Chapter 14 - Shooting With Flash
	The Built-In Flash The H-series cameras all feature very powerful built-in flash units. Where many similar cameras only offer 10-12' of illumination, the H-Series cameras offer 22' or more. There are two drawbacks to such powerful units: they require a lot of battery power to recharge; and they can blow out people or other subjects too close to the camera. Fortunately, as the H-Series cameras evolved, flash control improved. The H2 and H5 introduced a broad range of flash exposures from -2 EV to +2 EV in 1/3 stops. This also improved recycle time (the time between flashes) as a lower-power shot depletes the flash charge less than a full-power shot does. The H7 and H9 replaced the two AA batteries of the earlier versions with a proprietary Sony LiOn battery that significantly shortens recycle time. The recycle time of 12-16 seconds on the H1 dropped down to 6-8 seconds on the H7 and H9. While that's still not instantaneous, it's comparable to many external flash units. Unless you're going to invest in studio strobes with their dedicated power supplies, 2-3 seconds is probably the fastest recycle time you're going to find in a stand-alone flash. For a prosumer digicam with a built-in flash, 6-8 seconds is just about right. Better Flash Photography I generally don't shoot serious flash photos with a built-in flash. To my eye, there's no light as ugly as that produced by a straight-on, direct-in-the-face, Xenon flash tube. The shadows it casts are harsh and ugly, inanimate subjects look terribly flat, most human and animal subjects end up sporting a satanic-looking case of redeye plus a matching set of dark nose shadows. To add insult to injury, you have to pray that none of your subjects is bald or perspiring, or you end up with those brilliant, blown-out hot spots in the most unflattering locations. Oh yes, there's that other unavoidable brilliant white dot on the tip of the nose. This is not a limitation of the H-Series cameras. It is the nature of the beast - a flash parked right above the lens is destined to cast unnatural light from an unnatural angle that doesn't flatter your subjects, but seems to illuminate the retina at the back of the eye perfectly well!. Hence, "redeye".The only light source that I know of that produces similar light at a similar angle is the headlights on a tractor-trailer. And to me, that's what my subjects look like with direct onboard flash: deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Inexpensive Partial Solution - Diffuser Neither the H-Series' built-in flash nor that of most other cameras can rotate, zoom or swivel. Their singular goal is to burst out as much light as possible as far as possible. No subtlety at all. And it can show in the pictures. We can't change the directionality of the light coming from the onboard flash, we can't zoom it or swivel it. But we can diffuse it. We can temper that harsh direct light to soften shadows, diminish hot-spots and get at least a little control over the built-in flash. That requires some kind of device over the flash head to disperse the light in many different directions. You'll still get a lot of light, but it won't necessarily looks so much like the headlights mentioned earlier. There are many do-it-yourself solutions, such as cutting holes in translucent film containers (the "small plastic cans" that 35mm film comes in) and popping it over the built-in flash head. There are bounce cards (even a taped-on 3X5 card) that can bounce the light back over the photographer's head onto the ceiling (not ideal, but better). Or, you can buy an inexpensive commercial diffuser like the Lumiquest Soft Screen. As diffusers go, this is a pretty good one. It doesn't cost much light (little is lost in the diffusion), but it softens shadows pretty effectively and helps control the hot spots that leave discolored blotches where they hit the faces of your subjects. This is a very inexpensive solution (about $12.00 US almost anywhere, $10.43 at Amazon.com). The only problem with the Soft Screen is attaching it to the camera. Even this accessory wants a hot shoe - which the H-Series cameras do not have. But a little ingenuity solves this. My normal installation consists of a rubber band. I wrap the rubber band a few times around the eyepiece of the camera, which is surprisingly effective in keeping the diffuser in place. The front side, I just tuck under the front edge of the flash and let it hang pretty much free. It doesn't move around much until you switch from landscape to portrait orientation, and even then, it's just a slight adjustment to fix it. Figure 14-1 Lumiquest Diffuser If you want to avoid the annoyance of occasionally adjusting the Soft Screen to stay on your camera, all you need is a small patch of Velcro and a little double-sided tape. Tape one end of the Velcro to the top of your viewfinder, its mate to the little black tab on the end of the Soft Screen. Do the same just in front of the flash. Now you can pop the