Flash Photography - Settings not understood

[jcoutts]

For an up & coming Wedding I have coming up, having seen the venue I was doing some revising on the settings for two scenarios:-

1. Fill Flash - for those ugly shadows in bright sunlight, and women who insist on wearing large hats on the nice sunny day!

2. Reception/Party - Innately, low light, disco lighting...etc.

Now came across this post - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=242873&highlight=flash+photography

tdodd, and others make reference to some settings and with examples look like the way to go.

BUT - what I don't understand is if we are going to employ the use of artificial light in the source of flash, why are we going up so high in ISO? I always thought high ISO should be avoided at ALL costs and that was the whole point of using the flash to give you back the lost light.

Is this as is suggested to avoid the "People in a cave" look?

Also, what mode do the pro's typically shoot in whilst using the Flash - O.K so E-TTL is managing the flash, BUT what if you want to control it further. I wish I understood this more :shrug:

I think I read that if in TV, AV, Program and E-TTL that it will do everything for you. The only way to truly control it is being in Manual mode.

Can someone iron this out for me, or point me to an idiots guide! I have always plumpt for Manual Mode 1/100, say 400 ISO, then worked down to about 1/50 handheld... to get the result I want. :bang:

 

[unclened]

For an up & coming Wedding I have coming up, having seen the venue I was doing some revising on the settings for two scenarios:-

1. Fill Flash - for those ugly shadows in bright sunlight, and women who insist on wearing large hats on the nice sunny day!

2. Reception/Party - Innately, low light, disco lighting...etc.

Now came across this post - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=242873&highlight=flash+photography

tdodd, and others make reference to some settings and with examples look like the way to go.

BUT - what I don't understand is if we are going to employ the use of artificial light in the source of flash, why are we going up so high in ISO? I always thought high ISO should be avoided at ALL costs and that was the whole point of using the flash to give you back the lost light.

Is this as is suggested to avoid the "People in a cave" look?

Also, what mode do the pro's typically shoot in whilst using the Flash - O.K so E-TTL is managing the flash, BUT what if you want to control it further. I wish I understood this more :shrug:

I think I read that if in TV, AV, Program and E-TTL that it will do everything for you. The only way to truly control it is being in Manual mode.

Can someone iron this out for me, or point me to an idiots guide! I have always plumpt for Manual Mode 1/100, say 400 ISO, then worked down to about 1/50 handheld... to get the result I want. :bang:

In the linked thread, the OP had a 5DMKII, which handles high ISO a lot better than some older cameras. So I think the advice has been along the lines of taking the camera's ISO upto a level that still looks ok and therefore exposing for the ambient light better and letting the flash act as a lighter fill flash. Which I guess is what you referring to the people in a cave look.

Settings wise there are many ways of acheiving the same result, however for me personally I prefer working in M. If you are familiar with M, then stick to it. Go into the venue/room/location, expose for the ambient light, then stick your flash gun on ettl and dial flash exposure compensation. Bounce the flash off walls, ceilings, reflectors etc... and adjust the flash expo comp on your flash gun up or down, depending on how far/high the bounced surface is.

The last para, that I have bolded, suggests that you go for a trial an error approach to achieve an exposure that looks good to you? Not criticising your approach, but what I would suggest is get familiar with metering for the scene and look at your histogram religiously.

Easiest way to meter for a scene is to set your camera to spotmeter, hold out your palm and point the camera at your palm and adjust your settings to get EV 0 (for black skin), EV1 (for asian skin), EV1.5-2 (for white skin) depending on your skin tone. This will give you very good baseline settings and 1 or 2 test shots later you will have honed down the settings further so that you are exposing the whites on the brides dress as bright as possible without them actually blinking (overexposed).

I am sure this answer has lead to many other questions arising in your mind, but rest assured that HoppyUK and tdodd will no doubt be along soon to lend their expertise

 

[Kaouthia]

BUT - what I don't understand is if we are going to employ the use of artificial light in the source of flash, why are we going up so high in ISO? I always thought high ISO should be avoided at ALL costs and that was the whole point of using the flash to give you back the lost light.

To help bump up the ambient light exposure, and so your flash doesn't have to go as hard to compensate.

 

[boyfalldown]

For an up & coming Wedding I have coming up, having seen the venue I was doing some revising on the settings for two scenarios:-

For a wedding (assuming you're there as the main photographer) shouldn't you know this?

 

[jcoutts]

boyfalldown

Yes, and yes!

But knowing WHY your doing what your doing is better than just doing it cos it works!

 

[Rob 80386]

for disco photography, if using flash dial the power down, so it's not too harsh, or you'll end up with a white cast on the subject and the disco lights will be washed out too, more so if the DJ is using smoke/haze effects