Last saturday I shot my first wedding as a solo photographer (not following anyone else around) and I have to say what I’ve learned from you in regards to bounce flash and flash ratios in different lighting situations has been invaluable, so thankyou once again! The location and shoot it’s self threw lots of difficult lighting situations (mostly weather related and moving inside into a poorly-lit and crowded venue) at me.

I just really wanted to ask one question. My 2600mAh rechargeables didn’t seem to get more than 60 full flash shots or 100 fill flash shots per set. I ran through 4x sets between my Canon 580 EX II and Sigma EF 530DG Super speedlights on the day and was almost having to resort to pop flash (ewwww!!!). I was wondering if you could recommend something that would hold up to 200-300 shots without having to resort to external battery packs? I hear the sanyo enloop batteries are excellent.

Thanks once again, and keep up the great work.

If you run into problems with reflective areas to bounce light into you could get an assistant to stand behind you with a metre wide white reflector and bounce light into that or simply suggest the subject moves to a more suitable area.

By the way – Its a great site and one i will be dipping into. There’s so much to learn.
Thanks neil

Phil, it shouldn’t feel stubborn. The release button should make it an easy smooth twist to either side.

And yeah, it’s A Big Thing to have a flashgun rotate like that. When I moved from the Nikon SB-800 to the Canon 580EX a few years back, it really changed my flash photography. Instead of being limited in bouncing flash off the ceiling, suddenly I could bounce light into the direction I want my light to come from … and that completely revolutionized the results I achieved with my flash.

Neil vN

Thanks,

Phil

Hi there Phil … thanks! Now, about your flash .. if you rotate it 180 degrees either side, then it does indeed face backwards. : -)

Neil vN

My question is this, you mention a few times that you bounce the flash behind you. How did you accomplish this feat? I am using the Canon 580EX, and while it can rotate 180 degrees, it cannot face backwards. Do you use a reflector of some kind?

Much Thanks,

Phil

Hi there Duc Le,

It’s difficult making an accurate assesment of what is going wrong there with your setup, but I suspect that your opteka flash is optically slaved. Then TTL the preflash sequence from your Canon speedlights will trigger it BEFORE the main exposure takes place.

Here’s a part explanation of what is happening there with a related topic.

You need to trigger your slaves either with radio slaves or with the Canon wireless TTL system itself. Optical slaves can be a problem like that.

Neil vN

Kris .. in that top image, the flash is not the main source of light. I’m just using flash as a kind of fill light to open the shadows. As such, any light that comes back from the interior of the entire room, will add to the final image. Also note, I was shooting at f2 .. and that’s a wide aperture.

In the second photo, I never stated I bounced the flash off the wall behind the bride? I bounced flash off the wall behind me, which was also the same kind of brick wall.

However, there are numerous examples on this website where I bounce flash off to the side, and even pointed in some kind of direction towards my subject, but flagged so that there is no direct flash on my subject. Here’s a recent example of how I bounce flash like that.

I hope this makes it more clear.

Neil vN