diffuser on and off at will, and it will rest securely and in position. Don't glue the Velcro to the camera. You don't want to compromise the resale value of your camera when you decide to upgrade. Just a small sliver of Velcro will do the job. This is an excellent flash accessory. But it's still just a partial solution. The light from your built-in flash will be much softer, but it will still be coming at your subjects from an unnatural angle - straight on! Think "mug shot". Note: See samples at the end of this chapter for a demonstration of the effect of the Soft Screen. The Full Solution - External Flash So what is the solution to the direct-flash problem? An offset (or off-camera) flash that is either bounced from the ceiling or from some other device so that the camera sees softer, more indirect light from a more natural angle, as it does under most real-life indoor and outdoor ambient-light conditions. Unfortunately, like most onboard flashes, you cannot rotate the bulb in the H-series cameras. You cannot change the angle of the light to bounce off a nearby surface. You cannot control the zoom of the light - whether to give off a wide spray of light across the foreground, or a sharp, telephoto, focused beam that goes farther, but not as wide. You can't control whether the light goes to the left or the right - it's always down the center. This is the unfortunate tyranny of the built-in flash. As far as onboard flashes go, the H-Series flashes, starting with the H2, are pretty good. You have plenty of stops to control the intensity of the light it emits, and its automatic "sensing" is excellent. It will throttle back the light very effectively for closer subjects in brighter settings. This flash works with you, not against you (unlike the less-cooperative flash in the DSC-H1). But it's still an onboard flash, with all the limitations and disadvantages of an onboard flash. The fix for the flash problem is to use a capable and controllable external flash. I've been looking for a device that would allow me to use an external flash with my DSC-H5 (or your DSC-H2) for quite some time, without success. Finally, I found a marvelous, inexpensive device that works like a charm! The Hardware None of the H-Series cameras provide a flash hot shoe or PC-Sync socket to allow you to fire or control an external flash. The problem is not just the mounting of the flash, but the fact that the external flash must be fired at just the right instant (when the electronic shutter is fired), or you end up with nothing - either no fill flash, or no image at all if the flash is your primary light source.. The solution consists three elements, all of which can be purchased at reasonable cost from any reputable photo shop or online photo supplier: A stand-alone flash that works in non-dedicated mode (some flash heads will only fire when connected to the camera they were designed for) and provides most of the features you want, such as tilt, swivel, reach, recycle time and zoom (wide or narrow cone of light). More on this follows. A trigger device. It must be exceedingly accurate and fast, able to fire the external flash at exactly the right moment, ignoring the pre-flashes that your camera sends out to take its readings before it fires its main burst. A bounce device. You can bounce your light off of a low ceiling (8-10 feet), but not off a high ceiling, or a dark ceiling, or a ceiling that absorbs light (like some auditoriums and theaters). Another option is to bounce the light off a card or other device attached directly to your remote flash unit. Trust me, you cannot depend on the rooms you'll shoot in for perfect bounce situations. You'll really want a bounce card. Tip: And there's another reason for the bounce card: what if you're shooting in portrait orientation and the flash is off to the side? Where will you bounce your light? The only option is to use a wall. I had a recent shoot in which all the walls were glass. Trust me, this is not a good bounce surface! Flash Heads I had already invested a small fortune in a multi-unit flash system for my Nikon DSLR and had sold my long-beloved stand-alone flash unit and had little desire to lay out money for another one. So I used one of my existing Nikon SB-800 flash head. You don't need a $369 flash unit to get great flash images from your H-series camera. And you probably don't need all the exotic features of this unit as you'll be shooting in manual or automatic mode and not taking advantage of the built-in TTL (through the lens) metering modes. Your flash will not talk to the camera. It will not receive instructions from the camera. it will just fire. Unlike your built-in flash, you will adjust the flash settings on the flash unit, not the camera. And you'll do it manually. Therefore, all those fancy bells and whistles used to communicate with your camera are useless. Why pay for them? There are a number of excellent and inexpensive flash units available that will do the job just fine. Check the specifications. Do