Flash Photography Experiment

To produce a well lighted image, photographers sometimes need to depend on artificial light sources. I have a Canon 580 ex Speedlite with me for a long time, but I seldom experiment with this wonderful photographic accessory. I decided to read the manual and do some research on how to use this piece of equipment to produce creative shots. Hope you will like some of my "experiments". Still got lots to learn.


Gear: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 16-35mm f2.8L, Canon 580ex Speedlite, Gitzo Tripod, Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser, Canon remote wire trigger and a Billingham Hadley Pro (Khaki) bag to keep all the gear in place. 

Yes. She's a paid model to help me in my experiment.

Settings for this shot:

Camera mounted on stable tripod

Flash with GF diffuser

1 sec exposure, ISO 400, f 5.6

The main challenge for the shot above is to get enough light to both the subject and background. Very often, the subject is over exposed and the background dark.

Settings for these 2 shots:

Camera mounted on stable tripod

Flash with GF diffuser

1 sec exposure, ISO 400, f 5.6

Flash set to rear curtain/TTL

Zoom into face and lock focus

Zoom out as you press your shutter!

Always remember to lock your focus before your press the shutter. 

Zoom out gradually within the 1 sec exposure.

High end flashes will have the multiple flash/strobe function. Decided to experiment with multiple strobe techniques. The key challenge is to get the subject in focus and at the same time capture the movement using multi strobes. Not easy. Hope you will like these shots.

Settings for these 3 shots: Multi-strobe technique

Camera mounted on stable tripod

Flash with GF diffuser angel at 75 degree. Area must be dark

Flash settings: 1/16, 8 strobes, and 8 hz

1 sec exposure, ISO 400, f 5.6

Tip: The 580EX has a multi-stroboscopic feature that allows a photographer to fire the flash rapidly and capture multiple shots of a moving object into a single image. To activate this feature, push the mode button on the back of the flash until Multi is displayed. After activating multi-strobe, set the shutter speed on the camera according to the formula (Number of Flashes divided by Firing Frequency=Shutter Speed). Do not fire the flash in multi-strobe more than 10 times, and allow it 10 minutes to cool off after doing so.

Above tip is from: Cannon 580Ex Flash Tips | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5287218_cannon-ex-flash-tips.html#ixzz1rkAYVGnH

Hope you enjoyed these experiments with an external flash unit. I'm still learning...