Help with flash

Shazad

Shazad

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Shaz
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Hi

I am shooting my cousins engagement for her in a couple of weeks. Since both my lenses only drop down to f/4 I will no doubt be needing a flash for a majority of the shots (indoor and after dark).

Ive been messing around at home and I dont like the way the flash gives the images a dull look, although facing the flash all the way up and using the bounce gives good results.. How do I keep the colours looking as natural as possible? If im honest I find flashes very confusing. What will a diffuser do for me?

I will be doing a mixture of shots as you would at any wedding event, close up, wide, and group shots.

Flash is a Canon 600 ex rt

Thank you
 
Can you post what you think is dull? What colour mode have you set? I assume you have taken the ehots in RAW mode, ave you tried selecting portrait or landscape balance modes afterwards?
 
Use a bounce card or a flash modifier like a flash bender. Go practice somewhere similar first! If you can get the flash off camera it will look better.
 
Firstly I'd shoot RAW if you don't already. That way you won't need to worry about WB issues and can sort them out in post.

As for keeping the colours 'natural' then much will depend upon the situation you are in and the ambient lighting around. Where is her party? At a pub/club? Restaurant?

Bouncing upwards is OK to start off with whilst you learn. But my advice would be to stick a stofen on top at the very least or pull the bounce card out to chuck some light forwards. I love my flashbender but if you are not doing this regularly then I'd forget it. Don't forget it is also perfectly acceptable to bounce off a side wall or back wall. You don't need to just bounce off the ceiling. Of course spare a thought for what you are bouncing off. If it's dark wood panelling then that will affect the colour of the bounced flash.....Use some common sense basically.

But as above said, if you can post an image of what you don't like, we can give much better advice.
 
Is the 'dull look' simply underexposed. In the dark, properly exposed flash really makes your subjects 'pop' IMHO.

The key to success here is balancing with the ambient, because that controls the mood of your shot. Look up,'dragging the shutter'.

But there are so many variations of where to go dependant on your ability and experience. Everything from camera mounted flash in P mode to multiple off camera flashes with remote control of their output. You need to do more reading than it'd be fair to put in this thread.
 
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Hi.. Appreciate all the replies and information. I am shooting in RAW and full manual mode.. flash is on ettl. ive got myself a stofen and it really makes a difference.

I have also been experimenting and its just a matter of getting the right settings for the look im after. I think I should get some good results hopefully.
 
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