Do you sleep with it too

[JimmyO]

I use flash alot, but almost never to light up something in the dark on camera. Infact the only time I use it on camera is as fill in 12 o clock sun, or bounced of the cieling indoors.


It all comes down to your style of shooting

 

[thoughtcryme]

How is the title of this thread related to the actual topic???

 

[Battou]

If you'd put down that old Canon and pick up a Nikon that does fill flash well you might go "oh-ho".

What for, I have a nice zoom Thyristor for my old Canon that works just fine when I need it. :lmao:

The "art" of photography can be boiled down to lighting and composition... if you are only able to manipulate one of those things you are severely handicapping yourself.

A statement made in the belief that only a flash can be manipulated. The leading cause of people believing that not having a seven or eight hundred dollar flash is a handycap. I'm sorry but any light source that can be moved is controllable and one must first learn how to control light before they can control light. An obvious statement to be sure, but one that fails to come across when people are suggesting to get such and such flash unit because you can control and manipulate the light. Just because you can control it with the flash by no means, means it will be controlled, that is a skill takes time to learn. That learning can be begun with out the device, Something as simple as table lamps can be used effectivly with stationary subjects.

These where all taken with out the use of a flash

SD Card by Battou
Kodak Signet 40 by Battou
For the Light by Battou
Sasquatch by Battou
Defeated by Battou
Guess Macro #3 by Battou

Now if I can do it why can't the next guy, Why is it that everyone sais that the flash is a must have, especially for this kind of work. What I fail to understand is why everyone and their brother are telling people they need to spend seven or eight hundred dollars on such and such flash to accomplish something I can do with fifteen dollars worth of lamps and lightulbs, Especially beginners and/or first time pruduct shot exparementers and macro shot explorers who just dropped four or five hundred dollars on their camera and/or three or four hundred on their first Macro lens.

 

[Village Idiot]

If you'd put down that old Canon and pick up a Nikon that does fill flash well you might go "oh-ho".

What for, I have a nice zoom Thyristor for my old Canon that works just fine when I need it. :lmao:

The "art" of photography can be boiled down to lighting and composition... if you are only able to manipulate one of those things you are severely handicapping yourself.

A statement made in the belief that only a flash can be manipulated. The leading cause of people believing that not having a seven or eight hundred dollar flash is a handycap. I'm sorry but any light source that can be moved is controllable and one must first learn how to control light before they can control light. An obvious statement to be sure, but one that fails to come across when people are suggesting to get such and such flash unit because you can control and manipulate the light. Just because you can control it with the flash by no means, means it will be controlled, that is a skill takes time to learn. That learning can be begun with out the device, Something as simple as table lamps can be used effectivly with stationary subjects.

These where all taken with out the use of a flash

SD Card by Battou
Kodak Signet 40 by Battou
For the Light by Battou
Sasquatch by Battou
Defeated by Battou
Guess Macro #3 by Battou

Now if I can do it why can't the next guy, Why is it that everyone sais that the flash is a must have, especially for this kind of work. What I fail to understand is why everyone and their brother are telling people they need to spend seven or eight hundred dollars on such and such flash to accomplish something I can do with fifteen dollars worth of lamps and lightulbs, Especially beginners and/or first time pruduct shot exparementers and macro shot explorers who just dropped four or five hundred dollars on their camera and/or three or four hundred on their first Macro lens.

Who said anything about an $800 flash? $95 speed lights can work just fine. And why are they better than using various table lamps? Color balance, adjustability, and modifiers.

Depending on the flash, the range of adjustability is usually pretty good. It's also going to be pretty accurate. Short of having a lamp that has a dim and bright setting or one with a wheel that controls the brightness, you're going to be hard pressed to get adjustability and consistency at those levels.

Flash color balances are generally all set pretty close to 5600k. If you have several by the same manufacture and even the same model, then they're supposed to be identical to each other. Can you say with certainty that your light bulbs have equal color balance and won't leave you with a warm color cast on one side or another of your frame?

There are tons of modifiers. Snoots, gobos, umbrellas, soft boxes, grids, and diffusers just to name a few. Try making a snoot for your desktop lamp. Try diffusing it and turning up the power. It's not going to happen.

And then try shooting moving objects. Hot lights with people usually suck, especially when the subject is in motion.

Strobes are just more versatile, no matter how you look at it. Is versatility going to cost you? Yeah. Is it worth it? To me it is.