you need a flash with a great throw to cover a large distance (from the stands down to the playing field?). Or just moderate throw to shoot people or groups of people in the near distance (weddings, for example)? Here's a few you might want to consider for use with your H-Series camera: Figure 14-2 Sunpak Super 383 This is one of the oldest, best and most reliable external flashes. It's been the photographer's standby for almost forever - or at least since Xenon flash units became popular. It's reasonably priced, you can't kill it, and it will work with almost any camera or trigger device. It's not fancy. However, it is good. Guide No.: 120' Tilt: Yes Swivel: Yes Distance: Up to 60' or greater Zoom head: No Recycle time: 8.5 seconds Variable Power: Yes (1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, full) Approximate price: $80.00 US (Amazon, B&H) Figure 14-3 Vivitar 285 HV This is another reasonably-priced non-dedicated flash. While it doesn't have a swivel head and recycles about 25% slower than the Sunpak, it does have zoom, so you can set the unit for wide and close, or narrow and far. Note that the Sunpak has one more power-control stop (1/8th) and that can be important when you're setting a flash manually. Guide No: 120' Tilt: Yes Swivel: No Distance: Up to 60' Zoom head: Yes, from 28 mm - . Wider adapter available Recycle Time: 10.5 seconds Variable Power: Yes (1/16, 1/4, 1/2, full) Approximate Price: $90.00 US (Amazon, B&H) Figure 14-4 Sony HLV-F56AM If you don't already own it, I don't really recommend this unit as an external flash for the H-Series cameras. Not because it isn't an excellent unit, it is. It's very powerful, very versatile but more than three times the price of the other two, and you won't be using any of the high-end features built into this unit. I don't know whether it works with the remote trigger, but I don't doubt it. Set to manual mode, it should work as well as any of the others. You may have to fiddle with it to get its settings right for non-dedicated operation. If you already have this flash, then by all means try it, as I did my Nikon flash. Guide No: 104-183 (depending on zoom) Tilt: Yes Swivel: Yes Zoom: Yes (24-85 mm) Recycle Time: Not published Approximate Price $310.00 US (Amazon, B&H) Important Note: There are only two features you absolutely must have in order to use a non-dedicated flash with the H-Series cameras. The flash head must produce light, and the head must tilt! A fixed head (one that does not tilt) is useless. You might as well use the built-in flash. A note on flash performance. The H-Series cameras require somewhere between 6-12 seconds between shots. Both of the non-dedicated flashes listed above, used by amateurs and professionals alike, lie at the upper range of the H-series recycle time: 8.5-10.5 seconds. High-end flashes, like the Nikon SB-800 only take about 2-4 seconds to recycle. But keep in mind that the SB-800 flash head costs about as much as the entire H7 or H9. Good news, though. When shooting with external flash, the H2 - H9 flash should always be set to the lowest possible power, so recycle times are often dramatically faster. Any delay will probably not be caused by the built-in flash, but rather by the recycle time of the external unit. My H9 had no problem whatsoever keeping up with my SB800, recycling in about 2-3 seconds per shot. Remote Trigger Since Sony's H-Series cameras don't offer any kind of remote connection for an external flash (physical, electronic or radio) the only usable technology is optical. The only way to control an external flash is using some kind of light-sensitive slave that fires when it sees the flash from your camera. There are two options for the slave unit. There are flash-heads available with their own built-in slave triggers and stand-alone triggers designed for use with third-party flash heads. Generally, I don't recommend the trigger-flash combination units. Not that there's any reason why they shouldn't work well, they just don't seem to. They are usually relatively inexpensive, but rarely well-featured or powerful enough to be useful. The better device, in my experience, is a stand-alone flash trigger. Having a separate trigger allows you to use whatever non-dedicated flash you choose without worrying about compatibility with your camera. Thanks to a post from Mike (geomcs) on DPReview's Sony Talk Forum, I took a serious look at Morris' DS-1 flash bracket and slave trigger. I was impressed. Figure 14-6 DS1 Slave Trigger Not only does the DS-1 provide a very simple trigger that requires almost no setup, it also includes a very flexible C-bracket for mounting the trigger and flash head to your camera. It attaches via the tripod mounting socket on the bottom of the camera. The mounting screw has its own tripod socket on the bottom of the set screw, so there's effectively no difference in the ease of mounting your camera to the tripod or removing it - with or without the bracket. Figure 14-7 DS1 Bracket The