How to use a speedlight

GalJulie

GalJulie

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Hi guys

I'm still trying to figure out how to use my new yongnuo 560iii. On an OCF workshop, we were told to measure the ambient. I think we were then told to input settings into the speedlight and it would tell u flash to subject distance etc. It all made sense at the time.

With the yongnuo, how do I know that the flash settings are right?

Apols if this is a stupid question
 
See if I can make it simpler and more complicated than the course.

If you're balancing flash and ambient, what sort of balance are you after?
What sort of ambient light level, and what temperature?
Is this a fixed setup?
What is your flash to subject distance and is there a modifier?
Do you have a flash meter?
Phil
 
I have to say that it sounds over complicated, OP. I would recommend reading lighting 101 on "the strobist" website. It was very simplified and I think Phil has touched on what you need to think of.
 
I'm working my way through strobist as well as a few books - just not fast enough for my liking!
I'm just trying out the speedlight at this stage to see how it works - herein lies the confusion!
I don't have a modifier or light meter and it wasn't a set up as such - I was just trying the flash outside to see what effect it would achieve at different distances at different flash powers. I was also trying out the Rogue Flashbender. Temperature didn't come into my thoughts at all. Distance was only about 3 feet.
I'm perhaps overthinking things as I got quite caught up in the fact that some speedlights show apertures, ISOs, distances etc and mine doesn't. We were using the Lencarta system. I do remember something along the lines of the ambient light being F/13 at..., and 'the flash to subject distance at the same ISO registered F/13 as a correct exposure'. Does that make any sense to you guys who know what you're doing? With my speedlight it seems to be just a case of altering the power of the flash gun. Does this sound right?

Thanks for your help. J
 
YN 560iii is a manual-only gun. And it's none the worse for that (thinking of getting a few of them myself). Also consider the new YN 560-TX remote controller for it (y) But as a manual gun, it doesn't have any of the distance information that auto-TTL guns have - you just set the power output according to the situation, and that's that.

Outdoors, the starting point is always the ambient light level, because that's fixed, then adjust flash brightness to suit. There are three ways: move the flash forward/back and at close-ish range this will have a big impact on effective brightness (inverse square law). Or you can adjust the power output of course, and a third way is to zoom the flash head which adjusts the coverage of the flash beam and therefore the effective brightness. Or any combination of all three, though the ideal method is to position the flash where you want it for best effect, adjust zoom head as necessary, then adjust power to suit, but sometimes situations are not ideal so you have to mix and match.

There are no rules to exposure, and quite likely 'correct' flash exposure (which is what an auto-TTL gun will attempt to achieve) won't look best. Fill-in flash where you just want to lift the shadows doesn't need that much power and less flash output tends to look best. Balancing flash and daylight exactly needs more poke and the brighter the flash becomes the more obvious and unnatural it can appear. Or you might want to over-power the daylight to turn the background dark, but this often needs tons of power, more than most speedlites have, and since the flash is then dominant, the quality of that light becomes very important - think small softbox (quite an advanced technique to do well).

Overriding all this is shutter speed that must stay at or below the camera's x-sync maximum - 1/200sec on a D3100, and on a sunny day it can often rise above that. 'High-speed sync' was invented to help get around this, but that's not available on the YN 560iii (or your camera, I think) so you have to use aperture and/or ISO to push the shutter speed down if necessary.

Rogue FB is a great accessory, but not so much outdoors. It's very versatile, but primarily intended to direct the flash partly towards a bounce surface like ceiling or wall (to create nice, soft light) and partly direct towards the subject. Outdoors the main benefit is lost and it'll waste a great deal of light in the process.
 
HoppyUK, this is just brilliant! Thank you so much :). I've now been able to sort out the confusion in my head and I'll be able to go out and get used to the flashgun without over complicating things.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out - and to you Phil V and mr.si!

J
 
You're welcome Julie :) And while you're in learning mode, here are three important fundamentals of 'how light works' that always apply.

Brightness falls off rapidly with distance, closely following the inverse square law. ISL says double the distance from light source to subject and the brightness is reduced to one quarter - a reduction of two stops.

The larger the light source, the softer the shadows, eg softbox vs bare flash gun. Size is also relative to distance so a softbox used at greater distance casts progressively harder shadows. Like the sun - huge light source but a long way off, so direct sunlight casts harsh shadows.

Light bounces off a surface at the same angle it strikes, like a snooker ball off the cushion. Remember this when bouncing off ceiling/walls, and also when positioning reflectors etc.
 
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