Hi all,
I’ve recently bought a Nissin flash unit (budget speedlite basically) for my Canon DSLR, and I’m struggling to get my head round the concept of balancing ambient light with flash. The more I read about the subject, the more I massively confuse myself…any help would be appreciated!
Here’s what I’m doing:
1) Set camera to manual mode
2) Take a meter reading at ISO800 to expose for ambient light, and set aperture and shutter speed accordingly.
3) Turn on flash (TTL mode) and take the shot.
The results are usually slightly underexposed, so I’m adjusting FEC to +1 to compensate. I’m aware that the shutter speed has nothing to do with the flash exposure, so I guess I need to adjust ISO and aperture to correctly expose the background, and the TTL flash will calculate correct exposure for the subject?
As I said earlier, I’m a bit confused…!
Looking forward to hearing your replies,
Dan
photosbytony
Hi Dan, not an expert on flash but do take a lot of outdoor photos of kids sports teams for a local company. We do individual and team posed photos and use flash. We shoot on P for program and between the camera and the flash they automatically determine the correct exposure of both. We use canon flashes, I don’t know if that makes a difference or if your flash communicates with the camera. I think the shutter speed does have a lot to do with exposure though. It has to do with the sync speed which I think when the speed of the flash is the same as the speed of the shutter, emphasize “I Think” :). For example if the sync speed is 250th of a second and your shutter speed is 1000th it seems that the shutter won’t be open long enough to get the full effect of the flash. Hope a flash expert helps you out here. I’ll be watching the topic hoping to get it clearer in my head. Tony
Dan Biggins:
Thanks for your reply Tony, appreciated. As far as I understand, aperture, ISO and shutter speed all have an effect on the ambient exposure, but have no effect whatsoever on the flash exposure (as this is calculated by the camera if you’re using the flash in TTL mode). So as far as I can see, you need to expose for the ambient light first, maybe underexpose by one or two stops to allow more ambient light to hit the sensor (by either adjusting the aperture, ISO or shutter speed), and then the camera / flash will correctly expose the subject via TTL metering?
I’ve been experimenting over the past few days, but still don’t feel I have total control over the final image which is highly frustrating…
Cheers again for the reply,
Dan
Dan Biggins
By the way, this article here seems to cover the subject pretty well, if anyone’s interested.
photosbytony
Here is another article on flash and sync speeds, might help. sync
Dan Biggins:
Thanks Tony, that’s great – hopefully this thread will turn into a useful flash resource for everyone…
photosbytony
So far it is just you and me, maybe we are the only ones that don’t understand??? :)))) Tony
Dan Biggins:
It’s looking that way mate…?!! :-/
Tim Geraghty-...
Hi Dan, what is your subject matter that your shooting?
If it’s portrait during the day in bright sunlight with the sunlight casting a shadow over the subjects face start with manual settings on your camera at around 125th f5.6 ISO 400 and set your flash to whatever the auto ETTL setting of the flash is. Take a test shot with the spot metering on the shaded area of your subject and check the results.I’m not familiar with the functions available on the nissin flashes compared to the canon speedlites ( the canon 580 ex 2 is a great flash set on ETTL)
Work back from there. Using the manual mode on the camera allows you to control the ambient light of the scene and if the flash is as capable as the canon speedlight it should fill flash the shadow areas.
Alternatively you can set everything in manual (including the flash) then dial back the flash power to get the results.
High speed flash sync is another matter and can get you some great results after practice.
Check a site called “strobist” it’ll cut your teeth on the creativeness of speedlight flash lighting.
Cheers
tim
Dan Biggins:
Hi Tim,
Cheers for the reply – I’m mainly shooting portraits, and attempting to balance the ambient light. As far as I understand, it’s a bit like taking two exposures in one – expose for the ambient light first (either via shutter, ISO or aperture, or a combination of all three), and then use the flash as either a fill or key light by dialling up / reducing the power.
Thanks again for your reply, I’ll keep practising!
Dan
photosbytony
Hi Dan, here is the link to strobist
Tim is right this is the best site out there for flash esp. small strobes out there, These guys do some amaqzing things with just Nikon or Canon strobes.