bracket has three cold shoes for mounting the trigger and flash head - two on the top and one on the side. None of the mounts is directly over the axis of the lens, so no more redeye! The DS-1 is available from Adorama at a pretty reasonable price: $34.95 for the trigger alone, or $54.95 for the trigger and bracket. You don't have to use the DS-1 bracket. Any L or C bracket with a cold shoe will do. Note: One unexpected and excellent side benefit of the DS1 is the well-designed hand grip built into the bracket. Finally, I have someplace to rest my thumb while shooting my H9, without hitting the zoom rocker or any other button on the back of the camera! You'll love the feel of this bracket. Note: A while ago, I purchased a similar system from Sunpak. The bracket was a flimsy plastic contraption that didn't hold together well and I never got it to fire with the H-Series cameras. The DS-1 worked right off the bat! Setting Up Your DS-1 Setup is a piece of cake. A few simple steps: Step 1 Mount the bracket to the camera by screwing it into the tripod socket on the bottom of your camera. Don't tighten it yet. First, slide the bracket so the handle is as close to shutter-button side of the camera as possible. If you don't, you may have difficulty reaching the shutter button while holding the DS-1's grip. Figure 14-8 Bracket on H5 Note: If you're going to use a tripod (and you don't have to, that's what the grip is for) mount the camera and bracket to the tripod now. Step 2 Mount the trigger unit to one of the cold shoes on the DS-1 bracket with the raised, red, optical sensor area pointed in the same direction as the lens. Turn the ring in the base of the trigger clockwise to lock it down. Figure 14-9 Trigger Attached To Bracket I usually use the cold shoe on the top right (when looking from the rear, top left when looking from the front). I like that position because it gets the flash as far away from the lens as possible and gives a nice balance to the camera/flash combination. But, if you're planning to shoot portrait orientation and bounce from the ceiling, you might want to use the one on the side. Figure 14-10 Potrait Mode Setup That's not my favorite position, because it's a bit less versatile. You will only be able to rotate the camera counter-clockwise. If you rotate the camera in the other direction, you'll be trying to bounce off the floor. It's a minor issue, but a big pain if you plan to shoot both portrait and landscape mode in the same session. That's where swivel-heads really come in to their own. You can use one of the top shoes to mount the flash, and just rotate the flash unit's head to accommodate the change from landscape to portrait. Another simple option is just to rotate the trigger unit. Figure 14-11 Alternative Portrait Mode Note: If you do rotate the trigger unit, try to rotate it toward the camera, not away. The trigger's red sensor window has to be able to "see" the camera's built-in flash. Step 3 Mount the flash head in the cold shoe on top of the trigger and lock it in using whatever mechanism your flash head provides. Note: Make sure to lock the flash unit on the shoe. The DS-1's cold shoes are nice and tight (sometimes, in fact, you have to struggle to remove the flash head), but you don't want to risk the embarrassment or damage that can result when the flash head goes flying off your camera in the middle of a shoot! Figure 14-12 Flash Head Attached to Trigger Figure 14-13 IR Sensors on Head and Trigger Step 4 Set the switches. There are only two to deal with, and one of them only has to be set once On the rear, at the bottom of the trigger is a tiny switch that tells the trigger whether your camera uses pre-flashes or not. The H-series cameras do send out pre-flashes, so set this switch to the right and leave it there. There's another tiny switch at the top of the unit. This is the on-off switch. Slide it to the right to turn the trigger on. Turn it back to the left, when finished with the shoot, to conserve the battery. Figure 14-14 Trigger Switch Settings Note: Batteries. There is a little screw on the back of the trigger. To replace the battery, unscrew this screw and remove the inner back plate. The trigger takes a standard LiOn CR 2032 coin-style battery. They are readily available everywhere at a cost that ranges from less than $1.00 US to as much as $4.00 US. You might want to order a couple online for your camera bag. I suspect this battery will last for a long time. It's a 3-volt battery that has pretty light duty: it needs to power the light sensor and to provide a low trigger voltage to fire the flash. Bounce Card You can't always count on a ceiling. Or even an appropriate wall. No walls or ceilings outdoors, yet you still want to take beautifully-balanced flash pictures without creating surreal shadows or brilliantly-lit noses. One way to carry a ceiling with you is to make or buy a bounce card. When you use a bounce card, you aim the flash straight up and use the card to redirect the lighting