May be a question with a million answers but

p3ryg

p3ryg

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Perry
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If I am trying to do indoor photography with just the pop up flash on a Canon 20d what is the best setting, as it seems I either have too bright a picture or subject is bright but everything else dark.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks
 
Try bouncing the light off of a card wedged under the popup flash to the ceiling then onto the subject rather than directly at them
 
DG Phototraining said:
It might help if you said what it is you're trying to photograph :)

But letting in more ambient may well help (when we know what you are photographing)

Dave
Click to expand...

Sorry should of said - just in general people that will be opening presents etc

Will post a picture from today later to give you an idea of what I mean :-)
 
You're battling physics here.

Straight built in flash is an awful light. And the nature of it means that you have to be extra creative.

The minimum we'd ask of any off camera flash is to bounce it off the ceiling. As the built in flash doesn't allow that you need to construct an add-on to deflect the flash upwards, I'd suggest adding silver foil to the business card idea.

Secondly, the flash can be so much brighter than the ambient, which looks awful, help the ambient out by going for high ISO and lowering your shutter speed and opening the aperture right up. You can see the effect this has - try shooting at 200ISO 1/200 and f8, then try 800ISO 1/60 f4.
Set the flash metering mode to centre weighted average - it's evaluative by default and Canon didn't really make a good job of it until much later than the 20d.

Lastly, you may be better off with a faster lens and room lights and no flash, I don't know if you have a nifty fifty, but it'll make much nicer pictures than the on camera flash.

Good luck.
 
I would go with the fast prime [if you have one] and always on/room lighting too. Unless you can make some kind of mini reflector to bounce the flash, I wouldn't use it direct. A simple sheet of paper folded up, taped around the front of the flash, with enough of a gap to direct the light upward can do the trick. Then, as suggested, open up your settings to allow more ambient lighting, combining light bounced flash and ambient light can bring great effects. If you don't like to up your ISO too much [guessing the 20D isn't the best with ISO performance?]
 
Many thanks for the advice, looking at getting a 50mm poss after Christmas.

Here is an example but from what I have read you have already given some good advice.

Ps I know the picture isn't great but it was a quick picture moment.

016-2_zpsf8a814ae.jpg
 
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