Question about flash while using A, S and M

benwall

benwall

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Ben Wall
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Hello..

Quick question on flash. I'm wanting to get into 'strobist' later in the year, and to start I'm planning on buying a SB600 for my first wedding coming up in October.

Q. When I use built in flash on my D40 on modes S, A and M the metering doesnt' account for the flash, so it's complete guess work whether the shot is going to come out okay.

For example in shutter mode, without the flash it will meter at 1sec because of the low light, I turn the flash on and it stays at 1 sec, so then I increase the shutter to say 160 and shoot (the camera will show that the shot is really under exposed), sometimes it comes out okay and others it looks horrid.

So am I missing something when it comes to flash and the modes or do I have to get the external flashes for better results.

Sorry if it's not very well explained.

- Ben

:)
 
As far as the flash exposure is concerned. it doesn't matter if the shutter speed is 1/160 or 1 second (or 160 seconds). Only the aperture affects the flash aspect of the exposure. This is because the duration of the flash is much shorter than your fastest flash compatible shutter speed.

If there is ambient light as well then this is controlled by a combination of shutter speed and aperture (as you probably know).

You need to find the right balance depending on what you want to achieve. i.e. is the flash the main light or just a fill with ambient supplying the bulk of the lighting?

In my opinion, if you want to become an expert in flash, you should experiment with everything in manual mode and just change one thing at a time to see what's going on. Your LCD will show you how things are progressing.


Steve.
 
Agree with Steve Smith - shooting in full manual, making alterations (and taking note of the effect these alterations have) is the best way to fully understand both how light affects the image and how the camera works in conjunction with a flash unit.

Shooting in Auto modes like P, AV and TV and using the flash on full auto is fine and well –*generally you'll get a good result 9 times out of 10 – but I think learning in manual helps you out when that 1 times comes when the camera can't handle the exposure.

Something like a SB600 (I have an SB800 and an SB26) is a great piece of kit to learn manual with because the controls are so easy to use.
 
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