speedlight

Photography Tip - use your speedlight external flash at 1/4 power manual mode

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I use my speedlights at 1/4 power most of the time in manual mode.Speedlights, or external flashes, are great tools and in my view absolutely necessary for every photographer to own.  They are actually very easy to use for the most part.  Current speedlights have TTL (through the lens) modes which are basically automatic modes.  You connect the speedlight to your DSLR's hotshoe, and the camera's meter determine's the power used by the speedlight.  This sounds great, and is convenient, but the problem is often too much power is used resulting in black images.  Why?  Because speedlights need time to recycle their charges between flashes.  The more power used, the longer the time.  

This is why a majority of the time I use my speedlights at 1/4 power and always in manual mode.  At this quarter power setting the speedlight can take a small burst of shots (3+ in a row) allowing me to capture action in events, group shots, etc without having one of those frames be pure black because the flash did not fire due to a long recycle time.  

Try using your speedlight in manual mode at 1/4 power and then compensate for any exposure needs using the settings on your DSLR.  You will get more consistent results and your speedlight's batteries will last longer too!

1-on-1 Nikon SB-700 Speedlight DSLR Photography Lesson with Lourdes in St. Petersburg Florida

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Up on a parking garage in downtown St. Petersburg for our second photography lesson.For our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons Lourdes had some new photography gear to debut.  To pair with her Nikon D5100 this time she had a new Nikon SB-700 Speedlight.  So to practice low light photography during the day, I took us to a parking garage in downtown St. Petersburg that offered wide open and close quarter areas.  Building on what we learned in our first lesson, this time I instructed her on how aperture and flash power mostly control the exposure on the subject, while the shutter speed controls the ambient/background light in a portrait using flash.  

This model is all about glamour!As seen in the photo above, I was standing in very low light in the parking garage in front of an open window with a very bright background.  Without using a speedlight, either I would have been a silhouette, or the outside would have had to of been pure white.  Using a speedlight essentially allows for two exposures to be made in one photograph.  This is a powerful tool and skill to have for photography.

External Flash DSLR Photography Lesson with Barbie & her Nikon D700

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Barbie and her Nikon D700 with new Nikon SB-900 Speedlight! Flash is necessary for sunset portraits like this.Lately everytime Barbie and I have another DSLR Photography Lesson she comes with another significant new piece of photography gear.  For our fourth of four lessons Barbie debuted her new flagship Nikon Speedlight, the large and powerful SB-900.  Also, she got a BlackRapid RS-7 strap similar to my RS-Sport model! It was my first time to get hands on with the most powerful speedlight Nikon makes and although I was impressed with its power, there were some quirks with its controls.  Like to adjust the power there is not just a plus and minus adjustment button, another button must be pressed first to select the power on the rear LCD screen.  

To practice sunset and twilight portraits Barbie and I headed out to Vinoy Park which offers a great background of the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront to the west and to the southeast is The Pier and a panoramic view of Tampa Bay.  It is my favorite spot in the whole city.  

To get the most natural looking flash portraits in low light we had to use our speedlights in manual mode, dialing in low levels of power like 1/64th so as to not blow out the subjects (us).  Barbie will be buying another 4-pack of DSLR Photography Lessons starting on Friday when we will continue our flash practice, and get the flash off the camera!

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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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