I had to drag out my external flash on the weekend to get ready to shoot a wedding. I always have one on me but i VERY rarely use it. But i anticipated having to at the wedding because of the overcast weather prediction and also because of the lateness of the Reception. So i thought i’d better pull it out and brush up on my skills (or lack there of). I dragged a few unwilling children aside (since there were several hanging about) and took a few quick snaps.
(Kyran… the almost 4 year old)
Tahnee (one of the almost 9 year old twins)
Seeahn (the other twin…striking a pose)
and i’m sure you all recognize that little face…dirt and all
For me the purpose of using an external flash is to enhance the already available light and for it to not look like i’ve used flash at all. So i never never ever never use the flash pointed directly at the face of the subject, always swivel it around to “bounce” the light off surrounding surfaces. In these cases (all except for Seeahn) the light was bounce from behind me. Seeahn the light was bounced slightly to the right.
For or those interested my settings were as follows: ISO 400, F2.8 shutter 1/200 and the flash (which is a canon 480 something-something) was on manual mode at 1/4 strength. I was using the 5dmark2 and the Canon 24-70mm 2.8L. If you find yourself using your camera a lot indoors or at parties and events where there really isn’t enough available light to rely on, then i definitely suggest picking up one of these, mine is just the cheapest canon version (which was under $500 from memory) and it is well worth it once you learn how to use it properly and it can get you out of a sticky situation if there is just no where near enough natural light around to get a good exposure.