New Speedlight - Getting Started

grapejape

The wife just ordered me a 430EXII Speedlight for my birthday. I've never used an external flash, but I'm using more and more (onboard) fill flash in my photography - especially for outdoor snapshots. I hope to get the hang of it in time to get some nice family shots over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Any good tips or articles to get started? Any must-have accessories? I do already have a couple of sets of rechargable AA batteries. I use the 40D w/ 28-135mm lens.


- Jason

ziggy53

Jason,

The very first thing I recommend for external flash use is a couple of flash modifiers. You can make these yourself:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/908195739C4C0D3

http://abetterbouncecard.com/

Joe Demb also makes an interesting device for sale (reasonable):

http://www.dembflashproducts.com/flipit/

I own a FlipIt product and it works well and is very well made.

Scott_Quier

If you haven't already done so, take a read of Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part I and Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part II.

Granted it's a lot to take down in one swallow - so study it over time. LOTS of good information there...

grapejape

ziggy53 wrote:

Jason,

The very first thing I recommend for external flash use is a couple of flash modifiers. You can make these yourself:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/908195739C4C0D3

http://abetterbouncecard.com/

Joe Demb also makes an interesting device for sale (reasonable):

http://www.dembflashproducts.com/flipit/

I own a FlipIt product and it works well and is very well made.

Ziggy,

Is it your opinion that it's best to go ahead and learn how to take photographs with one of the diffusers, or is it better to learn how to use the flash first and add the difffuser techniques later? Perhaps I am making this more difficult than it needs to be.


- Jason

grapejape

Scott_Quier wrote:

If you haven't already done so, take a read of Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part I and Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part II.

Granted it's a lot to take down in one swallow - so study it over time. LOTS of good information there...

Holy lots of text on a screen Batman! I will do my best to digest this, but you are right - it's a LOT of info.


- Jason

rpcrowe

I agree with the Joe Demb Diffuser
I use the Demb Flash Diffuser Pro and really like it. The Jumbo one might be a tad better but the standard model suits me just fine.

http://www.dembflashproducts.com/diffuser/models/

There are some good some tutorials on the Joe demb web site and this is an excellent tutorial regarding the creative use of flash:

http://planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

By-the-way, don't overlook using the flash for outdoor shots of people. It can do wonders!

grapejape

Well, the flash came in this afternoon and it was cold and rainy outside - so what better time to blast away at the wife and kids. I think that they will probably all have long-term vision damage from the amount of flash light that they were subjected to today.

I really like the flash - it is miles above the on-board flash. I take a lot of indoor snapshots of family, and this makes the photos look a ton better. I was amazed at how much better they came out by simply using P-mode (gasp) and bouncing the flash off of walls and ceiling. I tried adjusting the +- flash compensation a bit, but I found that it was dead on accurate at the default setting for most of my pics. I did notice that if I aimed the flash straight at the subject, I got the familiar "deer in headlights" pics that I was used to. I did try a few shots where I curved some white paper behind the flash (tilted up) and they came out pretty nicely.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping for better weather and I'll be experimenting outside. I don't expect to be satisfied with P-mode there, as I usually use Av or M.

One thing I am having a little trouble with is determining if my photos are properly exposed on my laptop monitor. I have found that the screen is fairly bright, and sometimes it's hard to tell if they are exposed correctly. Smugmug "auto color" does a great job of making the prints look good, but it would be nice to know if they were taken correctly. I find myself adjusting the exposure in Canon DPP up quite a bit for shots that look slightly too dark for my eye. I did notice that this last batch of flash-assisted photos did not require much adjustment at all - most I converted straight from RAW to JPEG without doing anything to them.


- Jason

grapejape

One more thing . . .

I'm interested in learning more about the High Speed Sync mode on the flash. It seems like this is required to take photos outdoors in bright sunlight using a wide open f-stop (for focused subjects, blurry backgrounds), since these will generally require a shutter speed higher than 1/250. Do any of you use this feature? I'm not sure I completely understand it.


- Jason

Scott_Quier

grapejape wrote:

Well, the flash came in this afternoon and it was cold and rainy outside - so what better time to blast away at the wife and kids. I think that they will probably all have long-term vision damage from the amount of flash light that they were subjected to today.

