What you’ll learn
How to take control of
your Nikon’s built-in
flash. You’ll add a
subtle fill-in light to
backlit shots by using
the flash exposure
compensation
feature.What you’ll need
A simple, still life
subject, the light
used in the previous
exercise, and a Nikon
with a built-in flash.11 | Built-in flash as fill-in flash
A s i n t he prev ious e xerc i se ,
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subject and then position
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EDFNOLJKWLQJ Put your Nikon in position,
on a tripod if you have one, and set
aperture-priority exposure mode. With the
aperture set to the widest available on your
lens, adjust the exposure compensation
so that it correctly exposes the light from
behind, but the front of the subject is still
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Next, press the button to activate the
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have this), which should also be set to TTL
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exposure compensation button. Use the
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but not the normal exposure. The range
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between different Nikon models, but the
most commonly available are 0, -1 and -2,
while some models also offer +1 and -3
settings. Next, just take a series of images
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set t i ngs ava i lable on you r Ni kon.
Now you can take a look at the results.
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background light remains pretty much
the same throughout the series, but the
exposure on the front of the subject varies
dramatically. The exact effect will depend
on your subject and set-up, and which one
you prefer comes down to taste, but you
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exposure compensation settings will
produce a more balanced and pleasing
resu lt t ha n when it i s lef t at zero.Of-camera flash
The next step with flash is to take
it off-camera, as this will give you
much more control over the position
and direction of the light, as well as
the power (combining the portability
of our desk lamp in lesson 10, and the
control over flash power in lesson 11).
Of course, this means investing in a
separate flash if you don’t have one
already, but you don’t have to spend
a fortune: the Gloxy GX-F990 TTL,
recommended in Ask Jason (see
page 102), costs just £110/$190.TAKE IT FURTHER
30
minsNO FLASHZERO FLASH EXP. COMP+1 FLASH EXP. COMP-1 FLASH EXPOSURE COMPhttp://www.digitalcameraworld.com March 2016 35
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