Flash Photography Question

[sunny_sony]

Yes. Bouncing off a ceiling or wall will definitely help GREATLY. A diffuser can be as simple as some tissue over the flash head if you need it, but that won't stop shadows like bouncing will.

But when shooting in open outdoor where there's no wall or ceiling, what is the best approach??

 

[pgriz]

If you want to use ETTL and you also want to use a wide-open aperture to get a shallow depth of field, you can use Canon's "high-speed" flash option on your flash, which will change the way the flash fires, and will allow you to use shutter speeds higher than the sync speed (which is why Canon calls it high-speed flash). However, the camera combines the ambient and flash differently depending on the mode you're using. For instance in P mode, the camera assumes that the FLASH provides the main light. In Av modes, the camera assumes you will have a combined exposure, so if the ambient light is dim, the camera will keep the shutter open until there is enough light to give a "correct" exposure involving ambient. In M (manual) mode, you control both the shutter speed and the aperture, so the camera assumes that the flash is the main light source.

Putting the flash in "high-speed" mode reduces the range of the flash, so using it in bouce mode may produce darker images compared to using it without that option. As said by MLeek and others, shooting in manual mode gives you the most control over the exposure, but at a cost of fiddling around with the settings all the time (unless you are photographing a static scene).

If you're trying to avoid the harshness of direct flash, there are diffusers you can attach to your flash that will create some reasonable amount of light spread. These can be used when bouncing off the walls or ceiling is not an option.

 

[sunny_sony]

Extremely helpful information. Thanks very much everyone. :thumbup: