Provided Sony NEX flash tutorial.
You've read for years about how high ISO performance in a camera is irreplaceable, of it frees you from the use of flash, how you can't possibly buy anything that shoots less than ISO 12800, right ?? WRONG.
We all know how ugly is built-in flash, how it screws the lighting and ruins your pictures, right ? Wrong again !! Bounced and/or diffused flash is the answer to well lit, sharp, well exposed pictures, and icing on the cake it even works with the little dinky on camera flash unit that Sony included in your NEX box.
This is a flash picture, as will be all the pics inserted in this post. Even and soft lighting, no harsh shadows, no blown hilights, just accurate colors and feel good exposure.
Here the "high key" rendering is deliberate. I could have done a more balanced exposure, like the following :
Convinced ? Or at least curious about how I do it ?? Very simple, and I'm gonna show you how.
First of all, you need to get out the little screw-on flash that Sony has bundled with you NEX. It screws into the accessory port on top of your camera. You can find reflectors/diffusers for this little unit for about 20 USD on eBay, but it's extremely easy to just Do It Yourself (DIY, for short). Cut a piece of thin cardboard (business card type) slightly bigger than the flash head. Wrap it in aluminium foil. Fix it with a simple rubber band underneath the flash head. DONE ! Here's how my set-up looks like :
I could even have made the reflective surface more effective by making it larger. But this one works more than well enough. Once you've done the "hardware" part of things, time for the "software" (settings) part.
Set you camera on Manual mode. Set ISO to 400 (which you can modify later in case of need). Set you aperture. It's better to use rather large/wide (small F number) apertures, for faster shutter speeds and good ligh gathering. Let's say you're using a fast prime, you can set it to F2, for instance. Set your White Balance to K (Kelvin value) and chose 4300, for starters. You will fine tune later if needed, or can also use Custom WB (very easy to set in just one shot). Set a shutter speed of 1/100th second. Make a test shot. Do NOT trust the LCD for exposure compensation. In low light your LCD is "boosted" and does NOT gives you accurate feedback on the actual exposure you're getting (a noisy and nasty looking LCD is the norm in low light, no panic, lol).
Review your test shot. If too dark, you can do four things :
1) use a wider aperture (unless you were already wide open)
2) use a slower shutter speed
3) use a higher ISO value (like ISO 800)
4) use positive flash compensation (in the "brightness/color" menu
If too light, you can do the exact four same things, in the opposite way :
1) use a smaller (greater F number) aperture
2) use a faster shutter speed (you'll be limited to 1/160, if this isn't fast enough, you need to use one of the other options)
3) user a lower ISO value (like ISO 200)
4) use negative flash compensation.
White Balance often needs to be fine tuned as well, a higher Kelvin value will give you warmer results (amber), a lower value colder ones (blue). Don't hesitate to use the extra fine bias grid for subtle adjustments. Experimenting is the only way to get familiar with the results.
The only mandatory for this set-up to give optimal results is a reasonably low, light colored ceiling. When we spent a week in our Vermont rental, I was out of this option since the house was ALL wood, which would NOT reflect light and throw white balance off beyond any control !! The one limitation you'll run into is that you can hardly use vertical orientation, it's not gonna yield too good results, unless there is a white wall properly positionned nearby, but success will be pretty random. Stick to landscape orientation and crop if needed.
The pointers I gave you are just that, starting points. But I've been experimenting with that technique for years (actually since 2005) and I've made litterally thousands of bounce flash successful bounce shots. I used to be the greatest flash hater. That was just insecurity and lack of skill. As much as I like pretty available light images, I'd rather take a good looking, well lit flash photo, than make a mushy one for the sake of "available light only" snobism.
Just for comparison here is a "no flash" shot (as stated before, due to the wooden ceiling not allowing bounce flash) :
1/40th at ISO 1600, aperture probably F2.
I hope you all enjoyed this little tutorial, and I really, really encourage you to experiment with this little set-up. It takes 10 seconds to put together, and will give you 400% better reasults than using direct flash. Try it and let me know how it works !!
You've read for years about how high ISO performance in a camera is irreplaceable, of it frees you from the use of flash, how you can't possibly buy anything that shoots less than ISO 12800, right ?? WRONG.
