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Tilz

Tilz

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Tilly
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Hi guys, I've been asked to take some pictures at a Xmas party in a couple of weeks, the pics will be of the kids getting their presents off Santa. I've currently got a 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens and I'm looking at getting a 50mm lens and a flash gun at some point in the future. I just wondered if either of these would be of use for, or improve the shots I will be taking. My camera is a canon 1100d.
Any advice would be appreciated as always
 
A flash will help indoors, I’d go for a 50mm 1.8 to allow decent shutter speeds and some subject separation. I assume your lenses are 4.5/5.6 or similar.
 
The 18-55mm lens goes down to 3.5 at minimum zoom
 
Your 18-55 will be fine, get a flash that has ETTL (MPB has some used Canon Flashes 580EX for about £100)
Put the camera to manual, SS below sync speed, aperture wide open ( ignore the in camera meter it will show underexposed) put the flash to ETTL ' bounce it off something ( point the flash head upwards or 45 degrees and tape a white card on the head )and shoot away, adjust FEC as needed
 
Thanks for the replies guys I appreciate the input. I've been looking at flashes over the past few days and need some more advice. I've looked at the Neewer NW562c E-TTL and the Neewer NW565EX E-TTL flashes. Both are around £50 and come with a transmitter and a receiver.
Both flashes are labelled as slave flashes, this is what I need help with. I don't really understand what this means. Will they mount straight onto the hot shoe of my 1100d or will they need mounting via the transmitter? Would I be able to mount another of these flashes onto the receiver and use the flash mounted on the camera as a master.
Sorry if these sound like stupid questions I'm new to flashes and the things I've read online haven't helped much :).
Any help would be appreciated as always
 
Having read a few more things online I've discovered what slave and master mean :)
 
If you're indoors, 35mm would be a better option. As @viewfromthenorth says, 50mm is probably too long indoors
 
Id stick with what you've got and get a cheap Chinese TTL flash like you've mentioned. There are others too at similar price range.
 
troutfisher said:
point the flash head upwards or 45 degrees and tape a white card on the head )and shoot away, adjust FEC as needed
Click to expand...
What do you mean by tape a white card on the head Chris?
 
If you get the kit with Flash + Trigger & Receiver, then you will usually get better looking results by having the flash off camera.

Assuming this is the typical "Santa's Grotto" setup, you can stick the flash somewhere where it won't get knocked, pointed so that it will bounce off the ceiling.

You can then move about and take the photos, knowing you've got a consistent light source with TTL taking care of the exposure for you.
 
Yeh I got the one with the trigger and receiver thinking it would be useful for things like this. Thanks for the advice on the shots looking better if the flash is mounted off camera Johnathan
 
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I'm no flash expert by any stretch of the imagination, but take a look at Godox, not just because they rate well and have all teh bells and whistles, but also because they're cross system, so if down the line you switch to mirrorless or to Nikon, then just get another Godox, but this time for that brand, may seem obvious so far, but as the system is multibrand the one you had before will still work as with the new system, this time controlled by the new flash. The fun with Godox is that they also do studio lights, again using the same system, so it all just keeps expending.

Could well be that you'll never go that far, but if you do at least you won't need to sell up your flashes too if you change system.

If you;re looking to go really cheap look at manual flashes, theres plenty of advice out there.
 
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