 Kristi Seanor |
Canon flash/speed film I have a Canon Eos Rebel G and a 550 Ex speedlite. If I am using this flash, does it mean that I can use a slower speed film to achieve less grain? I would like to take some black and white portraits indoors but I don't want my pictures to come out grainy. Any suggestions? Do I need to bounce my flash or shoot it directly for a baby portrait?
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
yes you can use a slower speed film. and bouncing diffuses and makes it come from a different direction than straight on, which when done right makes it look better than straight on. Especially with black and white. Bouncing eats some of the strength of the flash so you have to compensate.
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Kristi Seanor |
Could you be more specific about your comment on bouncing the flash??? What kind of compensation? I am a beginner. I am wanting to shoot in manual mode, what mode should I use on my flash?
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
I was trying to give a quick answer because I was getting ready to leave. Someone asked this question before so you're not alone on it. Shooting straight on flash makes things like flat. And shooting black and white with straight on flash really comes out looking plain. But if you have light coming from an angle, it brings out the shape of things, gives what they call modeling to someone's face because of shadows from facial features. Bouncing flash off the ceiling or off a wall isn't really too different than using umbrellas or softboxes. And if done right, bouncing off a wall can look just like window light, which is a very flattering light. Depending on how reflective and how far away the wall,ceiling, or whatever you're using determines what you should do as far as compensating with your flash power and aperture combination in order to achieve a correct exposure. A smooth glossy white surface is going to be more reflective than a ruff flat white surface. But because you're bouncing the flash, both of them are going to take away from the amount of light that reaches the subject. And if you set the flash on auto and swivel the head to bounce the light, it will automatically shoot with more power than it would if you shot straight on. But that may not be enough, depending on what I said about how far away and reflective the surface is. I would say the easiest way is flash on manual and use a meter to get the exposure, but I realize that you may not have one. So you can set the flash to auto, but you may need to open the aperture about 1 stop, so you'll have to try several combinations. 1/2 a f/stop, then 1 f/stop, on up to 2 f/stops. The more you do it, the better you'll get at estimating what to do. After a while you'll be able to guess that this ceilings a little high, or those ceiling panels aren't going to reflect too much, so I'll need to shoot a half power instead of quarter power.
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