more subtle fill-flash with your Nikon speedlight
In blending flash with available light, I am often after that delicate balance where the flash is just barely perceptible. This can be with flash as an equal partner to the available light, or with flash as a subtle fill-flash. But what I've found with my Nikon D3 bodies, when used with the SB-900, that the fill-flash flash is still too much, even when turned down -3EV on the flash exposure compensation. I've found similar with the various Nikon D300 and Nikon D700 bodies that attendees to my workshops use. In other words, this isn't just my cameras - this is repeatable with other Read more inside...
Bounce flash – balancing foreground and background exposure
Bounce flash - balancing foreground and background exposure
Lighting for the impromptu portrait of this little cutie was simple - just an on-camera speedlight, bounced up and over my left shoulder. This gives soft directional light. A simple technique that works every time when using on-camera flash indoors where there are light ceiling and walls around. Settings: 1/250th @ f4 @ 1000 iso; TTL flash My exposure settings was determined by the out-of-focus garden area outside, seen through a large window. It was over-cast, and therefore not super-bright. This meant that the bounce Read more inside...Light modifiers for on-camera flash
Light modifiers for on-camera flash
Event photography, and specifically weddings, can be a rushed and fast-moving, with some of the worst lighting conditions. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have great light from just an on-camera speedlight. By bouncing your on-camera flash with specific intent, you can achieve just that - beautiful, soft directional light. Light modifiers for on-camera speedlights all generally do the same thing - they spread a lot of light around, and but also throw some light directly forward. In a way, this gives a bare-bulb effect to the light from the Read more inside...Ambient exposure with TTL flash
Ambient exposure with TTL flash
A question I was asked about exposure metering in relation to flash: Let's say I use Manual mode on my camera, and have adjust my aperture and shutter speed so that my meter indicator have returned to zero. At this point I know at least i have "correct exposure". I would either choose to over expose and under expose depend on circumstances. My question is, will my picture get over exposed if fire my strobe even thought my indicator already point to zero ? I have no idea how should I integrate flash setting into my routine I always use when in M Read more inside...embracing tungsten light
wedding photography - working with incandescent light sources
As a wedding photographer I obviously shoot all the time in ares lit by tungsten / incandescent light sources. With modern D-SLRs and fast lenses it is no problem to actually use tungsten light as my main light source. The photo above from a recent wedding, is a typical image where I used an existing incandescent / tungsten light source for a beautiful but simple portrait. Here I photographed the bride by the light of a lamp in the living room. No flash was used - just the lamp and whatever other ambient light existed Read more inside...tutorial: Maximum flash sync speed
tutorial: Maximum flash sync speed
In previous postings I have mentioned that the specific settings for a photo aren't often of direct value to us in figuring out the method of exposure. But the one setting that is of huge importance when using flash, is your camera's maximum flash sync speed. When the ambient light levels are low, then your shutter speed can vary appropriately, depending on what you want to achieve. But once you work in bright conditions, or have your subject against a bright background, then most often it just makes the best sense to work at maximum flash sync Read more inside...Nikon SB-900 thermal cut-out
Nikon B-900 Overheat Protection / thermal cut-out
One of the features of the new Nikon SB-900 speedlight is the thermal cut-out. This feature allows the speedlight to stop firing (ie, stop working), when there is danger of it over-heating from shooting too fast. The temperature gauge can clearly be seen on the right-hand side of the SB-900 LCD display. Read more inside...flash photography: dealing with reflective surfaces
dealing with reflective surfaces when using flash
Rooms with wooden paneling are notoriously difficult to shoot in when using flash. This is because of the tendency for the light source (flash) to create large hot spots on the wooden surfaces. I've had someone ask me specifically about these images from a recent wedding, and how I avoided those specular reflections in the wooden paneling. The best way to avoid them is to make sure you don't "see" your light-source / flash-tube in the wood paneling. Imagine the flat surface to be a mirror - and then from your angle of view Read more inside...Flash exposure is controlled by aperture – but only for manual flash
Flash exposure is controlled by aperture ... but only for manual flash
Quite often the short-hand descriptions of the fundamentals of flash photography become misleading 'facts'. I frequently see the following statements repeated on the various photography forums and in questions that are emailed to me: flash is controlled by aperture shutter speed controls ambient light. (This is sometimes twisted around to a completely misleading version: ambient light is only controlled by the shutter speed.) Even though these descriptions are half-right, they are also half-wrong Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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