Quote:
Originally Posted by sybren
Personally I find manual mode easier to understand than those automatic modes  |
Gawd, ain't that the truth.
Sorry, I forgot to answer the second half of imkrystleco's question, or to give the easy answer for the slow shutter speed problem: you can also get out of Av and go to P, and the flash will work the way you expect it to (i.e., like a popup on a P&S camera).
Quote:
Originally Posted by imkrystleco
Also, whenever I photograph people, where should I point my flash? I point it slightly upwards and pull out the white cardboard/film to let it bounce, but still doesn't result in to a nice picture.
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Ok, despite the many many thing you read, that is NOT a bounce card. That is a catchlight panel. It's meant to throw a tiny bit of light forward to be reflected in your subjects eyes so there are catchlights. It's not a way of reflecting
all the light. For that, you need
a bigger surface, but it won't be as good as bouncing, because it's still, in effect, on-camera flash, and you don't have a choice on the direction and placement of the light. You bought a flash that tilts and swivels for a reason.
To bounce effectively, you have to have a large reflective surface of some kind near at hand. The smaller your flash power, the nearer the surface has to be, because light falls off over distance (look up: "inverse square law"). Ceilings, walls, floors, and reflector panels are all good bounce surfaces. Essentially what you do is mentally place a softbox as if the room were your studio, and then aim your light where the softbox would be, so that the light emanates from that point. You may also need to
flag/gobo/snoot your light so that light doesn't spill forward directly onto your subject.
You want to read Neil van Niekirk's blog entry on
directional light.