How to use your built in Flash in the sun

[Robin Usagani]

Ok, I just want to show a little tutorial on how to use your internal flash when you are shooting in bright daylight. I don't have that much experience with other cameras so all I know is what on my Canon 500D. For this experiment I used spot metering. I am writing this to help beginners on this forum.

First of all, your internal flash can only be shot at 1/200 sec or slower. It cannot be quicker than that. I do not recommend using a flash with aperture priority. Lets say you are using aperture priority at f/2.8. The camera automatically sets the shutter to 1/1000 sec for example. When you turn on the flash, the shutter is automatically changed to 1/200 because you are using the flash. That means you are already super overexposed right of the bat because you shoot it 5X too long plus you are adding flash!

The first photo I used aperture priority. I metered it right on the sculpture. As you can see the sky is pretty pale. But the subject is exposed pretty good.


_MG_4848.jpg by rusagani, on Flickr



Now, instead of metering the subject, I moved my center mark to the blue sky. I use manual at this point. I am keeping the shutter speed at 1/200. I changed the aperture until I move my metering bar to 0. As you can see the sky is now blue... but the subject is really dark.

_MG_4847.jpg by rusagani, on Flickr


Now finally I use the same setting as the prior setting and flip my internal flash. You can see the subject, and the background is not super bright and or blown.

_MG_4849.jpg by rusagani, on Flickr

Now if you use your built in flash, you are limited to 1/200 max shutter speed. That means with this condition, the only way you can restrict less light coming in to your sensor is by making your aperture smaller. So if you want to blur out the background, it impossible to do it in some light condition because you have to reduce the size of your aperture which will make your DOF deeper. You cant make the shutter speed any faster because you already topped it at 1/200.

If you have an external flash though, you can set it to HSS and you can set your shutter speed however fast you want until you are at the camera's limitation.

I hope this will help some of the beginners out there.

 

[ababysean]

I wonder if I can set my sb-600 higher then 1/200?
I know when I am in studio, we have to stay at or under 1/200 as well and for those I use a cyber link radio trigger to signal the lights.
Thanks for this!

 

[Robin Usagani]

BTW.. i am limited only in the perimeter of my house because I have to watch 3 babies. Yes I understand the exposure on some examples are a little off. This is just an example.

 

[Robin Usagani]

I wonder if I can set my sb-600 higher then 1/200?
I know when I am in studio, we have to stay at or under 1/200 as well and for those I use a cyber link radio trigger to signal the lights.
Thanks for this!

Check your manual under High Speed Sync (HSS).

 

[kundalini]

.......The first photo I used aperture priority. I metered it right on the sculpture. As you can see the sky is pretty pale. But the subject is exposed pretty good. ......

Are we looking at the same image?

 

[mrpink]

.......The first photo I used aperture priority. I metered it right on the sculpture. As you can see the sky is pretty pale. But the subject is exposed pretty good. ......

Are we looking at the same image?

Maybe he is referring to a different subject.

Were you using spot metering or center weighted?





p!nK

 

[cpolaris502]

He stated Spot in the first post.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Stop being an ass. It is a dark wood. Ok I should have expose it more manually instead using aperture priority.

 

[oldmacman]

Stop being an ass. It is a dark wood. Ok I should have expose it more manually instead using aperture priority.

No one is jerking you around. The exposure on the first one is clearly off to properly expose the sculpture. Having the correct exposure makes much better sense for a beginner lesson. Otherwise, I would find the exercise confusing when the first image is only marginally better exposed than the second image.

FWIW, the explanation of your steps is very good and useful to a beginner.

 

[Robin Usagani]

OK.. I fixed it. Looking at the image I posted the first time on a bigger screen, it was really not that bad. The sky just made you believe it was very dark. But anyway.. i adjusted the exposure so it will make more sense.

 

[kundalini]

Stop being an ass. It is a dark wood. Ok I should have expose it more manually instead using aperture priority.

Excuse me. Would you care to rephrase that comment? Can you honestly say that the subject in #1 is "exposed pretty good"? You can't see $hit except a silohuette and overexposed bits.



While it is best IMO to be in Manual shoot mode while using flash, I made this little test to underexpose the background and use flash to light the subject using Aperture shooting mode. The subject is black and is backlit by the morning sun whereas you had a dark brown subject that was side lit. Not exactly the same kettle of fish, but close enough for government work.

I metered to get a shutter speed of 1/250s, which is my x-synch speed. Aperture = f/5.6.

I then stopped down my aperture to f/10 to underexposed the background to my liking. This rendered the background more in focus but since I had plenty of distance between subject and background, the OOF is acceptable and actually adds to the image IMO.. The background is okay, but Bruce is very underexposed. There is no detail in Bruce's fur.​

Add some flash.​

I wasn't sold yet, so I add some FEC to the shot by +2.​

+2 FEC may have been too much, but I think you can follow the thought process.


If it's not too much bother for you, stop being an ass. It's okay to take a step back.​

 

[Robin Usagani]

BTW.. i am limited only in the perimeter of my house because I have to watch 3 babies. Yes I understand the exposure on some examples are a little off. This is just an example.

[
Maybe he is referring to a different subject.


p!nK

Sounded like an ass to me.

Kundalini, your subject is a lot better than mine. I should have planned it more and dont rush it.

 

[randg111]

Now, instead of metering the subject, I moved my center mark to the blue sky. I use manual at this point. I am keeping the shutter speed at 1/200. I changed the aperture until I move my metering bar to 0. As you can see the sky is now blue... but the subject is really dark.

What does this mean? What is metering? I like you sample pictures, as I can see what you are trying to explain as the differences. I'm just totally lost on the vocab, lol. I know, I have lots to learn, but this what you are trying to teach is something I need help with. I do have a Nikon though.

 

[randg111]

Sorry about the horrible grammar, I was trying to type too fast!

 

[Robin Usagani]

While I do understand what you are trying to do, I am afraid you made it too complicated though Kundalini. You can't just tell beginner to underexpose it to their liking. On the top of that you introduced flash compensation. I was trying to make it as easy as possible. That's why I meter the sky instead.