Newbe flash question - what are the benifits

[haggerma]

Hi all,

I have had my first DSLR for a few months and i have just bought a 430exII.

Now i have managed to notice the difference and benefit of bouncing the flash off a ceiling or wall, using it as a fill-in flash, but other these and the range, are there any other benefits of having this flash over the on board one?

I have a 1000D and mainly using it for day to day photography, landscapes and aircraft.

 

[david1701]

its further away than the built in unit from the lens axis

also you can get it off camera which is the biggest difference you will ever make

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

You never get red eye....you can use more than one flash gun.

 

[Joshua James]

you start wishing you could afford studio lights and come up with elaberate plans requiring 17 flashes skillfully positions around the object your snapping.....

 

[HoppyUK]

No red eye.
Power to bounce and bounce-fill.
Use of diffusers (numerous).
Strobist techniques (loads of).
Hi-speed sync.
Variable manual power.
Incredible close action-stopping at 1/60,000sec or less.

Quite an impressive list. In terms of how it can expand your picture taking options, and the quality of results, a good flash does more things, arguably, than an extra lens.

 

[RobertP]

And focus assist. the flash will put out a projection of red stripes to allow the Autofocus to work without pulsing out light flashes.

 

[Davec223]

You never get red eye....you can use more than one flash gun.

No red eye.
Power to bounce and bounce-fill.
Use of diffusers (numerous).
Strobist techniques (loads of).
Hi-speed sync.
Variable manual power.
Incredible close action-stopping at 1/60,000sec or less.

Quite an impressive list. In terms of how it can expand your picture taking options, and the quality of results, a good flash does more things, arguably, than an extra lens.

I am afraid that I have to take issue with the no red eye and never get red eye comments, you can and do get red eye when the flash is one the camera, I shot my daughters leaving production at her school a couple of weeks ago and pretty much every shot had red eye. This was with my sb800 ontop of the camera.

 

[HoppyUK]

I am afraid that I have to take issue with the no red eye and never get red eye comments, you can and do get red eye when the flash is one the camera, I shot my daughters leaving production at her school a couple of weeks ago and pretty much every shot had red eye. This was with my sb800 ontop of the camera.

Well yes, you will at long range. If the flash is close to the lens axis relative to the subject, which it will be at distance, the flash will still reflect back.

The only way to fix that is again with a separate flash gun, but fired from a remote cord held at arm's length.

But that shouldn't usually be necessary - you must be right at the limit of the flash range and should perhaps be considering shooting without flash, at high ISO with low f/number.

 

[mastertrinity]

if the subjects pupils are caught via the flash then that wll produce red bulbs known as red eye.

solution: make sure the flash doesnt aim directly at the subject, this will be hard with on board flash where the person will have to look away from the flash.