Advice Required Please For On Camera Flash....

[ianbarber]

Someone I know who owns a fish and chip shop is doing a a special fry for charity and he has asked me if I can make a few photographs on the day so he can hang them on the wall.

As I mainly photograph landscapes this is pretty much out of my comfort zone but as it is for charity and he says he is not looking for vogue quality, I have agreed to go along and make a couple of shots for him.

Gear:
I have a Nikon D3s with the options of the following lenses, 50mm f/1.8 or a 24-70mm f/2.8 and I also have an SB900 flash.

I was thinking that the 50mm lens would be the right choice, would you agree?

Settings:
For the settings, I was thinking of putting the camera into Aperture Priority Mode, setting my aperture for my desired depth of field (maybe f/5.6).

For speed, i was going to leave the flash in the hot shoe and angle it at 45 degrees up with a stofen diffuser attached to it and set the flash to TTL. (Would you agree?)

I think there may also be some shots outside the shop so for this I was going to change the flash to TTL / BL to allow it to balance the ambient. (would you agree?)

I appreciate any comments from anyone who is comfortable with using this kind of setup.

Ian

 

[James J]

This highly depends on the quality of the light outside of the shop and inside it on the day to be honest mate as theres no real "one for all" policy when it comes to flash photography.

The D3s has a great ISO range so depending on the time of day, I'd personally prefer to use that over a flash if you can to abuse the ambient light instead.

If you must use flash though, bouncing the flash is a great idea as direct flash usually gives very flat photos. TTL BL will do the job for pretty much everything you want out of the day in my opinion and the SB 900 is a great flash to have for this situation due to its range, ease of use and ability to use accessories on it easily.

Personally I'd keep the camera in manual, but thats just me, although aperture priority would also work well with the flash depending on the type of "look" you want out of your photo.

 

[Phil V]

I just saw it on the news tonight. I hope you did ok! You should have given me a ring and I'd have offered a bit of hands on guidance Ian.