I really like the flash - it is miles above the on-board flash. I take a lot of indoor snapshots of family, and this makes the photos look a ton better. I was amazed at how much better they came out by simply using P-mode (gasp) and bouncing the flash off of walls and ceiling. I tried adjusting the +- flash compensation a bit, but I found that it was dead on accurate at the default setting for most of my pics. I did notice that if I aimed the flash straight at the subject, I got the familiar "deer in headlights" pics that I was used to. I did try a few shots where I curved some white paper behind the flash (tilted up) and they came out pretty nicely.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping for better weather and I'll be experimenting outside. I don't expect to be satisfied with P-mode there, as I usually use Av or M.

One thing I am having a little trouble with is determining if my photos are properly exposed on my laptop monitor. I have found that the screen is fairly bright, and sometimes it's hard to tell if they are exposed correctly. Smugmug "auto color" does a great job of making the prints look good, but it would be nice to know if they were taken correctly. I find myself adjusting the exposure in Canon DPP up quite a bit for shots that look slightly too dark for my eye. I did notice that this last batch of flash-assisted photos did not require much adjustment at all - most I converted straight from RAW to JPEG without doing anything to them.


- Jason

The paper behind the flash is intended to fill the eye shadows (and others) when the flash is pointed up and the light if bounced off the (white) ceiling. Usually works quite nicely and I'm happy to hear that it did so for you.

grapejape wrote:

One more thing . . .

I'm interested in learning more about the High Speed Sync mode on the flash. It seems like this is required to take photos outdoors in bright sunlight using a wide open f-stop (for focused subjects, blurry backgrounds), since these will generally require a shutter speed higher than 1/250. Do any of you use this feature? I'm not sure I completely understand it.

Background: When you set and trigger your shutter to expose for less than the x-synch speed, the sensor/film is exposed a bit at a time. The first shutter leaf starts moving, leaving a gap between it and the second shutter leaf. Some, short, time later the second shutter leaf starts moving, to close the shutter. As the exposure progresses, the gap between the first and second shutter leafs (which remains constant over the course of the exposure) moves from one side of the shutter to the other.

When you use HSS flash settings, the flash fires multiple pulses as each section of the sensor/film is exposed - this I'm sure of.

What I am not sure of (and it probably doesn't matter much) is the number of such pulses. It would seem to make sense that if you are shooting at, say, 1/500, that you would get two pulses - one for each half of the sensor. But, then one must ask, how are the pulses timed for, say, 1/320. I don't know.

ziggy53

grapejape wrote:

Ziggy,

Is it your opinion that it's best to go ahead and learn how to take photographs with one of the diffusers, or is it better to learn how to use the flash first and add the difffuser techniques later? Perhaps I am making this more difficult than it needs to be.


- Jason

Diffusers and modifiers are really an essential part of my kit. I rarely use direct flash unless it is just a little fill light.

ziggy53

Scott_Quier wrote:

...

When you use HSS flash settings, the flash fires multiple pulses as each section of the sensor/film is exposed - this I'm sure of.

What I am not sure of (and it probably doesn't matter much) is the number of such pulses. It would seem to make sense that if you are shooting at, say, 1/500, that you would get two pulses - one for each half of the sensor. But, then one must ask, how are the pulses timed for, say, 1/320. I don't know.

A flash that uses FP/HSS technology strobes at a rate of about 50kHz for the duration of the camera sync, usually about 1/200th to 1/250th.

A good explanation is here:

http://www.photozone.de/hi-speed-flash-sync
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html#fp

grapejape

I stopped by Marshall's (local craft store) after church today and picked up some $0.99 sheets of 12" X 18" black and white foam paper. I made a version of the 1st large diffuser (white with the black backing) that velcros around the flash, as well as a couple of versions of the "better bounce card" with varying methods of attachment. I can fit those in my camera bag, no problem, which is a nice feature. The large one will have to be for experimenting around the house.

So far, I had a little better luck with the large one outdoors and the small one indoors. However, I did get some funky shadows while using them indoors, which were elimiinated when I simply bounced the flash off of the walls or ceiling. With the large one, I especially got bad shadows when using it indoors because the top of the deflector completely blocks the flash and throws all of the light towards the subject. I suppose I can see the merits of the cards for helping to soften outdoor fill flash, or when in a room too large to bounce the flash, but I'm not sure I understand when to use the bounce cards otherwise.

The cool thing is that for $4 and some velcro that I had laying around, I have a number of nice little cards to play around with now.


