How do I stop her blinking?

[harrisonbrown]

Hi

My girlfriend always blinks when I use flash, and if I angle the flash up (it's a Nikon SB-400) and bounce it off the ceiling then I get a half blink which makes her look like she's been drugged... not the effect I'm going for.

Anyone got any tips or advice for me to give her, which might help her keep those beautiful eyes open?

Ta

[Murtasma]

You can try having her close her eyes then you count down from three on one she opens her eyes and you snap the shutter. She shouldn't have enough time to react to blink again before the flash is triggerd and exposure is completed.

[dakwegmo]

The half blink is probably from the Autofocus assist lamp. You can disable that if you have reasonably good ambient lighting. If not, what you want to do is to do the half shutter release trick. Press the shutter release half way down, this will set the exposure and autofocus. Once she's recovered from the bright light of the af assist, then you press the release the rest of the way.

[ttosifa]

You might need to learn to set your exposures manually. In auto, the strobe will preflash so that it can set the exposure and then the real flash will go off. Your girlfriend is likely reacting the the preflash, not the flash itself -- her eyes are closed when the flash goes off. I had this problem with both my wife and my daughter until I went manual.

The same thing will happen if you use CLS and the pop-up flash as the commander.

[harrisonbrown]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll certainly give the manual setting a go... fingers crossed