Flash or no flash for Indoors

[cgipson1]

I also recommend the SB-700, SB-800, SB900-910 series... they are great flashes! SB-400 is underpowered / underfeatured for the price... don't bother! The Yongnuo's are decent for the price... and some of them do have some TTL capability, and they also make some decent inexpensive flash triggers.

So Yougnou seems to be almost final, you didn't even bother to consider Nissin, lol! Seems like it's really bad

I would buy Yongnuo over Nissin, personally!

 

[psran]

Guys my Yougnuo 560 ll has finally arrived. I am seeing the difference that no other lens has made.The colors of my pics are coming out awesome.

In most of my clicks, I am using Flash at 70 degree to bounce lights, f4-5.6 mostly and Shutter speed is 1/80 for all the shots. Now I have to use flash at 1/4 power for all the pics otherwise they look underexposed.

Are these settings okay? Please suggest me how to use flash in other ways as well, without taking it Off -camera

 

[kundalini]

Are these settings okay? Please suggest me how to use flash in other ways as well, without taking it Off -camera

The settings are yours to discover. Practice, practice, practice.... with a purpose. Find an inanimate object and run through the scales of flash power, distances, zooms and modes. Take notes. Rinse and repeat. Soon enough you will get to the place that you can come upon a scenario and be able to nearly nail the the amount of flash needed and where. It just takes time and dedication. Post some examples. Good luck.

 

[psran]

The settings are yours to discover. Practice, practice, practice.... with a purpose. Find an inanimate object and run through the scales of flash power, distances, zooms and modes. Take notes. Rinse and repeat. Soon enough you will get to the place that you can come upon a scenario and be able to nearly nail the the amount of flash needed and where. It just takes time and dedication. Post some examples. Good luck.

I have already taken 100 shots if not more with my above mentioned settings, I wanted to know whether my settings of Flash seem okay or should I make some changes to Exposure triangle aa well

Regarding posting photos here, I am a bit uncomfortable posting my family photos here on open web source, I am not sure how safe it is

 

[kundalini]

The settings are yours to discover. Practice, practice, practice.... with a purpose. Find an inanimate object and run through the scales of flash power, distances, zooms and modes. Take notes. Rinse and repeat. Soon enough you will get to the place that you can come upon a scenario and be able to nearly nail the the amount of flash needed and where. It just takes time and dedication. Post some examples. Good luck.

I have already taken 100 shots if not more with my above mentioned settings, I wanted to know whether my settings of Flash seem okay or should I make some changes to Exposure triangle aa well

Regarding posting photos here, I am a bit uncomfortable posting my family photos here on open web source, I am not sure how safe it is

Fair play with your decision of posting family shots, hence my suggestion for an inanmate object to practice on. You can't bore the subject to death. That's why I picked up Winston. He doesn't moan about the long hours or eye fatigue from all the bursts of light, he just keeps on smiling.

After a while I got him some mates.

It's impossible to suggest the settings without examples.

BTW, 100 shots isn't even scratching the surface.

 

[gwhiz]

I need a nice model like yours. I was outside last night practicing flash levels, ocf vs on camera, rear curtain, high iso, blah blah blah and I made my girlfriend sit out there and model for the whole thing. She was bored but was a good sport about it. I also like the idea of placing a reflector behind you and bouncing it off of that but at that point you may as well just bust out the umbrella or soft box.

 

[psran]

BTW, 100 shots isn't even scratching the surface.

I had got my Flash just 1 hour before that post

BTW, liked your idea of using Soft toy instead. Will get back soon.

Any pointers to what does Zoom on Flash actually do?

 

[Dao]

Just one extra tip that I use often with flash. I up the ISO sometimes to lower the flash power so that it requires less recycle time. Especially shooting a birthday party type events that it allowed me to take few shots in a very short period of time.

 

[cynicaster]

Any pointers to what does Zoom on Flash actually do?

It allows you to efficiently use the light provided by the flash across a range of focal lengths. Think about it--when you zoom in with a lens, the "angle of view" is much narrower than if you zoom all the way out (hence the term "wide angle" for that scenario). The zoom capability of the flash changes the "width" of the emitted light beam to more or less match the angle of view corresponding to a given focal length.

When you get into more creative off-camera flash techniques, you can manually use the zoom function on the flash to "focus" the light provided by the flash or spread it out, depending on what effect you're after.

 

[cgipson1]

The settings are yours to discover. Practice, practice, practice.... with a purpose. Find an inanimate object and run through the scales of flash power, distances, zooms and modes. Take notes. Rinse and repeat. Soon enough you will get to the place that you can come upon a scenario and be able to nearly nail the the amount of flash needed and where. It just takes time and dedication. Post some examples. Good luck.

I have already taken 100 shots if not more with my above mentioned settings, I wanted to know whether my settings of Flash seem okay or should I make some changes to Exposure triangle aa well

Regarding posting photos here, I am a bit uncomfortable posting my family photos here on open web source, I am not sure how safe it is

Without seeing images that are the end result of your flash use, we have no way of knowing if you are doing it well or not. Settings for one situation may not work with another... to many variables. Posting images is your call... we can't really help much without them. Like posted below, a doll or toy works well.