Quick and easy steps for Manual Flash beginners
Why do we need flash?
Most times when people take photographs, they just point the camera and shoot. Normally the camera will decide that the scene needs flash and will fire this automatically – whether you need it or not. Some folks may even have their phone camera set to fire every time. Now on-camera flash has its uses and yes, I use the on-camera flash at times to ease shadows and pop a little bit of light into someone’s face. But mostly I will take the flash off-camera. If this is not possible, I will more likely try to take the shot with no flash at all.
It would seem to make sense that if you need more light in a scene you could use constant light – like when someone is making a video. But these lights are large and low-power. They also use a lot of power. Your battery life will be measured in minutes.
Flashguns fire a very short but intense beam of light at your scene. Because it is a short-duration light, the power requirements for the light are very low. This means normal ‘AA’ batteries will last a long time. It also means the unit can be made small and will not overheat.
So flashguns are small, light, and use standard ‘AA’ batteries. You can take them everywhere you go. There is most likely a flashgun built-in to your camera – and you can’t get more portable than that!
I’m a big fan of off-camera flash and I want to show you how easy it is to get started with it. I think the best way is to take you through a short photo shoot using the flash.
Why use Manual flash instead of Auto?
The decision to use manual flash rather than auto flash is mostly a personal one, but cost can also be a consideration.
Ok, confession time…
For me, cost was everything when buying my first flashgun. I could buy a manual flashgun for about £50 or an automatic flashgun for about £300. As I had plans to move on to multiple-flash setups, I would need about 3 flashguns. This made it a simple decision to eventually pay about £150 for my flash setup rather than about £900.
Then, once I went down the manual flash road, I could never see the point in using auto flash.
1. Set your camera to manual mode.
(If you have never used your camera in manual mode before, you may need to consult the operator manual right now).
Set the dial on your camera to M. You now have complete control of the exposure functions of the camera.
a. Set the ISO to 200. There is no special reason for this, except that you need to know where the ISO is set. Select a reasonable ISO setting.
b. Set the shutter speed to about 1/200th. Cameras can have different flash sync speeds – I’m just suggesting 1/200th as a number that should cover all cameras. If you know your camera sync speed, then set this. However, keep the sync speed below 1/320th – this is the limit for the RF-603II remote triggers.
c. Set the aperture to f8.0. This is a middle-of-the-road setting that will allow you to increase or decrease the aperture setting by a few stops in either direction.
2. Set up the flashgun
a. Switch on your RF-603II remote triggers and test them to ensure they are working properly.
b. Switch on your YN-460II flashgun and test-fire it to see it is working. Plug it in to one of the RF-603II triggers and then test the remote triggers fire the flash ok. Set the flashgun to about half-way on its settings range – leds should be lit.
c. Take a photo – any photo. Make sure the flash fires. Everything works now – time to take an actual photograph.
3. Take your photograph.
This is round about the time where a lot of people will freeze. Take the photograph – that’s easy for you to say!
Let’s try an image like this one…
For this image, I used a white wall that had about 3 feet of space in front of it. If you don’t have a white wall, then you could use a white bedsheet hung in front of a suitable wall, etc.
a. Set the flash gun on a light stand about 3 feet out from the wall and pointing directly at it. This sounds counter-intuitive. Normally you would expect to point the flashgun towards the person.
b. Tape a vertical piece of cardboard to the flashgun. This has to prevent the direct light from the flashgun hitting the model. The only light to hit the model should be reflected off the wall.
c. Have the model sit about 1 foot out from the wall and 2 feet behind where the light hits the wall. I set a table in front of the model. This gave her something to lean on for a more relaxing pose. It also laid a white towel on the table. This reflected more light upwards into her face and under her chin. This helped to soften the shadows even more.
d. Take your first test shot. Have a look at the image – is it too bright? Is it too dark? If so, then increase or decrease the flash power as you need to. Do this by one led on the flashgun at a time – it’s easier to follow a trend and slide into the proper exposure rather than just make haphazard guesses. Also, when you have gradually crept up on your perfect exposure, continue one or two adjustments further on. Go through the ‘perfect’ exposure. Then you can see if it really is the best exposure for the image.
What else is there say about the photograph?
The wall behind the model was also white. But this didn’t matter, because it was about 4 feet or so behind her. This means that any light hitting that wall was a few stops less than the light on the model herself. This made the wall turn out a shade of grey, rather than white.
If you examine the catch-lights in her eyes, you can see the overall shape of the light source. It hows up as a large area of light – hence the soft shadows.
Please remember though, this was not the first image out of the camera. There were a lot of shots taken before I got an image I was happy with. For most of them, the poor girl only had to sit there while I fussed around with the setup – fine-tuning it. The final setup including flashgun and camera settings were only specific to that setup.
Fine-tuning the setup
There are a number of ways I could fine-tune this particular setup without adding more lights. I could…
a. Move the flash closer to or further away from the wall. This would change the harshness of softness of the shadows because the size of the light source (the amount of wall being lit) would change
b. I could raise the flashgun to hit the wall higher up. The shadows at the moment are horizontal. Lighting the wall higher up would mean the shadows would be angled. There would be a shadow under her nose. I think this would probably look more natural, but I never noticed this until long after the shoot.
c. I could move the whole arrangement closer to the back wall or further away from it. This would lighten or darken the rear wall accordingly. There is a danger that if I make the rear wall too dark then it would be difficult to see a difference between the model’s hair and the rear wall. Normally this would need a second light (a hair light) to ensure you could easily see where the model ends and the wall begins.
And finally…
I always like to go over the results of a photoshoot and analyse how it all turned out. I look to see how I could improve the shot next time. But I also look to see if some of the results – even the ones that didn’t work – spark off anything in my head. Maybe they suggest new things I could try. For example, I went through a ‘veiling flare’ phase as a direct result of something that went ‘wrong’ on a shoot. That was fun!