Playing with the new flash

divamum

So, I picked up my deal-on-a-used-420ex today and persuaded my daughter to let me have some fun with it while she was outside playing. She wasn't really in the mood to play model, but it wasn't an entirely wasted effort!

I'm annoyed I didn't remember t stop the lens down so I had more dof and it didn't go soft - I was using the 55-250 since I was on the deck about 25ft away from the tree she was climbing, and it's crisper at that length closed down a little - ah well! Next time.... But I'm pleased with the flash, to say the least! Now I just have to learn enough about what it does to control it despite the lack of manual input... although based on this, I'm pretty happy with the choices it made

C&C always welcome.




Uh... mom...? STOP TAKING PICTURES!!

Richard

It looks like you're off to a good start. The second seems just right to me, but the first is just a tad too strong. E-TTL is a lot smarter than I am, so I generally shoot in manual with the exposure set for the background, tweak the FEC and let the flash figure out the rest. Lots of people use Av mode with fill flash, but I have screwed up too many indoor shots that way because I wasn't paying enough attention to how low the shutter speed was dropping. Works better outdoors as long as the flash has a high-speed synch mode.

davidweaver

I suggest getting a Sto Fen diffuser for the flash (around 8-10 bucks). You will probably like the results from using it.

Cheers,
David

Nikolai

davidweaver wrote:

I suggest getting a Sto Fen diffuser for the flash (around 8-10 bucks). You will probably like the results from using it.

Cheers,
David

With all due respect (and I own and like StoFen) it does less than nothing outdoors. Indoors - yes, provided you have a light, neutral-colored wall or ceiling nearby.

Nikolai

Using on-board flash for a closeup portraits is tough. As Joe McNally puts it (and I totally concur ) "it should be your last resort when the only other option is not taking the shot" (I don't remember the exact quote but that's the idea).
It can be used as fill sometimes with OK results, but in general you'd be much better if you offset it with a cord or ST-E2.

divamum

Thanks all - appreciate the feedback.

I was about 25+ ft away, so I'm not sure if that counts as "closeup" - in fact, I was amazed the flash had enough power to do ANYTHING at that kind of distance (I've never had a decent flash before, and certainly never one that was as smart as the camera These may not be winners photographically as portraits, but the series has several nice better-than-average snapshots - they printed out very clean and nice, too (grandparents will love 'em!)

I hadn't even attempted FEC - as I say, these were literally the first time I fired the thing up and gave it a spin - so, I have a fair learning curve ahead of me before I can reliably get what I want (I suspect that AEB will be my friend for a while!), but after reading the articles cmason so kindly linked, I'm already starting to understand it better .... at least in theory. In practice will come with time, I assume!

Btw, I disocvered kind of a neat trick while playing with it on Sunday - I wanted to try the index card thing to bounce it, but I didn't have any... so I used a large paint chip. I had several lying around, and it was cool to subtly change the colour cast with them... and free!

Thanks again, all. I SO appreciate the time you're all taking to offer your advice and encouragement!