When do i use flash

That will do a nice job in most situations as a fill flash for you. As the FEC is raised, the flash power is increased by one stop each time. So it becomes more powerful and has more effect on the overall exposure and the image. I did not adjust the exposure on the camera because I wanted the exposure in the room as a constant.

As the FEC was increased and the flash fired with more power, it started to overexpose the entire image. Could I fix this exposure? I could adjust the main exposure to be less overall, or correct it in processing. Notice how much darker the hallway is now. Look at the harsh shadows now under his chin and from his hands. There is no nice side lighting from the window anymore. That is all caused by the flash setting.

Avoid making images that look like this by keeping your Flash Exposure Compensation set to 0 or I will address this topic in more depth in another article but I want to give you some basic starting points and things to watch out for here to get you started.

Let the camera and flash do the work for you. It will be a lot easier and cause a lot less frustration that way. If you are just starting with photography and are still unsure about exposure and which settings to use, just use Program Mode.

There is no shame in this and it will usually result in pretty good images. But when using flash indoors it can cause some issues. That can run the battery down quickly or even cause the flash to overheat. So use this mode cautiously. Make sure to open your aperture as wide as it goes. This is the mode I recommend if you want to venture out of Program. But again be aware of some issues that can arise with the wrong settings.

Two terms heard often are high speed sync and flash duration. But in regards to shooting with a flash during the day, they can both be great. This requires the flash to strobe at a very fast pace. It also burns more power. The slower it is, the more ambient light will be let into the scene. The faster it is, the faster of a motion it can capture—and also the more ambient light it will cut out.

Dan at Adorama does a great job of explaining this concept too! The video below is his attempt at showing you the effects of both on a scene. ND filters are essential for many landscape photographers.

ND filters are also known as neutral density filters and come in three different types. The most important thing is creating the type of light coming from the best direction. It can fit the style of photo you want. This is the flexibility you have when using flash.

For this photo I was up on the mezzanine level of the market and my model was on the lower level. The flash and softbox were on a stand outside the bottom right of the frame, also on the lower level. When the front curtain opens, the sensor is exposed to light.

When the second, or rear curtain closes, the exposure ends. Most cameras default to the flash being triggered once the front curtain is fully open. You can change this setting on your camera. Then the flash will be triggered immediately before the rear curtain closes. This may not seem like much of a difference. Our exposures are typically only fractions of seconds.

It makes no real difference when nothing is moving. The trail of blur will then appear in front. Using rear curtain sync, the blur will happen before the flash fires. Just before the shutter closing, the moving subject will be frozen and the blur will appear behind it. Even with only a slight amount of blur the results are much more pleasing than with front curtain sync. Synchronisation can also happen manually when it comes to longer exposures.

In this image my wife was about three meters in front of the camera and off to the right with the flash. I wanted the flash to be closer to the taxi truck as it entered the bridge. At that distance the flash would not trigger automatically. The exposure time was 1. My wife was manually firing the flash.

It took several attempts to get some frames exposed well. I had the flash firing before the rear shutter curtain closing. Putting in the time to practice with a flash, studying and comparing your results will give you practical experience. With this you will learn far more than only reading or watching videos about how to do it. Once you are grounded in the basics and have grasped how the flash works, then cut loose. Play with motion, bounce it, use a soft box and even several external flash units.

We have a great article on using a ring flash to check out next! Leaving your camera on its default settings will produce blurry results. This is how I created the photo below of the young woman dancing. Being too close to your subject and having having your flash output too high will cause dark shadows. This is because unmodified light from a flash is very harsh light.

There are several techniques you can use get soft light that looks more appealing. Here are some of them. You will usually need something for the flash light to bounce off so some is directed at your subject. You can use a ceiling above you, a wall behind or beside you or a portable reflector. Bouncing the flash causes the light to scatter. This increases the surface area of the light. Light directly from the flash is hard because the flash head is small. Increasing this area by bouncing the light spreads it around.

It changes the angle of the light and diffuses it. Still, there are some things that you can do. Step back from your subjects. The flash is brighter closer to the camera, so having a bit of distance makes things look less dramatic. Play around with and practice using the flash from time to time. The more familiar you are with it, the better the results will be.

Edit your photos after you take them. You can use an image editor to even out the lighting, reduce some of the contrast, and remove flash artifacts like red eye.

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