diffuser that I've had good luck with. I used craft glue instead of staples adn made one to the dimensions shown and a smaller one.

DIY Reflector-Diffuser

Tim