Flash Tips

Gear

You will need a good flash made by the same company that made your camera so it will be able to interface with your camera settings (TTL flash). It should have a head that can be tilted and swiveled for bounce flash. 

An inexpensive diffuser can greatly improve flash pictures in a smaller room with a low ceiling and light colored walls. Outside, in a large room or a room with dark walls the diffuser may offer no advantage since there is nothing for the light to bounce off of. 

You can make a simple modifier for your flash with a white card and a rubber band. This can be more useful than a full diffuser in rooms with a high ceiling since it allows more light to go up to the ceiling and it does not send light out to the sides that may disturb the people around you.

A larger reflector of 10 to 12 inches square can provide slightly softer light for shooting people within about ten feet. This is a Rogue FlashBender that works with most flash units.

In large ballrooms and exhibit halls or rooms with dark walls and ceilings you will need to use direct flash if there is not enough available light.

Camera Settings

Use this as a starting point - your situation may need something different.

• Flash in automatic mode (ETTL) so it will adjust the light output to match your camera settings and the distance to your subject.

• Use camera in manual mode or shutter priority (time) mode to prevent the camera from trying to expose for the available light without flash.

• Aperture about 2 stops smaller than the maximum f-stop for your lens. This will probably be f/5.6 or f/8.

• Shutter speed as recommended for your camera with flash - usually 1/200 sec for a DSLR. If your shutter speed is too fast you will have a dark band on one edge of your picture. If your shutter speed is too long you will have ghost images and/or blurred highlights.

• ISO can be lower - try 400. But if you have a small, low power flash or with bounce flash you may have to use a higher ISO.  Try to keep it at 1600 or less.

Don't forget to reset to a high ISO setting and larger f-stop when you step back into the low light theater.

To keep the flash from overpowering your image and let a little ambient light show in your picture you might want to shoot at a slight minus Flash EV setting like -1. Note that this is the flash EV adjustment not the main exposure EV adjustment. Check that manual that came with your camera (you can find it online). Experiment with your camera and flash in different situations to get a feeling for how this flash EV setting works.

If you want to shoot with your flash unit set to manual you will also need to have your camera in manual mode.  The f-stop (aperture) will need to be set based on the distance from your flash to the subject and it also depends on the power of your flash unit. Consult the instruction manual that came with your flash for a table of the f-stop to use at various distances.  Also you will need to add at least one f-stop if you use a diffuser on the flash and additional f-stops for bounce flash. It's a good idea to take test shots at the expected distances in a specific situation before your real shoot - you don't want Justin Bieber waiting on the red carpet while you figure out the right f-stop.

Flash is needed when you shoot a step-and-repeat.

Learn More

Bounce Flash video tutorial - Tony Northrup

On-camera Flash Tips

Strobist - blog about using flash including Lighting 101