Digital Camera World (2019-06)

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com JUNE 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^61

CAMERA COLLEGE

For accurate colours while using flash, select the Flash

preset in your camera’s White Balance menu. When it

comes to fill-flash, however, it may be more convenient

to use the Auto setting, as the camera will attempt

to find the best compromise between the colour

temperature of the flash and the existing lighting.

Flash has a colour temperature similar to daylight, so

when it’s used at sunset or in a scene lit by artificial light,

the difference can be

jarring. Although you

can apply selective white

balance adjustments

to different parts of the

scene in software, it’s

quicker and easier to get

it right in-camera. Some

flashguns come with

clip-on colour filters that bring the

colour temperature closer to that

of the existing light, although third-

party ‘gel’ filters are also available.

RIGHT: Warm up your images

with a tungsten-balanced gel filter.

Camera skills White balance

Keep under the flash’s ‘x-sync’ speed

If timing isn’t critical, you can improve your chances of

getting a shot with the perfect ratio of flash to ambient

light by taking a series of exposures at a range of flash

compensation settings. Some flashguns and cameras

can automate the process for you using Flash Exposure

Bracketing. With this active, the next three shots you take

will have different flash exposure settings. You can usually

set up to +/- 3 stops of adjustment in third-stop increments.

Camera skills Flash bracketing

Let the camera tweak the exposure for you

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Flash isn’t just for portraits – there’s a world

of subjects that can benefit from a little fill

Landscape photography is usually the preserve of

accessories such as tripods and filters, but a flashgun

can add a creative twist to some scenics. You can enhance

rain and falling snow, for example, or highlight an interesting

feature in the foreground. Although you may be able to use

the light from a pop-up flash unit, it is unlikely to reach the

corners of an image shot with a wide-angle lens. If you want

to shoot a vertical image then the light will end up coming

from either the left or the right of the image too.

In the shot above, we used a flashgun held remotely

above the fern in the foreground. The contrast under the

canopy of this woodland was very high, and it was difficult to

find a subject that wasn’t peppered by hotspots and criss-

crossed by the shadows of trees. But by finding a plant that

was more or less in full shade, we knew we could use flash

to illuminate it and produce a more balanced exposure.

A flashgun is also a good accessory to have in the bag for

close-up photography. The beam from a pop-up flash – or

a flashgun positioned on the camera’s hotshoe – may be

blocked by the lens, casting a shadow across the subject,

so it’s worth using a remote flash trigger or off-shoe cable

to be able to free the flashgun from the hotshoe.

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NO

FLASH

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