Fill flash guides?

[zedin]

Go easy on me this is my first posting here =p

I was wondering if anyone knew of some good resources for how to properly use a fill flash. I have tried a bit of experimenting but really haven't had much luck and hate wasting money on film if I can't seem to learn the technique. So any tips would be very helpful =)

 

[Hertz van Rental]

What sort of flash have you got?
Manual or computer? Seperate or integral?
To do fill in flash succesfully you really need a seperate one with computer control.
Take a light reading of the background and set the camera to this.
Set the flash. Setting it to the same f-number as the background will give your subject the same light level as the background - which is not always desirable.
Setting the fill in flash to 1 stop less than the background give a much better lighting effect.
You can also increase the camera exposure by 1 stop which will make the background dark. If you set the fill in flash to the same f-number then your subject will come out properly exposed with a dark background (especially effective at sunset).
If you have an integral flash there should be a fill-in flash option to experiment with. You need to make sure that your subject is framed centrally so that the camera gets the correct flash reading.
Use the above as a starting point and play around to see what happens.

 

[zedin]

hehe.. yeah.. guess I should have stated..

I shoot a nikon f100 and use the sb80dx flash. So it can be as automated as I want or as manual as I want (but still learning how to use a flash well so still trying to learn both =p)

 

[ksmattfish]

Use shutter to control the exposure of the background (or anything not flashed), and aperture to control flash exposure. I like to start out with the flash -1 stop for color, -2 stops for BW.

A flash that allows you to adjust the power and a camera with a high flash sync speed makes this a lot easier.