I am curious if anyone has some good ideas on how to use an on camera flash creatively. Has anyone successfully fooled the camera and used the on camera flash in daylight? How? Also, any good tips on how to use a dedicated flash? I have used one at a slower shutter to create some special effects. Any tips would be great. I appreciate this site very much and thanks to all of you!

-- kathleen (dogdishz@prodigy.net), October 17, 2001

Answers

Kathleen,

There are tons of ways to use flash creatively. As for using on board flash, it mostly depends upon the capabilities of the camera you have. Rear curtain sync, slow sync and such can have interesting effects! Also, flash can be used as fill flash in daylight conditions. Most of the time, you can only use shutter speeds up to your flash sync speed. Any shutter speed beyond that (with flash) would require a flash unit that is FP High Speed Sync capable.

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), October 18, 2001.

Kathleen, As Johnny states, there are TONS of ways! Snycro-sun works great, to start to get the feel of it, put your flash on your camera, set it to auto and shoot. Remembering that in this case, shutter speed regulates the ambient light and flash is only regulated by the f-stop. If you have a camera that has a synch of 1/250, your sunlight will be subdued more than if you shoot at 1/60. You can also have some fun with painting with light. A big building, lighthouse ect is helpful as is an assistant friend. At night, set your camera on a tripod with the shutter speed on B or T. I would set your flash at about 20' or so and fire it towards the building and move to another section and fire it again trying not to overlap the flash pattern. Do this multiple times (if you are shooting a lighthouse, shoot some strobes around the back also to get a rim light). There is a fine line when shooting this kind of stuff. You need to wear dark clothing, keep moving and be very aware of your position between you and the camera!!!! This is a fun project and usually comes out really neat! Let me know how you make out.

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), October 19, 2001.

Kathleen: Flash can be fun, but you have to test your equipment, as manufacturers' guide numbers are notoriously optimistic. You didn't give much info as to HOW you wanted to use it ,and if it is a built-in, pop-up, or a shoe mount flash. But here goes. Shoe mount flash, hot shoe or not, tilt head. A newspaper photog's trick is to point the flash unit at the ceiling, or one click toward the front from vertical, and tape or rubber band a white card to the rear of the flash head, sticking up about 3-4 in above the head. The reflection from the card diffuses and spreads the light somewhat, softening it. You do lose some light doing this. A Sto-fen bounce reflector works somewhat better, but is not as cheap or handy as the white card. For close ups, with the Sto-fen device and shoe mount bounce flash, tilt the flash head so the bounce light covers the subject area (will probably take some trial and error) then mark the position on the flash head for future reference. This provides "soft box" lighting, sort of,reducing specular highlights somewhat, and has a "wrap around" effect for small subjects. Great for butterflies and flowers, too. If your camera is the older type, there will be synch connections, known as "P C terminals" (That means "positive connect" or something, not politically correct!)If your camera has a "hot shoe" the thing on top where the flash foot fits, the synch is internal for whatever type of shutter you have. Have to set the shutter speed dial for electronic flash synch, marked with an "X" or a little lightning bolt. If not hot shoe, the pc cord (means posiive connection) will go to one of two little round things, usually marked " FP or X" on the camera body. X is where the cord from the flash needs to go, unless you have a leaf shutter camera. Avoid the FP fitting like the plague--it was designed for focal plane flashbubs, which had a looooong peak, to cover the shutter's travel across the entire film area. Enough of ancient history! Today's cameras will do one whale of a job of exposing correctly for daylight fill in flash. Your camera manual has instructions for setting the camera to the proper fill ratio, or buy a Magic Lantern Guide for your camera. Galen Rowell sets his camera for -1.3 for shooting daylight--that's 1.3 stops less than daylight for fill flash. Me, I like about -1.5, but -2.0 is useful, too. What this will do is "open up" the dark shaded areas, like under a hat brim, add sparkle to the subject's eyes, and detail to areas that might not otherwise add to the picture, and overall, produce a much more pleasing result. One layer of a white handkerchief, held over the flash head, softens the light somewhat, and will reduce the flash output by about one f-stop. Modern electronics and ttl metering will somewhat offset this , but once again, if you have a manual flash, experiment. Have fun: CC

-- Carl Crosby (humminboid@aol.com), October 30, 2001.