- Jason

ziggy53

grapejape wrote:

... With the large one, I especially got bad shadows when using it indoors because the top of the deflector completely blocks the flash and throws all of the light towards the subject. I suppose I can see the merits of the cards for helping to soften outdoor fill flash, or when in a room too large to bounce the flash, but I'm not sure I understand when to use the bounce cards otherwise.

The cool thing is that for $4 and some velcro that I had laying around, I have a number of nice little cards to play around with now.


- Jason

Try moving your subjects farther away from walls and move your camera and flash a bit closer to the subjects (if you can without going too wide).

Moving the subjects away from walls will cast the shadow further back and behind. Getting the flash and modifier closer will produce more diffuse shadows.

grapejape

Here they are in all of their glory.

The large one is a monster - probably won't carry it around too much. The small one will fit right in my bag. I actually made a few of the small ones, with varying methods of attachment. The velcro is my favorite.


- Jason

grapejape

-

Scott_Quier

ziggy53 wrote:

A flash that uses FP/HSS technology strobes at a rate of about 50kHz for the duration of the camera sync, usually about 1/200th to 1/250th.

A good explanation is here:

http://www.photozone.de/hi-speed-flash-sync
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html#fp

Thanks Ziggy - time for some more reading!!

ziggy53

grapejape wrote:

Here they are in all of their glory.

The large one is a monster - probably won't carry it around too much. The small one will fit right in my bag. I actually made a few of the small ones, with varying methods of attachment. The velcro is my favorite.


- Jason

Jason,

For the "scoop" type modifier, I made the cuts higher and I also use a smaller angle at the top. This allows the light to emit even higher in the shape and allows more light from the flash to spill to the ceiling if needed.

I also generally rotate the flash head which allows me to orient the flash and modifier vertically in case I need to shoot in portrait orientation.

Here is a mounted example:



... and here are examples of use:

grapejape

I've been taking a ton of shots with and without the bounce cards, and generally having lots of fun with the new flash. I am a bit surprised at my results, however, and I'm sure that they are largely due to improper technique. I'll take 9 or 10 shots with the better bounce card oriented in different directions, bouncing the flash off of different walls and ceilings, and then a few without the card attached. I usually get better results not using the card at all and simply bouncing the flash off of my ceiling. With the card, I'm getting more shadows and brightly lit subjects with shadowy backgrounds. With the bare flash bounced, I'm getting a more evenly lit subject and room.

I must be using the card incorrectly, because I keep reading so much about how they are better than bare flash.

- Jason

cmason

What Scott said. Read that article several times...it is very important to understand the behavior of the flash in AV, TV and manual modes. This will make your head hurt...promise.

Next, spend some time over on Strobist...especially the Lighting 101 posts.

grapejape

cmason wrote:

What Scott said. Read that article several times...it is very important to understand the behavior of the flash in AV, TV and manual modes. This will make your head hurt...promise.

Next, spend some time over on Strobist...especially the Lighting 101 posts.

I have read the EOS Flash Info pages a few times, and they are full of good info. At first, I was confused why my camera kept recommending slow shutter speeds with the new flash turned on, but now I understand how the Av and Tv modes meter for existing light and how P mode forces the shutter speed to at least 1/60 (ambient light be darned) to keep the photos from coming out blurry.

That said, my practice shots are being taken indoors in P mode. I'm not trying to do anything fancy, just trying to practice at taking well lit snapshots of the kids and family in a dark(ish) house. We typically make a run to multiple houses over Thanksgiving, and I'm tired of coming back with the typical "deer in the headlights" snapshots - I want some decent photos this year! My outdoor shots are pretty good now, but indoor shots need lots of work.


- Jason

ziggy53

Jason,

Please post some examples of the photos to show the issues you are having.

Scott_Quier

grapejape wrote:

That said, my practice shots are being taken indoors in P mode. I'm not trying to do anything fancy, just trying to practice at taking well lit snapshots of the kids and family in a dark(ish) house. We typically make a run to multiple houses over Thanksgiving, and I'm tired of coming back with the typical "deer in the headlights" snapshots - I want some decent photos this year! My outdoor shots are pretty good now, but indoor shots need lots of work.


- Jason

May I recommend you point the flash at the ceiling, attach a suitable modifier (see above, but I usually use a simple Better Bounce Card), set your camera to manual mode, shutter speed to somewhere between 1/30 and 1/120, ISO between 400 and 800, and aperture approx f/3.5.

