Using on camera flash in Manual mode

rogermbyrne

rogermbyrne

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Roger
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I started along the Strobist ethos of on camera flash is bad and everything should be off camera and set manually.

I have a couple of manual flashes but have seen the benefits of some light fill from an ON camera flash gun in certain instances, without the hassle of lightstands and soft boxes etc.

Been playing around with this and found some techniques (albeit only at Apertures over f4, probably as the gun only goes so low in power) that seem to give a nice fill without any harsh shadows and while bouncing the flash.

Just wondered if any of you use your flashes in Manual and have any tips on settings, metering etc...?
 
I use manual on camera if I decide to overpower the ambient and my shooting angle isn't changing much. Just set to highest sync speed and bounce. For fill light it's a bit too fiddly and most of the time I'm using fill with HSS.
 
I was shooting little birdies a couple of days ago and needed some fill flash. I had my 580EX on camera but when shooting in ETTL mode the pre-flash drove them off before the main flash fired. By switching to manual flash they did not get any forewarning of the flash burst that was about to come.

I was about 3m from the birds so I just dialed in a flash strength for 2m instead of 3m and that gave me a nice fill. The 580EX made that easy enough to do, since it displays a distance scale that alters with focal length, ISO, aperture and flash power. With a more basic flash you'd need to juggle about with guide numbers and so on, and so long as the flash head did not zoom with focal length, thus varying your guide number, it should not be too hard to make calculations/adjustments on the fly.

If you were shooting at random distances and working quickly, such as shooting candids at a wedding/event then you'd have a job, I think. The easiest thing to do would be to set your flash up for a specific distance and then to try to maintain that distance for all subjects. The further away your intended subject distance the less critical the precision required.
 
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@Dean @Tim Thanks for the feedback guys, like you say Tim very difficult in a fluid situation, I got thinks worked out in a fixed non time pressure environment where it's no diff really to firing them off camera but think I might have to consider a TTL Flash for quicker situations.

Thanks.
 
Not sure if this is appropriate for what you're trying to do, but the Lumiquest Quik Bounce £40 www.lumiquest.com gives you a bit of control with the flash (effectively) bounced off-camera and the fill on-camera.

The fill is usefully softened, and you can control ratios either by adjusting the flaps, or by zooming the head to put more light to the ceiling/wall. Very fast and versatile tool, and it packs flat.

You can do something similar with bounce cards of different different sizes to be fair, but the Quik Bounce works really well. In a fluid social situation and using E-TTL, you can zip around and bounce off walls or ceiling, adjusting the ratios, a dash of compensation here and there, sorted in a blink :thumbs:
 
I personally never ever use TTL on my flashguns even though they have it. I fins I get much more consistent lighting when it is set manually. Always try and start on the lowest possible power setting, adjusting aperture for the exposure on your subject.
 
@Richard will take a look, bouncing is fine but it's the manual adjustment of settings that's going to prove a pain I think.

@Pierre I do the same when using off camera flash, always in manual, but its a bit different when walking around shooting different subjects with diff light conditions etc.

Think I'm saving for a Nikon SB to be honest ;)
 
Roger, although I am quite preoccupied with OCF of late, I still think there's massive merit in on-camera flash, mainly because of the convenience of having a flashgun to hand (for quick adjustment) and because you can work in relatively tight spaces.

Of course it has it's down sides (direction of light being the main one) but I do use it both on it's own and in conjunction with off camera units as fill. I also use it a lot for indoor shooting when I'm bouncing off surfaces like walls.

I generally use my flash in manual mode when it's hotshoe-mounted because on the SB800, power adjustments are easy and frankly, it's the way I feel most comfortable using it. Don't know about the newer SB700 and 900 flashes, but the 800 is just very simple; up on the D-pad to increase power, down to decrease it. Unlike the Canon 550ex I used when I used EOS, to make an adjustment doesn't require the manual power adjustment to be 'unlocked' using the set/sel button, at least not on the SB800 anyway, even though there is a sel button....

The ability to maintain auto FP with manual flash is good too when you don't have the option of using an ND filter to drop S/S when you want a wide aperture.
 
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specialman said:
Roger, although I am quite preoccupied with OCF of late, I still think there's massive merit in on-camera flash, mainly because of the convenience of having a flashgun to hand (for quick adjustment) and because you can work in relatively tight spaces.

Of course it has it's down sides (direction of light being the main one) but I do use it both on it's own and in conjunction with off camera units as fill. I also use it a lot for indoor shooting when I'm bouncing off surfaces like walls.

I generally use my flash in manual mode when it's hotshoe-mounted because on the SB800, power adjustments are easy and frankly, it's the way I feel most comfortable using it. Don't know about the newer SB700 and 900 flashes, but the 800 is just very simple; up on the D-pad to increase power, down to decrease it. Unlike the Canon 550ex I used when I used EOS, to make an adjustment doesn't require the manual power adjustment to be 'unlocked' using the set/sel button, at least not on the SB800 anyway, even though there is a sel button....

The ability to maintain auto FP with manual flash is good too when you don't have the option of using an ND filter to drop S/S when you want a wide aperture.
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With on camera flash I use the camera in manual mode and the flash in ttl for both fill and bounce flash and ride the flash exposure compensation. Works a treat when running and gunning. You can bounce flash off walls and get the same directional lighting as ocf especially if you flag any direct flash hitting your subject.

For ocf I am always manual camera mode, manual flash.
 
lensflair said:
With on camera flash I use the camera in manual mode and the flash in ttl for both fill and bounce flash and ride the flash exposure compensation. Works a treat when running and gunning. You can bounce flash off walls and get the same directional lighting as ocf especially if you flag any direct flash hitting your subject.

For ocf I am always manual camera mode, manual flash.
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TTL flash with camera in manual.... Tried it before but u just can't get used to it.... damn my tiny brain :)
 
lensflair said:
With on camera flash I use the camera in manual mode and the flash in ttl for both fill and bounce flash and ride the flash exposure compensation. Works a treat when running and gunning. You can bounce flash off walls and get the same directional lighting as ocf especially if you flag any direct flash hitting your subject.

For ocf I am always manual camera mode, manual flash.
Click to expand...

Same as me.
 
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