Flash Photography

[NaturalWoman]

I have a few things I'm selling on ebay and I have a SpeedLite ex220 that I bought for my Canon G10 that I'm trying to decide if I should keep or sell. The thing is, I hardly ever use it.

I'm just wondering how many people use external flashes for their cameras. The G10 is more than a compact camera, so I can't image that people use external flashes for compact cameras, but more for SLRs. The internal flash is fine for what I'm photographing.

I often find myself turning the flash off for a lot of my subjects, but I don't want to get rid of this flash and then need it down the line. I don't do many portraits inside or outside, so the IF is okay.

I feel stupid for buying the darn thing. It doesn't even bounce, but I imagine I can make an accessory if I needed to bounce light.

What are some situations when you use your external flash? Do you use flash at all? The majority of my subjects don't require it, but maybe once in a while, fill flash might be useful. Any suggestions on how to use this flash creatively.

Just wondering.

[inkista]

Canon G9, ST-E2 on hotshoe. 580EX, 430EX in slave mode, Nikon SB-26 in optical slave mode. Shot in a $2 Ikea trashcan.



Dump the 220EX if you're not using it, it's about as useless as you think it is. It basically can't be used for off-camera work like this, because you have no way of controlling the power level of the flash, except through the camera menu and only when the flash is on the hotshoe. This is really stupid.

If you have the money and are interested in lighting get a real flash. Go off-camera, do the Strobist thing. The G-series cameras rock for Strobist work because they have the hotshoe.

If you want to use a small flash on-camera, maybe trade up to the 270EX. That one at least tilts (if it doesn't swivel), so you can bounce.

IMO, though, the money you'd spend on a 270EX would be better spent on getting a LumoPro LP120, which has a built-in optical slave. That means, you could trigger it off-camera with your built-in flash. If you wanted more reach/reliability, you could also blow $40 on a set of cheap eBay radio triggers.

Or you could use whatever speedlight you've got for your Olympus dSLR. You'd have to tape over the TTL pins/contacts to use it on the G10 hotshoe, and you'd have to use the flash's back to control the power rather than the G10's menus, but you'd probably have tilt and swivel for bounce work. But for off-camera work, just use the radio triggers and you're good to go.

Not much more money, a whole lot more possibilities. I share all my flashes between my G9 and my Canon 50D.

I recommend looking at the G9 entries on the light description blog:
http://lightdescription.blogspot.com/search/label/G9

as well as looking at the Strobist. The G-series will be a bit more limited Strobist-wise than a dSLR, but not by nearly as much as you might think. The G-series has full Manual mode, and a hotshoe. That's pretty much all you need to go Strobist.

[Benji]

It is difficult to get creative with on camera flash, especially when it won't bounce either. It could be used as a master flash to trigger an off camera a/c powered unit however. I used to do this before I bought my radio slaves. The unit I had would actually fit backward in the hot shoe of my film 35mm camera, and it would fire also. So I would put it in backward then put my fill light behind me and the photocell on the a/c powered unit fired when the on camera speedlight fired. If your speedlight will not work backward in the hot shoe I would take a small cardboard box that is about the same size as the speedlight, cut off the top and one end and line the inside with aluminum foil, then rubber band it to the speedlight. When it fires it will direct all the light into the box, but since the end is still there as well as both sides and the bottom, the light will be directed straight up to the ceiling where the photocell of the a/c powered unit will sense the burst of light and fire.

Benji

[NaturalWoman]

thanks inkista. in the beginning i only planned on having the g10 and didn't really need a DSLR, so I probably bought the flash because it was going to be my main and only camera. the g10 performs so well though, i haven't needed the extra light, not even in low light situations.

thanks for your input and for not being harsh about it either. i will look into those links.

[NaturalWoman]

thanks benji. if anything, an off the shoe flash probably should have been my best buy. i thought about the lighting set up you mentioned to direct light, but i find myself using natural light. i think i will play with it for another few days and then make my decision at the end of the week. thanks so much for responding.

[idb]

Originally Posted by Benji

It is difficult to get creative with on camera flash, especially when it won't bounce either. It could be used as a master flash to trigger an off camera a/c powered unit however. I used to do this before I bought my radio slaves. The unit I had would actually fit backward in the hot shoe of my film 35mm camera, and it would fire also. So I would put it in backward then put my fill light behind me and the photocell on the a/c powered unit fired when the on camera speedlight fired. If your speedlight will not work backward in the hot shoe I would take a small cardboard box that is about the same size as the speedlight, cut off the top and one end and line the inside with aluminum foil, then rubber band it to the speedlight. When it fires it will direct all the light into the box, but since the end is still there as well as both sides and the bottom, the light will be directed straight up to the ceiling where the photocell of the a/c powered unit will sense the burst of light and fire.

Benji

Sounds good. I'm gonna try this. Thanks for the tip.