toward your subjects. By adjusting the angle of the bounce card, you can control how much or how little light reaches your subjects - and the direction of that light. I use bounce card for almost all of my flash shots. I like control. You can build your own. Click here for information on building "A Better Bounce Card", a free, do-it-yourself bouncer that has become quite popular. The site even has a video to show you how to make it. My preference is relatively expensive (compared to "free", everything is expensive). It's the "Flip-It!" from Joe Demb Photography. I like it because it's a bit more sophisticated than the "do it yourself" bounce cards. First, it's hinged, which I like a lot. Very little fussing required to change the intensity of the bounce light. Tilt it forward for more light, backward for less. The other advantage, to me, is the connector. The band that holds it on to the flash head is elastic, with Velcro to hold the strap in place. This is a vast improvement over many other flash accessories that either don't fit very well, or require that you glue a spot of Velcro to the flash head. Figure 14-15 Demb Flip-It Bounce Card You can mount it to the short end of the head (as shown here) or to the long end for a wider dispersion of light. Very versatile and durable. List price, approximately $24.95 US. Tip: Joe Demb's "Flip It!" also makes changing orientation a snap. When you move from landscape to portrait and back, just loosen the Velcro and rotate the bounce card 90 degrees You don't have to fool with the cold shoes, the trigger or the flash head. Figure 14-16 Front View Shooting With External Flash Shooting with an external flash is, honestly, quite a bit more complicated than shooting with the built-in flash. The internal flash is tightly tied to the exposure and white balance systems of your H-Series camera. It sends out test flashes, reads the feedback right off your camera's sensor and then makes adjustments to your shutter speed, white balance and duration of the flash. In fact, flash photography with a digicam is one of the most automatic modes in all of digital photography. Your camera is determined to get it right, regardless of whatever settings you dial in. And where it can't adjust the exposure by taking over your settings (for instance, if you don't have Auto ISO set, the camera will not change your ISO even if it feels it needs to), the camera adjusts the duration of the flash output instead. The only ways in which you can get darker or brighter images in flash mode is to change the flash compensation setting (which changes the flash's baseline) or exceed the limits of the flash. For instance, if you try to light an amphitheater with your flash, it will fail. It just isn't powerful enough for that great a distance in the night. You will end up with a dark image. Mounting an external flash throws a whole new set of complications into the mix. First, you're going to be using two flash systems simultaneously - the onboard flash to trigger, the external flash to produce the actual illumination for the photo. Second, your camera doesn't know the external flash exists, isn't reading any pre flashes from the external unit to get exposure readings and therefore will go along its merry way as though the external flash doesn't exist, still trying to get that "perfect" shot it's programmed to deliver. So how do you get beyond the dogged determination of the camera to automate your shots? By making the built-in flash (almost) irrelevant and taking over the exposure controls yourself. Settings Built-In Flash Settings Before we do anything, we need to effectively disable the built-in flash's control over your image. We do that by setting the Flash EV (flash level) to its lowest level: -2. This is accomplished by using the four-way controller to navigate the menu system while in shooting mode. Half-click the shutter button to get into shooting mode, click the Menu button and move left or right to the flash icon (looks like a lightning bolt). Use the down button to get to the lowest possible setting, -2. Figure 14-17 Flash Level Setting (H9) Because the camera now thinks it doesn't have to contribute much to the exposure, it will pretty much leave the external flash alone to do its work. Important Note: The camera's built-in flash must be turned on (the top button on the four-way switch on the back of the camera). If it isn't, your camera will not set off the optical slave trigger and your external flash will not fire. Remember, -2 flash level, flash on all the time! The flash must also be in the raised position. To force it up, put your hand over the lens with "flash" turned on and half-press the shutter. The flash should pop up. Don't block it with your other hand! External Flash Settings Remember that your external flash and your camera are completely cut off from each other. So you have to decide, on your own, how much flash the external unit should deliver to get the best exposure. There are two ways to do this: Auto