6 Common mistakes for beginners to play flash

What's the use of flashing lights?

I believe many friends, in contact with photography before or just contact with photography, the flash will have some stereotypes, such as the flash will make people shine, the effect is not good, light is not natural, and so on the flash will have some repulsion, do not like to use. People will have such a misunderstanding of flashing lights, mostly because of the use of the camera built in the general computer experience, it is true that the built-in flash because of the volume and fixed position constraints, often only as " Emergency "use, shoot out the effect is passable, but in fact, learn to match some props to do use, but also can improve the shooting effect. But the charm of flashing lights mainly lies in the "External flash" part, often many portrait creation to avoid the equipment.

The advantage of an external flash compared to a general camera-built Flash is:

Flash output is often larger than

In addition to direct beat, General can choose other different angle of light, avoid straight hit face shiny

Can be used with the camera built-in flash to make up the light, create a different light effect

On the function of the flash, briefly listed below:

Light filling in low light environment

To fill the photo for the subject/object when the backlight is taken

Adjust white balance

Make Eye light

Create special lighting effects

More detailed specific introduction, can refer to here; if you want more flashing lights to use the effect, you can point here. Experience the charm of flashing lights, we will start the first flashing lights, began to light up the learning journey, and below we directly into the practice of flashing light photography, the first common problem.

　　

▲ Photo Source: Digiphoto Camera World

Error 1 miscalculation the power of the flashing light

Bought a flash, happy to put it on the camera, take him out of the picture, but found, how sometimes the person in the distance, the effect is not obvious or not OK ah? As the light will gradually weaken with the transmission distance, each flash has a certain range of output, on the hands of the power of this flashing light, You can refer to the GN value in its specification. The so-called GN value, generally refers to the flash lamp in the equivalent focal length of 50mm, ISO100 of the output degree of the reference value. The effective distance of the flash output can be calculated by combining the GN value and the aperture value, and the formula is as follows:

Effective distance = The GN value of the flash light/lens aperture setting value

Take Canon 430EX II For example, its GN value is 43, if the aperture set in the F8, then the effective distance should be 5.425m or so. If you want to lengthen the effect of distance, you can open a large aperture, or increase the ISO value to deal with. The above calculation, only in the case of direct Flash hit the reference value.

In addition, the flash straight hit, it is best to ensure that there is no other obstacles between the camera and the subject, otherwise in accordance with the principle of light propagation, the brightness of the barrier will certainly be brighter than the subject. If you can't avoid obstacles, it is recommended that you turn off the flash, take the high ISO way to shoot, or give the camera the exposure judgment, but also try to choose to use the night mode, but do not use night portrait mode, because it is suitable for shooting close-up, and eventually will trigger the flash.

　　

▲ Photo Source: Digiphoto Camera World

Error 2 red eye phenomenon

Since the strong light enters the pupil in an instant, it is reflected in the microvascular tissue behind the retina of the human eye, and produce the eye pupil red dot, known as red eye phenomenon, usually easy to appear in the camera built-in flash use, although many cameras now have red-eye suppression function, in order to first flash the way to reduce the possibility of red eye phenomenon, But sometimes it is inevitable that there will be failure. A more effective way is to ask the subject to take a look at the light before filming, so that the pupil contraction and then clap, it is not easy to shoot red eye.

Compared to the built-in flash, external flash shot red eye less, even if the same as the camera on the top, because the general external flash gun design angle higher, away from the lens, red eye condition appears less likely.

　　

▲ Photo Source: Digiphoto Camera World

Error 3 Destroy the picture atmosphere

The flash can create shadows, making the subject look more stereoscopic, but sometimes it also becomes the culprit in destroying the atmosphere. In situations like stage performances, concerts, exhibitions and other occasions where you need to keep the lighting to create an atmosphere, the use of the flash may not be as appropriate. Like in such occasions, choose to pull High is value of the way to shoot, to ensure normal exposure, while preserving the ambient light and atmosphere. Or try to adjust the intensity of the flash, in the flash lights and the scene to achieve a balance between the light, not only to preserve the atmosphere, but also to achieve the effect of natural light.

If the object is relatively static, you can choose a slower shutter with low speed synchronous flashing light mode to shoot, to achieve the background of the low-light environment and the subject to fill the light of the effect of appropriate.

　　

▲ Picture Source: Digiphoto Camera world--www.fsbus.com

Error 4 The shadow of the hood or lens

The use of Lens hood is a good habit, but when the use of long lenses, hood particularly large and the flash height is not enough, the shot of the screen may appear in the hood or lens shadow. The quickest way to solve this problem is to change the angle of the flash so that the light will not be affected by the hood or lens. If the use of built-in flash, can not change the angle of light, you can only choose to remove the hood, long lens can be a little longer to lengthen the focus, so that the shadow of the lens does not appear in the screen.

　　

▲ Photo Source: Digiphoto Camera World

Wrong 5 shiny

This question, is the general sentient beings for the flash impression is very poor the biggest reason, whether the built-in flash or external flash, as long as the object to shoot directly, will appear so due to the light blunt and cause the bad effect such as shiny face. At this point, some external flash will show its advantages, can use the way of jumping light, by the reflector, ceiling, etc. let the light in the reflection of the way to hit the body, to achieve the effect of light softening. It should be noted that the light color of the jump light will be affected by the color of the reflected medium, so used as a reflector of objects, such as ceilings, walls, paper, etc., the best choice of white better.

However, in the absence of a reflector available in the environment, often only to direct the way to fill the light, at this time if you can add a soft light for flashing lights, the effect will be much better. There are a lot of soft light cover to choose from, in addition everyone can DIY, simple use of paper, thin fiber cloth, plastic milk bottles translucent or light transmittance of good material production, machine top flash or even, external flash, can be produced by themselves. However, because the soft cover weakens some light output, you may need to adjust the flash compensation slightly if you use TTL metering.

　　

▲ Photo Source: Digiphoto Camera World

Error 6 Move effect of failure

When shooting objects in motion using a flash, if the general flash function, usually at the beginning of the exposure to output, to take the beginning of the exposure to be photographed clearly, and after the blur trajectory, however, in general, we can reflect the image of the object moving effect of the picture, Usually it should be the end of the blur trajectory of motion and then the image is clearly condensed, that is to say, the flash should be before the end of the exposure to achieve the desired effect. How do you get the flash out of the spotlight and turn it into the end of the exposure? At this time in the choice of flashing light shutter sync set to choose to "post-low sync", it can solve the problem, take a natural move effect.

　　

▲ Use the front curtain of the general flash function to photograph the moving object synchronously, and get the unnatural movement effect.

(Photo source: neilvn.com)

　　

▲ The flash synchronized to "after the curtain Sync", it will be more natural effect.