Note: The slower the shutter, the more ambient light you will get in the photo and the less it will look like you were shooting in a dark cave. The trade-off is, of course, the slower the shutter, the better the chance that you will get either subject blur or camera motion blur.

Take a couple of shots with the above settings and if you are still having issues - do what Ziggy has suggest - post a view so we can provide some better advice and/or corrective action.

grapejape

ziggy53 wrote:

Jason,

Please post some examples of the photos to show the issues you are having.

I'm working on some examples now, but I have been going back through some RAW files and have made a discovery.

The Auto White Balance seems to do a much better job when a modifier is not used, and the flash is bare-bounced off of a wall or ceiling. I found that on most of those shots, I did not have to do any white balance correction before converting to JPEG. On the shots with the large deflector, or better bounce card, I always had to "warm up" the white balance in post. Most of the S.O.O.T.C. shots without the modifier were ready to be used.


- Jason

ziggy53

Jason,

Assuming a white or very light neutral colored ceiling, the large reflector needs to be more "open" at the top to allow a higher percentage to bounce off the ceiling. Standing up and shooting down on the subjects a bit may throw the shadows into a more desirable position relative to the subjects.

The better-bounce-card (BBC) modifier could be folded back or slipped down to provide less fill and a better ratio overall. Experiment with the distance to subject and BBC height to achieve the best results.

In addition to throwing the light directly behind, also try throwing the light into the corner provided by ceiling and wall. This can provide a very pleasing angle for the light as well as diffusion.

For white balance, it's often desireable to have a white "target" included in a capture for each setup to give a standard starting point. Exposure for the white balance should not bleach the target, but it should be around RGB 250, 250, 250 or so. Commercial targets are available and a pretty good discussion about them is here:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=88748

grapejape

Here's another question for those of you who "walk around" with a flash while photographing events. Do you typically use the camera in Av, Tv, P, or M mode? I have found Av mode largely unusable indoors at night w/ flash, as it wants very slow shutter speeds. P mode works ok, but just feels cheesy - might as well break out the P&S camera (although bounced flash in P mode is far superior). What's the secret to letting the flash do some of the work, but not getting brightly lit subjects w/ dark backgrounds. It seems that the answer lies somewhere in the scary M mode, which I have not used very much yet. I have always been an Av or Tv guy outdoors and P guy indoors.

It also seems that if I start using M mode, that I will be using a lot of higher ISOs. With P mode, I can shoot at ISO 250 or 400 indoors. This isn't necessarily a good thing, however.

- Jason

Scott_Quier

grapejape wrote:

Here's another question for those of you who "walk around" with a flash while photographing events. Do you typically use the camera in Av, Tv, P, or M mode? I have found Av mode largely unusable indoors at night w/ flash, as it wants very slow shutter speeds. P mode works ok, but just feels cheesy - might as well break out the P&S camera (although bounced flash in P mode is far superior). What's the secret to letting the flash do some of the work, but not getting brightly lit subjects w/ dark backgrounds. It seems that the answer lies somewhere in the scary M mode, which I have not used very much yet. I have always been an Av or Tv guy outdoors and P guy indoors.

It also seems that if I start using M mode, that I will be using a lot of higher ISOs. With P mode, I can shoot at ISO 250 or 400 indoors. This isn't necessarily a good thing, however.

- Jason

I shoot manual about 95% of the time. Av works well outdoors where Av will turn the flash into a fill light. But, manual is the way to go when you know what the light is doing.

When shooting in manual mode you control all apects of the exposure, including the ISO. If you remember the camera's various programmed modes are just doing for you what you would/could do in manual, you begin to understand that manual mode does not equate to higher ISO.

As a starting point .... in a small room (like a medium to large living room, etc):

• ISO to 200 or 400 - the higher the ISO, the less drain on your flash batteries but more potential you will have for grain in your photos (everything is a tradeoff ).
• Flash pointed up to the white ceiling (or toward a white wall)
• Modifier, such as a Better Bounce Card, attached to the flash. You can get commercial diffusers for any price range, from $15 to more than $100. I choose to spend about $0.30 (that's 30 cents) on mine for, essentiall, the same results.
• Shutter speed between 1/30 to 1/250, depending on how much ambient light I want in the exposure. The longer the shutter speed, the more ambient will contribute.
• Aperture between f/2.8 and f/4.0

Try it, you'll find that the scary manual mode isn't all that scary after all.

ziggy53

Scott_Quier wrote:

... Try it, you'll find that the scary manual mode isn't all that scary after all.

