Need a crash course in Flash Photography

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john182rs

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John
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Basically wondering what are the best or better settings for portrait photography when using a 430 exII on a Canon 7D with a 24-105 F4L lens?

I dont like using auto mode as things tend to come out too bright and its lazy anyway But I am just after a starting point as I will be off to a shoot tomorrow and would like some sort of a head start.

Different scenarios of what could be good for inside, outside, cloudy etc etc please? Its my first time using a flash gun.
 
john182rs said:
Basically wondering what are the best or better settings for portrait photography when using a 430 exII on a Canon 7D with a 24-105 F4L lens?

I dont like using auto mode as things tend to come out too bright and its lazy anyway But I am just after a starting point as I will be off to a shoot tomorrow and would like some sort of a head start.

Different scenarios of what could be good for inside, outside, cloudy etc etc please? Its my first time using a flash gun.
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Sad to say but there are no 'magic' settings. Outside of a studio flash photography is almost always used around the available light and what sort of effect you want. To help demonstrate further, you can have the ambient light rendered almost as pitch black and the subject exposed nicely or you can have the ambient quite bright and the subject also exposed quite nicely but with minimal evidence of flash being used.

To get you started, if you're outdoors, set your exposure to 1 stop below the ambient light reading and then dial in as much flash via manual or ettl to expose the subject in the manner that pleases you.
 
markmullen said:
Inside for wedding receptions and the like I usually use bounced flash, ISO800, 1/60th at F4 (8,6,4 to remember) and then work from there up or down depending on what I want.
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Mark without meaning to start a debate, but how can you peg your settings like that? The background and ambient exposure would be different in almost each circumstance. What about the bounced flash? Is that ettl? Flash exposure compensation would completely change the look of scene depending where you may have it set.
 
hsuffyan said:
Mark without meaning to start a debate, but how can you peg your settings like that? The background and ambient exposure would be different in almost each circumstance. What about the bounced flash? Is that ettl? Flash exposure compensation would completely change the look of scene depending where you may have it set.
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Absolutely but I haven't time, nor is there space here to type a full course on using flash is there?

He wanted a basic setting to work from, I offered him one. It won't be good for everything, just like I don't take all my landscapes at 1/30th at f11.

A far better bet would be to go on a flash training course but the OP just asked for some quick and dirty settings to get him off an running.
 
markmullen said:
Absolutely but I haven't time, nor is there space here to type a full course on using flash is there?

He wanted a basic setting to work from, I offered him one. It won't be good for everything, just like I don't take all my landscapes at 1/30th at f11.

A far better bet would be to go on a flash training course but the OP just asked for some quick and dirty settings to get him off an running.
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I appreciate the response. Makes sense to me now :)
 
Hi John, if you have the time to read some of this http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ before you go off on your shoot tomorrow it might just help you out a bit. I learnt quite a lot from it when I first started off using a speed light. Hope this helps and good luck with your shoot.
 
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