Speedlight, natural light and babies

[gercam]

I am taking photos for my friend tomorrow of her 4 month old baby. The weather is suppose to be dire and very grey so not much natural light around.

I was going to try and get as many photos using windows reflectors etc but if I had to use my speedlight to bounce some light around what would the best settings to be using? Am shooting the photos at lunchtime.

Thanks in advance

 

[Phil V]

I am taking photos for my friend tomorrow of her 4 month old baby. The weather is suppose to be dire and very grey so not much natural light around.

I was going to try and get as many photos using windows reflectors etc but if I had to use my speedlight to bounce some light around what would the best settings to be using? Am shooting the photos at lunchtime.

Thanks in advance

Flat light outside through a window is great light.

If you're asking questions about 'settings' you will not get better light with a flashgun. There's no other way to put it, you'll need your flash off camera and bounced or diffused well.

 

[gercam]

Flat light outside through a window is great light.

If you're asking questions about 'settings' you will not get better light with a flashgun. There's no other way to put it, you'll need your flash off camera and bounced or diffused well.

If I was to use off camera flash and bounce it what settings would I use? Asking as only used speedlight once and that was at a party at night in a restaurant

 

[gary996]

What equipment do you have?
If you can do ttl off camera then let the camera decide. this would be a good start.
If not set your camera to its sync speed take the iso up to say 800 and try f8. Check your histogram and the picture and go from there.

 

[gercam]

What equipment do you have?
If you can do ttl off camera then let the camera decide. this would be a good start.
If not set your camera to its sync speed take the iso up to say 800 and try f8. Check your histogram and the picture and go from there.

I have a canon 40d, 17-55 f2.8, nifty fifty and 70-200 f4. I have an ETTL speed light

 

[Phil V]

If I was to use off camera flash and bounce it what settings would I use? Asking as only used speedlight once and that was at a party at night in a restaurant

I have no idea what you want to achieve, or the shooting conditions. They are what determine the settings. There's no arbitrary rules for this.

Like I said, the quality of the light is important, you can alter the quantity hitting the sensor on the fly in the room.

I do t understand how that's difficult to grasp (apologies if that's too blunt)

 

[Goody13]

I tend to shoot in manual when photographing my young daughter, Flash on auto, camera on manual, ISO 100 or 200, 1/125 at f5.6-8 depending on height of ceiling. The flash adjusts exposure for the scene then. I always bounce it off the ceiling where possible. Of course, if the room is lighter than those exposure warrant, you will need to adjust accordingly. Hope this helps.

 

[gercam]

I have no idea what you want to achieve, or the shooting conditions. They are what determine the settings. There's no arbitrary rules for this.

Like I said, the quality of the light is important, you can alter the quantity hitting the sensor on the fly in the room.

I do t understand how that's difficult to grasp (apologies if that's too blunt)

Not too blunt at all I just have a complete blank when it comes to flash

I will stick it on before I leave and have a play around with it.

Thanks for taking time to reply

 

[gercam]

I tend to shoot in manual when photographing my young daughter, Flash on auto, camera on manual, ISO 100 or 200, 1/125 at f5.6-8 depending on height of ceiling. The flash adjusts exposure for the scene then. I always bounce it off the ceiling where possible. Of course, if the room is lighter than those exposure warrant, you will need to adjust accordingly. Hope this helps.

Thanks for this - will start here and adjust as needed

 

[cosmicma]

if you have a white wall you could always use that as a large diffuser / reflector positioning the wall behind you and bouncing the flash off it
it's an easy way of softening your flash

 

[Phil V]

How did you get on?