We all know how ugly is built-in flash, how it screws the lighting and ruins your pictures, right ? Wrong again !! Bounced and/or diffused flash is the answer to well lit, sharp, well exposed pictures, and icing on the cake it even works with the little dinky on camera flash unit that Sony included in your NEX box.
NEX-5N
----
0mm
f/1.0
1/160s
ISO 400
This is a flash picture, as will be all the pics inserted in this post. Even and soft lighting, no harsh shadows, no blown hilights, just accurate colors and feel good exposure.
DMC-GX1
---
45mm
f/1.8
1/125s
ISO 250
Here the "high key" rendering is deliberate. I could have done a more balanced exposure, like the following :
NEX-5N
----
0mm
f/1.0
1/125s
ISO 400
Convinced ? Or at least curious about how I do it ?? Very simple, and I'm gonna show you how.
First of all, you need to get out the little screw-on flash that Sony has bundled with you NEX. It screws into the accessory port on top of your camera. You can find reflectors/diffusers for this little unit for about 20 USD on eBay, but it's extremely easy to just Do It Yourself (DIY, for short). Cut a piece of thin cardboard (business card type) slightly bigger than the flash head. Wrap it in aluminium foil. Fix it with a simple rubber band underneath the flash head. DONE ! Here's how my set-up looks like :
DMC-GX1
---
25mm
f/2.0
1/30s
ISO 3200
I could even have made the reflective surface more effective by making it larger. But this one works more than well enough. Once you've done the "hardware" part of things, time for the "software" (settings) part.
Set you camera on Manual mode. Set ISO to 400 (which you can modify later in case of need). Set you aperture. It's better to use rather large/wide (small F number) apertures, for faster shutter speeds and good ligh gathering. Let's say you're using a fast prime, you can set it to F2, for instance. Set your White Balance to K (Kelvin value) and chose 4300, for starters. You will fine tune later if needed, or can also use Custom WB (very easy to set in just one shot). Set a shutter speed of 1/100th second. Make a test shot. Do NOT trust the LCD for exposure compensation. In low light your LCD is "boosted" and does NOT gives you accurate feedback on the actual exposure you're getting (a noisy and nasty looking LCD is the norm in low light, no panic, lol).
NEX-5N
---
0mm
f/1.0
1/80s
ISO 400
Review your test shot. If too dark, you can do four things :
1) use a wider aperture (unless you were already wide open)
2) use a slower shutter speed
3) use a higher ISO value (like ISO 800)
4) use positive flash compensation (in the "brightness/color" menu
If too light, you can do the exact four same things, in the opposite way :
1) use a smaller (greater F number) aperture
2) use a faster shutter speed (you'll be limited to 1/160, if this isn't fast enough, you need to use one of the other options)
3) user a lower ISO value (like ISO 200)
4) use negative flash compensation.
White Balance often needs to be fine tuned as well, a higher Kelvin value will give you warmer results (amber), a lower value colder ones (blue). Don't hesitate to use the extra fine bias grid for subtle adjustments. Experimenting is the only way to get familiar with the results.
The only mandatory for this set-up to give optimal results is a reasonably low, light colored ceiling. When we spent a week in our Vermont rental, I was out of this option since the house was ALL wood, which would NOT reflect light and throw white balance off beyond any control !! The one limitation you'll run into is that you can hardly use vertical orientation, it's not gonna yield too good results, unless there is a white wall properly positionned nearby, but success will be pretty random. Stick to landscape orientation and crop if needed.
NEX-5N
----
0mm
f/1.0
1/80s
ISO 400
The pointers I gave you are just that, starting points. But I've been experimenting with that technique for years (actually since 2005) and I've made litterally thousands of bounce flash successful bounce shots. I used to be the greatest flash hater. That was just insecurity and lack of skill. As much as I like pretty available light images, I'd rather take a good looking, well lit flash photo, than make a mushy one for the sake of "available light only" snobism.
Just for comparison here is a "no flash" shot (as stated before, due to the wooden ceiling not allowing bounce flash) :
NEX-5N
----
0mm
f/1.0
1/40s
ISO 1600
1/40th at ISO 1600, aperture probably F2.
I hope you all enjoyed this little tutorial, and I really, really encourage you to experiment with this little set-up. It takes 10 seconds to put together, and will give you 400% better reasults than using direct flash. Try it and let me know how it works !!
NIKON D90
---
50mm
f/2.0
1/60s
ISO 320
