bounce flash

External Flash DSLR Photography Lesson with Kristin & her Canon 430 EX II

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Me using Kristin's camera to demonstrate where to stand for on camera bounce flash.For our third of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons I met Kristin in the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot.  This time she brought her new Canon 430 EX II external flash to practice how to improve her portrait making.  We started off using some bounce flash techniques by positioning the subject (alternatively me and Kristin) against a wall that was near another perpendicular well, or to put it simply, near a corner!  In this way we bounced the flash off the perpendicular wall to create softer shadows and more even light on the subject (see image above).

We concluded by using her external flash (on camera) to help make landscape portraits at sunset time and beyound.  It is a fine art of balancing the power of the flash with the exposure of the ambient light so that the subject does not look too "flashed."  I look forward to seeing Kristin's creative portraits when we meet for our next lesson.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Deb & her new 430EX II Speedlite

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Deb wielding her substantial Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens - photo: Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/320th Strobist: Nikon SB-600 Speedlight held off camera triggered by commander mode

Once again my week started off with a fun DSLR Photography Lesson with Deb (lesson #1) in downtown St. Petersburg.  In the past week she got some new photography gear in the form of a Canon 430EX II Speedlite, which I suggested to her during our first lesson as the best piece of gear to get next, as speedlights are extremely useful.  She even got a bounce cap too, also very useful.  

We started out shooting in the shade of one of the downtown condo towers to escape the heat and also because shade is better for making portraits.  The first flash shots we took were practicing bouncing the flash off of available walls.  Ideally there would be a nice, smooth white wall everywhere you happened to decide to make a portrait, however, one often has to make due with much less.  Still, in a few quick test shots I was able to demonstrate to Deb that even bouncing the light from her 430EX II off a rough, dark creme wall was better than pointing the light straight at me.  She was able to do this because the 430EX II has a swivel head allowing her to point the light of the flash in a different direction than her lens.  On camera flash does not allow one to do this.  Hence, an external flash, even used on camera, has a great advantage over the built-in pop-up flash.

Sometimes there are not any walls around so we even practiced for that before finishing with making a portrait in direct sunlight, perhaps the least ideal situation.  However, using my tried and true settings (see photo description) serviceable broad daylight portraits are possible, when necessary.

Next lesson we will be getting the flash off of Deb's 7D and out on its own for off camera flash to produce even better portrait results.  Deb is learning fast!

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    • On camera external flash DSLR Photography Lesson with Mohammad

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    Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/60th manual exposure Since our first DSLR photography lesson Mohammad bought an external flash (Canon 430EX II speedlite) to pair with his Canon T2i, which is something I highly recommend to all my students as the best next piece of photography gear to buy, after the initial DSLR and lens purchase.  The popup flash on DSLR bodies (or any camera) produces very poor results and has a very limited reach.  If you like to photograph people, then an external flash (strobe) is basically a must.  

    We once again met in downtown St. Petersburg finding various overhangs and walls to practice bouncing the strobe off of.  Even with an external flash, you do not want to just blast the light directly onto the subject, which will produce blown out skin tones and harsh shadows.  So what you can do is have the light from the strobe bounce off something so that it hits your subject indirectly.  This indirect light is scattered and soft.  That kind of light is good for producing professional looking portraits.

    While I was being the model for Mohammad's practice shots, he remembered to use the rule of thirds while photographing me.  So since the lens was not pointed directly at me, the head of the flash would need to be redirected more toward me (the subject) or a bouncable wall.  External strobes like the 430EX II have a multidirectional head.  So the lens can be pointed one way, and the strobe another.  This is another advantage an external strobe has over the built in pop-up flash.  

    New in the lesson was also shooting mostly in manual mode.  Mohammad quickly realized that being able to get away with f/8 and f/11 for almost all shots taken in direct sunlight is not the case when using external flash as we often had to very finely tune our apertures and shutter speeds to produce the best exposures.  As you can see, I used f/6.3 for the above shot.  

    Now, as better an external flash mounted on a hotshoe is over the built in pop-up flash, getting that external flash off the camera is that much better than having it on the hotshoe.  I look forward to a future lesson with Mohammad where we practice off camera flash.  I recommend reading the STROBIST blog if you want to get a daily dose of lighting information. 

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    • DSLR Photography Lesson with Rosa and her daughter as a model

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    For our third DSLR photography lesson, Rosa practices bouncing her speedlight off a side wall.This is already my third lesson with Rosa! (first - second)  She has done some significant shopping since our last lesson about two weeks ago.  She has added to her lens collection with the purchase of a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens, and a larger camera bag to store all three of her lenses in.  She's added a tripod, and most excitingly, a 430 EX II speedlight!  Rosa also brought her daughter, Kristina, with her to be a practice model for portraits.  I cannot say enough how great Christina was, and patient too, with our 2-hours of posing her all over the Plant Museum building on the University of Tampa Campus.  

    We started with practicing portraits out on the front porch of the Plant Museum building just like I would my own portrait clients.  Here I showed Rosa the best places for Christina to stand in order to make best use of natural light in addition to the light from her speedlight.  

    A portrait of Christina I made while Rosa was getting setup.

    As in previous lessons, Rosa was a fast learner and soon was totally getting into portrait making mode, even helping out Kristina with scarf placement and other set design stuff.  We made good use of all the new gear she bought, even the tripod as she put her Canon T1i with her new 50mm f/1.8 lens onto the tripod for natural light portrait practice.

    I'm sure once her family sees the portraits she made of Kristina, they are going to be hounding her even more to photograph them too!

    Thanks again to Kristina for being such a trooper of a model and to Rosa for another great, and different, DSLR photography lesson.

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