Equipment needed for flash photography?

Hi all,

at the moment, there are two threads I found very interesting about flash photography in this forum ongoing and I am wondering myself if I should get a flash (FL50R in my case).

I'd shoot mostly social events and portraits of friends and family. My question is: What is the minimum required equipment to shoot casual portraits indoors, is a flash and maybe a card or diffuser and some learning in how to bounce enough?

I am asking because whenever links are posted these seem to go to sites where people use multiple flashes and umbrellas and reflectors, so quite a lot of stuff.

I am thinking that my photography could benefit from using a flash, but I am still only a casual photographer and wouldn't want to spend tooo much money on the flash accessoirs and really only a couple of minutes at most for each shot for the setup. It should be ideally a case of changing a few setting on the camera and the flash and then shoot, not much more setup than a non-flashed photo.

So, my question is, what is needed in order to get good photos for indoor and outdoor portraits, ideally with a very minimalistic equipment - is a flash that I can bounce enough? What else would I need considering I don't want to spend much time on the setup and these are still "only" social shots of family and friends.

What I don't want to do is getting a flash, then finding out that with only one flash there are all sorts of shadows on the faces, and then finding out that I need to buy more stuff in order to get acceptable results etc. I am new to flash photography, so any "slow" explanations are especially welcome

Thanks all for your help!

Cheers,
Hector

A lumiquest pocket bouncer and a flash should do it as a begining.

The bouncer folds flat and takes almost no space.

As for the flash - the difference in light is not that huge between the FL-36/R and the FL-50/R, but the 36 can drive you absolutely nuts with recycle times, should your work be just a bit dynamic. The 50 is just better.

If your camera allows RC flash - go for an R flash. Eventually, you WILL start playing with remote flash triggering, and you can do really interesting stuff even with a single one. So unless the price difference is two fold, always prefer the R version, whichever you decide to get.

In addition to the poster above, I would recommend that you check Metz' Flashes ( http://www.metz.de/en/flash-units/product-ranges/system-flash-units.html?tx_dkdkbshopblitzanw_pi1%5Bcameratype%5D=2#anwsearch ), which are quite high quality, and considerably cheaper than their Oly counterparts.

I have the Metz 50-AF1, and apart possibly from the menu system and ever-so-slightly more power, I don't quite see what the FL-50R could add to it. The 58-AF2 should beat both on all aspects apart from the menu.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/airelle-info/

There was someone on the forum who had actually measured the output of Metz 4/3 flashes and Olympus 4/3 flashes, and it wasn't good for Metz.

Apparently the shape of the Oly flashe heads is matched to cover 4/3 ratio, while the Metz head is meant to cover 2:3, or whatever the CaNikon ratio is.

To circumvent that, the firmware on the Metz is tweaked to zoom the head slightly wider on the Metz 4/3 flash, which results in lost GN when fully zoomed. Just my $0.02.

The best bang for buck you will get is a cheap FL-36 from keh or ebay for around $125. The FL-50 is better in terms of recycle time and flash power, but of course you pay for that with bigger size/weight and cost (still around $300 used, I think). If you're just a casual photographer, it will suit you fine for parties and such.
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http://www.pbase.com/jfinite

I started with a FL-36R and Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce on the camera... and it did the trick... sometimes I still use it... it is hard plastic and y diffuse the light really good, I just kept it on the flash all the time and shooting at 45 degrees angle. no velcro no gluing, just plug and play.

I highly recomend it. In addition that it is really cheap.

YOu can find it almost anywhere... i got it from adorama:

http://www.adorama.com/SFOMNK6A.html

Here's the post you're talking about: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=38313723 , and the summary is that at 50mm, the FL-50R has a "real" GN of 4m more than the 50-AF1 (40 vs 36), but 2m less than the 58-AF2. The whole thread's interesting to have various point of views about Metz vs Oly flashes anyway.

Personally, I rarely shoot subjects that far, although one could argue that when bouncing/diffusing, you're a lot more likely to reach that need for power. At any rate, I never felt "if only my flash was more powerful" so far (and chances are issues are more likely to come from my lack of practice/technique than from the flash itself, I'd say).
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/airelle-info/

I started out with a Sunpak 383 super. You can find them on ebay for $60-90. Great flash, durable, reliable, fast charging and as strong as FL-50 (I have one of those too), but for you can get away with less.

A reflector is also a good idea and you will end up using it with natural light too. You can use a piece of 3 ft white foam board from Staples, a car window shade (the foil kind) or get something on ebay (I got one that has white, silver, gold, black and folds up to steering wheel size). The white can be used as a diffuser too.

YOu can get a set of radio triggers for $20-30. That opens a whole new world. For general purpose indoor, just use a flash on cam and bounce it. You can diffuse with things like white grocery bags, tupperware or anything else your imagination can think of.

Just some ideas. NO need to drop a ton of money right of the start til you get the hang of it.
--
I'm not a professional, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn express last night.

http://www.2112photography.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21868346@N00/

I took all the photos in this gallery with a single on-camera Metz 48 AF flash, with its built in diffuser and bounced off white walls/ceiling:

http://sbasumal.smugmug.com/Naatak/8S-publicity/19101555_Qtw2tP#1486761702_Njmkvkq

First, consider practicing with nothing but window light and a reflector (you can buy a good silver/white reflector on Ebay for very little). For portraits of one individual or a couple, window light is very hard to beat -- if you do it right. I've attached an example below.

As far as flash goes, the FL50R is a great flash, but you can buy other dedicated flashes for much less -- B&H sells the Bower SFD926O dedicated TTL flash for Olympus for $125. I have one and it really works well -- much faster recycle time than the FL36R and more power also. It has a built in optical slave, which means you can trigger it with another flash, but it does not offer remote TTL operation (you have to set it manually for off camera use). Here's the B&H link:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/605928-REG/Bower_SFD926O_SFD926O_Digital_Shoe_Mount.html

For bounce and flash diffusion, here is what I use and recommend -- the 'Better Bounce Card' -- cost less than $1 Here is a link to a video explaining everything:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNCmuExlHvM

Flash use just take a bit of study and lots of practice to master -- don't be intimidated, it's fun!

God Bless,
Greg
http://www.imagismphotos.com
http://www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com
http://www.pbase.com/daddyo

Shot using window light and a white reflector: