Flash

A separate flash has more creative options and advantages over the built in flash option.

Built in flashes have to be used with care. When set on auto the camera will be using the flash in all kinds of pictures whilst it tries to produce the uniform 'normal' picture every time - not helpful when trying to be creative. The 'fill in' flash does work work well in automatic when it supplements the existing (ambient) light.

In addition to the built in flash there are separate dedicated flashguns available. 'Dedicated' means that when they are attached via the cameras hot shoe they can be controlled from it, working with the Through The Lens (TTL) automatic exposure. It is important to look through your cameras user guide to find its maximum shutter sync speed. Using slower speeds will be fine but exceeding the maximum speed will reduce the quality of the image.

The very short flash duration is so quick it will freeze almost any moving subject. The flashgun has its own power source so is more powerful than the built in ones which drain the main camera battery. The movable head can be angled to bounce the light off walls or ceilings which can help produce lovely soft lighting. Be careful to use neutrally coloured surfaces to bounce the light off otherwise there is a chance that the colours will be picked up and cast onto the subject.

Accessories like diffusers, reflectors and colour filters are available for most flashguns. These accessories help turn your flashgun into a creative, flexible and adaptable light source. It becomes even more adaptable when you use an off camera cable which connects the flashgun to the camera through the hot shoe, which enables the subject to be lit from different angles with the flash still dedicated to the cameras automatic exposure.

When confidence grows with using the dedicated flash you can experiment using the flashes manual mode. Using the flashguns user guide and its guide number you can calculate which f- number to use. You can also change the power setting on a lot of the flashguns giving more creative control.