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flash photography techniques
bouncing flash
wireless TTL flash
flash outdoors
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Cameras which are capable of utilizing wireless TTL flash allow you much more flexibility right on the spot. If your camera and flash system allows for this, it really is worth your time and effort to figure out how to use it.
Have a look at Dave Black’s website to see what is possible with wireless TTL flash on location. He is a master at this.
I use it in a much simpler way during weddings, in order to shoot fast, but still have the ability to expand from just a single on-camera flash.
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Here I first tried a test shot, bouncing my flash to my right behind me. It looked flat, and I wasn’t happy with the way the wall was blown out in the mirror.
I keep two cameras on me at all times – each with a speedlight attached. And either of those speedlights are ready to be used as a master or slave. In this instance I had my assistant stand in the corner away from the bride and me, and he had to point the flash (still on the camera), towards the wall and ceiling to the front and left of the bride. I disabled the output from my own camera’s speedlight, but allowed it to trigger the slaved speedlight that my assistant was holding. specific settings: |
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An important thing here to keep in mind, is that using a diffuser cup over my speedlight would’ve thrown too much light forward – giving it a clearly artificial look. The way I used it here, the light looks natural – as if it might have been soft light from a large window.
In this photo, there is very little ambient light – it is pretty much all just flash. In fact, just a single speedlight as my light source – but I drastically improved my results by doing two things:
- bouncing my flash off a wall and ceiling, thereby softening the light, and
- moving my source of light away from the camera, thereby creating more directional light.
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And onwards to fill-flash and flash outdoors …
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Please feel free to e-mail me with comments & questions.
Neil van NiekerkIf you need more direct help or instruction on flash photography, I do present workshops and seminars, and I also offer individual tutoring sessions.
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Great information here!
Comment by Geoff Poitras — October 31, 2009 @ 11:54 pm
Hi Neil,
I am going over your blog all over again. I am practising a lot of your tips and it has improve my photography a lot, which would have otherwise taken me ages to get there. I consider myself very lucky that I stumbled upon your blog very early, which is keeping me instrested in my D90 which I got about an year ago. And based on your recomendation got a flash unit (SB 600). I mostly shoot my two little kids indoors. I have started playing with wireless TTL flash. I use my D90 in commander mode, and bounce my SB 600 mostly from one corner of the room facing the wall behind me. It give me a bit room to move around and keep up my pace, without worrying too much about rotating my flash head. Actaully that would be impossible. If I havent read your blog I wouldnt have tought of all these kinds of setups and experiments. I am getting lots of good results.
However my question here is, when I use my D90 flash in commander mode it seems it still contirbutes to the lighting up the scene. I couldnt find a way to completely disalbe it. so what I do is dial it down to -3EV. The results are not bad, but when reading above blog it seems it is possible to completely disable the flash at least with Canon system :). I presume this would be possible with Nikons too. Would you be able to share your knowledge on this. Probably something burriend under the menu. (Btw, I tried lowering the flash on my D90 thinking that the wireless communication was thru infrared, but it seems that it doesnt fire my wireless unit, if I do that).
Happy holidays to you and your family. And a Big thank you for sharing your knowledge to the world :)
Comment by Arun, Tokyo — December 26, 2009 @ 11:04 pm
Arun,
I get good result selecting in the camera the power of built-in flash at 1/128.
Comment by Alfredo Medina — December 26, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
Comment by Neil — December 27, 2009 @ 12:00 am
Hi Neil / Alfredo,
Thanks for both your suggestions. I have already tried it on my camera it works like a charm. (btw mine was D90 and it is under e2, in case anybody else is looking for this info)
Neil a special thanks for your for doing a wonderful job of sharing your knowledge. Which not many people do. I have learned quite a lot about photography from this blog than anyother source, in a shorttime and I really try them while shooting.
Thanks
Arun.
Comment by Arun, Tokyo — December 28, 2009 @ 8:55 am
Comment by Neil — December 28, 2009 @ 11:00 am