Manual mode is not scary at all. Trust yourself to know what is best (after just a little experience which you can gain in tests before an event.)

Canon Av (aperture priority mode) can also work but I prefer to use the custom function which locks the shutter speed at maximum flash sync speed, 1/200th to 1/250th, and then use the ISO to control ambient. It works pretty well for well lit events.

Going between aperture priority and manual, quickly gives me some diversity between the shots while leveraging flash automation.

JGD

For me the one essential flash accessory is the off camera flash cord. If your flash has the catch light card, learn to use it also.

grapejape

ziggy53 wrote:

Manual mode is not scary at all. Trust yourself to know what is best (after just a little experience which you can gain in tests before an event.)

Canon Av (aperture priority mode) can also work but I prefer to use the custom function which locks the shutter speed at maximum flash sync speed, 1/200th to 1/250th, and then use the ISO to control ambient. It works pretty well for well lit events.

Going between aperture priority and manual, quickly gives me some diversity between the shots while leveraging flash automation.

Ziggy,

I saw that custom function, but it seems more useful outdoors to me. It would be really cool if it were an adjustable number so that you could lock it to 1/30 or 1/60 for indoor shots (to allow more ambient light). I know that P mode locks the shutter to 1/60, so perhaps this is why they don't let you adjust this in Av mode. I have heard that Nikon's flash system allows you to adjust the min shutter speed, and that it is a little more user-friendly in general.

M mode doesn't seem that scary, but it's hard for me not to want to adjust the exposure to make the little bar read dead center every time. You really have to trust the ETTL system and know what it's going to do. The PlanetNeil site had some good tips. I also found some more information on a Canon photography forum, photography-on-the.net, in their resource section.


- Jason

grapejape

Ziggy/Scott,

Well . . . Phase One (Thanksgiving) is over and I'm preparing for Phase Two (Christmas). Overall, I was able to take the best photos that have ever been taken at any of our family events. I was at three different locations, all dark indoor houses. I kept the camera in M mode exclusively and bounced between ISO 800 and 1250 mostly, althought I did shoot some in ISO 400 and 1600. My shutter speeds varied between 1/30 and 1/120. My best shots were largely at ISO 800 and 1/60, F3.5 to F5.6 (depending on zoom - I have the 40d kit lens).

I put the pics up on Smugmug and everyone is raving over them. I got a bunch of "those are great pics, that must be an awesome camera you have!" comments.

I did not have much luck with the modifiers however, and I ended up bouncing the flash off of walls and ceilings exclusively. I did try them a dozen or so times, but I was always able to replicate the shot without using it - so I put it back in the bag.

I still have quite a bit of perfecting to do, so I'll likely be back with more questions. I do thank you guys for the tips (and the links) so far.


- Jason

Scott_Quier

grapejape wrote:

Ziggy/Scott,

Well . . . Phase One (Thanksgiving) is over and I'm preparing for Phase Two (Christmas). Overall, I was able to take the best photos that have ever been taken at any of our family events. I was at three different locations, all dark indoor houses. I kept the camera in M mode exclusively and bounced between ISO 800 and 1250 mostly, althought I did shoot some in ISO 400 and 1600. My shutter speeds varied between 1/30 and 1/120. My best shots were largely at ISO 800 and 1/60, F3.5 to F5.6 (depending on zoom - I have the 40d kit lens).

I put the pics up on Smugmug and everyone is raving over them. I got a bunch of "those are great pics, that must be an awesome camera you have!" comments.

I did not have much luck with the modifiers however, and I ended up bouncing the flash off of walls and ceilings exclusively. I did try them a dozen or so times, but I was always able to replicate the shot without using it - so I put it back in the bag.

I still have quite a bit of perfecting to do, so I'll likely be back with more questions. I do thank you guys for the tips (and the links) so far.


- Jason

I'm so very happy you were successful. I, and I'm sure others, would be very, very interested in taking a look at some of them if you were so inclined to provide a link to the gallery and/or link a few shots into the thread (see my siggy for link to how that's done if you need any help).

Again, glad to hear things went well!