So Im gonna get a 430EX....

My next purchase is going to be a 430EX (I THINK!) And I have a few questions...

1. Do any of you your diffusers?
2. Do you use an off camera shoe cord with it?
3. Am I correct that it has E-TTL and so you dont have to use a shoe cord?? (sorry...im still learning all this flash stuff )
4. Will this work for portrait photography?
5. What about outside...do you use one like this outside to fill shadows if you are shooting someone in natural light?

Im sure I will have more questions to come...:hugs:

 

For question #5 a reflector also works nicely.

for #1 i might add that a diffuser is very useful when you want to shoot a larger group. It will really spread out the flash

 

You should pick up a copy of "Light Science and Magic" if you want to do portrait work. It goes a long way in explaining the hows and why's fairly easily without saying "If you want this shot, you put this light in that location." Definitely a good resource.

An off camera cord would be a good idea for lighting as well as even going with a cheap set of e-bay triggers if you didn't want to spend a lot of money. A Cactus V2S transmitter and receiver cost about $30. They're no where near reliable as a set of $185 Skyports, but they're good for experimenting.

If you're doing photography people you're going to want a diffuser of some sort. A good purchase for a start kit if you're going off camera is a cheap lightstand, an umbrella adapter, and a white shoot through umbrella. You can do a lot with your photos with just a setup like this.

A great resource for lighting, and not just the off camera kind. A lot of the principles can be tied into lighting in general.
www.strobist.com

 

OK...so you always have to use a cord if going off camera....unless using a transmitter/receiver? Is that correct? Do you just hold in your hand, when using a cord?

 

Thats what I had read, so that why I was wondering if anyone used one. I think I would rather just bounce it off something.

 

You can, or get a flash bracket, or use a light stand. You can get 50' cords. In fact, you could setup a studio with small strobes using just cables. You could also use optical slaves with certain flashes. The 430EX doesn't like optical slaves. Or you could get an st-E2 or 580EX/II to control the 430EX off camera. Wireless is sometimes just a matter of convenience and is not always a necessity.

 

Diffusers act a little like a bare bulb spreading the light in all directions. Using this in conjunction with bouncing the light off a ceiling should provide a mode even spread, but will use more flash power and batteries. That's why people reccomend bounce cards. Using a flash bounced straight up and down can leave your subjects with shadows under thier eyes where as using a white card on the back of the flash will send some of the light forwards and help eliminate that problem.

that's why doing portraits with off camera light, a stand, and an umbrella is better. You'll get to control the light rather than just firing it up at a ceiling and hoping the ceiling color or wall colors or angles don't negatively affect anything.

 

Ok...so a bracket is like the things I see wedding photographers use that moves the flash off to the side, rather then being smack dab in the middle of the camera, right? And it flips so (like you said) you can use it even when you have the camera vertical (like when shooting portraits)...right?

I have a lot to learn...lol.

 

I need to google optical slave...lol...