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Flash on all the time or not?

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churchi

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Hi all,

well today i was out on the track (car racing) and saw quite a few of the pro shooters. They carry around 2 bodies over their shoulders and usually have a huge L series lens on them.

A few of them had the flash on top of the camera and even in the moddle of the day the flash was going off. just wondering if that deliberate or just they forgot to turn the flash off?
when the picture was taken it was outside in the sun light. no shadows at all.

now my question is, is there any reason for people to have the flash going off all day even in the sun light? does it make the picture much better? or does it provide some use fullness that i am just missing?

Could anyone shed some light on why the flash would be going off while on the camera during the day time?

cheers
 
If you have extremely strong shadows, a fill-flash (even the internal one) will cut the shadows and add detail to the dark areas. I use it almost always shooting family at the beach for example.

Just try it in bright sunlight with a subject less than 10' away - you'll see. Try it in P mode with and without the flash.

One trick - to get more "distance" on the flash in situations like this, kick up the ISO to 800 or even 1600. The flash will go "further" filling the details. Don't try to use ISO100 with this technique - the flash won't have enough power to make much useful differrence (my experience).

Steve

--
My galleries are at http://www.GrillosView.com , Equipment on profile page
 
SteveDude said:
One trick - to get more "distance" on the flash in situations like
this, kick up the ISO to 800 or even 1600. The flash will go
"further" filling the details. Don't try to use ISO100 with this
technique - the flash won't have enough power to make much useful
differrence (my experience).
Click to expand...
Changing ISO is not a reliable method for optimizing fill flash. Fill flash effectiveness is a function of shutter speed. The best you can do is to set the body to Tv and select the fastest "natural" sync speed of the shutter. In the case of most bodies, that's 1/250.

Jack

--
http://jackandkelly.zenfolio.com/
 
Does using a flash at a higher then normal sync speed (High Speed Sync) work effectively as a fill flash in situations where you need a shutter speed such as 1/500 or 1/1000?
 
MX 142 said:
Does using a flash at a higher then normal sync speed (High Speed
Sync) work effectively as a fill flash in situations where you need a
shutter speed such as 1/500 or 1/1000?
Click to expand...
Yes, but you'll need to be closer to the subject than if you were shooting at 1/250. Extended flash speeds work by strobing the output of the flash. Less light is generated in this mode.

Jack

--
http://jackandkelly.zenfolio.com/
 
Filmluvr said:
SteveDude said:
One trick - to get more "distance" on the flash in situations like
this, kick up the ISO to 800 or even 1600. The flash will go
"further" filling the details. Don't try to use ISO100 with this
technique - the flash won't have enough power to make much useful
differrence (my experience).
Click to expand...
Changing ISO is not a reliable method for optimizing fill flash. Fill
flash effectiveness is a function of shutter speed. The best you can
do is to set the body to Tv and select the fastest "natural" sync
speed of the shutter. In the case of most bodies, that's 1/250.
Click to expand...
Good comments.

But my method (P mode typically) will actually do the same thing when in bright sunlight. P will select 1/250, and then you can get even more flash by kicking up the ISO.

I suspect we're achieving the same goal using 2 different methods. :)

Steve
filmluvr said:
Jack

--
http://jackandkelly.zenfolio.com/
Click to expand...
--
My galleries are at http://www.GrillosView.com , Equipment on profile page
 
excellent, thank you for your comments. i will be giving all these suggestions ago this week during some practice shooting.

i guess its just a bit of playing around and see what works for when.

but i think you have all answered the question of why a flash is used outside.

how about when using a flash outside, should a flash cover be used? i think its maybe called a difuser?

cheers
 
The diffuser is great for flash-predomenant shots where you need truly "even" lighting. But for fill-flash it's just not necessary in my experience. And keep the flash "direct" (not bounced in any way) - angling the flash will only cut it's potential output to cut the shadows.

Good luck!

Steve
churchi said:
excellent, thank you for your comments. i will be giving all these
suggestions ago this week during some practice shooting.

i guess its just a bit of playing around and see what works for when.

but i think you have all answered the question of why a flash is used
outside.

how about when using a flash outside, should a flash cover be used? i
think its maybe called a difuser?

cheers
Click to expand...
--
My galleries are at http://www.GrillosView.com , Equipment on profile page
 
while I use the flash quite often outside for fill light and to create nice catch lights (reflections) in the eyes, I'm a bit surprised that they'd use it at a race with long lenses, if I understand your post correctly? How close were they to their racing subjects? Of course, they might just leave it on so they don't have to think about it if they use a shorter zoom setting?

You can also get flash extenders, basically a Fresnel lens that mounts similar to a diffuser and throws the light further out, nice for animal pictures in the wild I hear, to create that catch light, which tends to bring the eyes alive with a sparkle.

What kind of race was this?
 
In outdoor fill flash you won't get any more reach or distance with the flash by raising the ISO. The reason is the increased "reach" of the flash is competely offset by a necessarily smaller aperture.

Ex. Shooting in full sun with fill flash, ISO 100, 1/250, f/8. If speedlite's GN is 58m, then the "reach" is 58m/8 = 7.25m. If you increase the ISO 2 stops to 400, the GN increases to 110, but now you need f/16 to not blow out the ambient exposure. "reach" then is 116m/16 = 7.25m. No change.

FP High Speed Sync would allow increasing the ISO and keeping the same aperture by increasing the shutter speed instead. But the power lost to the high speed sync is greater than the 2 stop gain in ISO, so that at ISO 400, 1/1000, f/8 the "reach" is less than 5m.
SteveDude said:
SteveDude said:
SteveDude said:
One trick - to get more "distance" on the flash in situations like
this, kick up the ISO to 800 or even 1600. The flash will go
"further" filling the details. Don't try to use ISO100 with this
technique - the flash won't have enough power to make much useful
differrence (my experience).
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
But my method (P mode typically) will actually do the same thing when
in bright sunlight. P will select 1/250, and then you can get even
more flash by kicking up the ISO.

I suspect we're achieving the same goal using 2 different methods. :)

Steve
SteveDude said:
Jack

--
http://jackandkelly.zenfolio.com/
Click to expand...
--
My galleries are at http://www.GrillosView.com , Equipment on profile page
Click to expand...
 
Lemming51 said:
In outdoor fill flash you won't get any more reach or distance with
the flash by raising the ISO. The reason is the increased "reach" of
the flash is competely offset by a necessarily smaller aperture.
Click to expand...
Normally, that would be true. However, SteveDude is suggesting raising the ISO so far that the camera is forced to select a faster shutter speed. That will indeed increase the ratio of flash-to-ambient light.

--
http://jackandkelly.zenfolio.com/
 
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