Video tutorial: Manual flash settings

One advantage that the larger speedlights have over the smaller speedlights – aside from more power – is that they show the distance the flash can reach for the specific settings. This video is a continuation of the off-camera flash tutorial series. What is described in this video is also written out in more detail in this article: Practical tutorial: Controls for manual flash exposure. If manual flash seems confusing, then I would recommend checking that article out as well, and then look at this video tutorial on manual flash settings again. It should all fall into place then.

The gist of this video, and this tutorial: Controls for manual flash exposure, is that the controls for flash exposure are all inter-linked. Manual flash is controlled by 4 things:  Power, Aperture, ISO, Distance.  (We can use the acronym ‘PAID’ to remember them.)

Now, if you have correct flash exposure, as you change one of those settings – Power, Aperture, ISO, Distance – you have to control one of the other settings to keep to correct exposure.

Or, the counterpoint to that is, if your exposure is under / over, then you can change one of those settings to affect the power to get correct exposure.

What this video explains is how the back of the speedlight tells you exactly what you need to know – how the change in power affects the distance (for a chosen aperture & ISO combination.)

If this doesn’t quite make sense yet, work through this video and that linked article on manual flash – while you have your camera in your hand! It definitely needs the practical hands-on visual to see how this is interconnected.

If you bounce flash though, then this all changes. The above is for the flash pointed directly at your subject.

This video tutorial is one in a series that originally appeared on the Clickin’ Moms website in 2012, but licensing has now reverted back to me, and here we are – a tutorial that might be dated in terms of some of the gear used, but the principles remain the same. In conjunction with all the other articles about off-camera flash photography, these videos should make a good primer on the topic of off-camera flash.

• Off-camera flash tutorial – Flash with no ambient light
• Off-camera flash tutorial – Balancing flash with ambient light
• Off-camera flash tutorial – Off-camera flash on location
• Video tutorial: TTL fill-flash
• Video tutorial: Manual flash settings
• How to set up wireless flash with the pop-up flash

For a more up-to-date list of gear for off-camera flash, start with this: Gear list – Starting out with off-camera flash

Related articles

• Practical tutorial: Controls for manual flash exposure
• Applying the Sunny 16 Rule & Flash Guide Number
• Best fill-flash settings
• Manual flash vs. TTL flash