using flash

[McBunny]

never shot with an off camera flash before and want to be taking a few at a wedding next week

so what the best way to go about it camera 400d lens 17-55 f2.8 flash is a 420 ex i have 'borrowed' from work

 

[JJ!]

Indoors or Outdoors? Also depends on height of walls etc so you can make you of bouncing. If not, has the flash got a diffuser?

 

[McBunny]

no diffuser YET im looking at buying an omni bounce today though


as for the rest will be indoors and out but have no idea about the location its a bit far to just go have a look

 

[Clart]

When you say off camera, you mean external, but on the camera?

Its a fairly steep learning curve, you really need to play around with it before hand. With the Nikon speedlights, you can use iTTL which kind of works out the settings for you, or you can try it the hard way and use manual on the flash. Even if you point the flash to 45 degrees and 1/8th power, you should still get ok results.

 

[unofficialPete]

If you do mean ''off camera'' then the 420EX is going to be useless as it can only fire at full power as a remote slave.

If you mean camera mounted then shoot with the camera in Manual and the flash in auto, up the ISO for ambient light and bounce from the ceiling. Maybe shoot in RAW if possible as different ceilings etc can mess with the WB.

 

[McBunny]

nah mounted on the hot shoe but not the built in flash

will have a prat about this week with it and see how i get on

 

[McBunny]

well i fail with it from the first few i took lol

i think i pissed her off

 

[unofficialPete]

lol doesn't look happy!

Meh, no EXIF. Still struggling or getting used to it?!

 

[McBunny]

struggling bud never sure what direction to point the head and what to bounce it off with me been inside and trying it off the rough it seems to cast shadows and not illuminate the front of the cat

 

[Rasclart]

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

GREAT site when you have time read all the tutorials

 

[unofficialPete]

Are you shooting Manual? Point it up but pointing a little forward or if your really close straight up, imaging the light traveling in a straight line, where you want it to hit the roof and come down again onto your subject etc.

You been shooting just the cat as hes a hard subject being completely black. Does the flash have FEC (Flash exposure compensation), you could try turning it up a couple of thirds of a stop but you might start to blow out the background.

 

[McBunny]

was shooting manual yeah well the camera has fec so i could try that

yes the cats a pita to shoot but its the only really interesting thing i could find lol

 

[JJ!]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jj1978/2823520629/

Flash bounced off ceiling, was the best of a few I took! Takes a while to get these damn flash pics just as you want em!