Mode As far as I know, pretty much all the non-dedicated flashes have an "auto" mode in which the flash does its own calculations using its onboard sensors and determines the right duration of flash. This may not work well in this environment, because even the external flash needs to know your aperture and shutter speed settings in order to calculate the best light. Some of them allow you to set these numbers right on the flash, manually, since there's no way to get that information from the camera. If you're willing to do the extra work, this may work out for you. The only way to find out is to try it. Manual Mode This is how I do all my external flash - even when there's a TTL (through the lens) connection between camera and flash unit. Each of the flash heads mentioned in this chapter have variable power, which allows you to set the amount of light you wish to throw on your subject.This is usually based in fractions of full power. In other words, you can dial in 1/2 power, 1/4 power, 1/8 power or full power (often shown as 1/1), at will. Note: One of the things I like so much about the Nikon SB-800 is that, in manual mode, it gives you power down to 1/128th of full power, plus 1/3 stop increments between each fraction. For example, you can set half power plus .3 EV (1/2 + 1/3). This impressive level of control gives you the ability to fine-tune the light with more sensitivity than you can with most other flash heads. Camera Exposure Settings Using this setup, you've got a lot of options to work with to control the light going into your shot - the aperture, shutter and ISO settings of the camera plus the power-level settings on the flash units. Believe me, there is some combination of these that will deliver near-perfect flash photos. How do you get the right combination? Trial and error. There is no better teacher than experience. Remember that experimentation is virtually cost-free in digital photography. Take a few shots before you get serious. Write down the successful power levels and reuse them in future, similar shoots. There are two basic ways you can use the external flash. You can use it as the primary illumination for the shot, or you can use it as "fill", to perk up the details in a back-lit or moderately-lit scene. You will set your flash and your camera differently for each of the two types: Fill Flash Use whatever mode you normally would if you didn't have an external flash (even Auto). Set your external flash to very low power. Because your internal flash is set to contribute very little light, the camera's automatic and semi-automatic modes will probably get quite close to the proper exposure for fill flash. You might have to move the EV down -.3 or -.7 to compensate for the extra light coming from the external flash. That depends on your power setting for the external flash head. But if you've got it low enough to provide just enough light for fill, your H-Series camera will probably meter correctly without any adjustment. Shoot a couple shots in the location and then view them on the LCD (or even better, review your test shots and check their histograms). Adjust the slave flash or the camera's EV (exposure value) appropriately. If you normally shoot manual, adjust the shutter speed. If you need any change at all, you'll likely have to increase the shutter speed (which is desirable, anyway) to accommodate the extra light. Note: What an interesting situation for a digicam - dealing with the potential for too much light instead of insufficient light! It's a luxury, and it's one of the reasons you're using the external flash. Primary Flash Will the external flash be your primary source of illumination for the shot? If so, you'll need to use the camera's Manual exposure mode to get it right. Remember, your camera doesn't even know the slave flash exists. It only knows that you're shooting a flash shot and you're shooting it at -2 flash level. Dark. If you use any automatic mode, the camera will try to compensate for the dark environment and the tiny bit of flash you're allowing it to fire. That may overexpose the final shot pretty badly. So you've got to override the camera's natural inclinations. You do so by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed separately. 1) First, set the aperture. If you're shooting a single individual (like a portrait, for example, or a baby in bed, or your beautiful wife or husband, you can use a fairly low f/stop to isolate the subject and blur unnecessary background elements. Try f/2.8 or f/3.7. A lot depends on how close you are to the subject (don't get too close for primary flash or you'll light up your main subject like Time's Square on New Year's Eve!), and how much zoom you're using. Once again, experiment in advance. Learn the best setting. If you're shooting a group, such as a family reunion, birthday, wedding party, or even that killer shot of the family at Disney World, use a higher aperture to make sure everyone will be in focus. Use f/6.3, f/7.1 or f/8. 2) Next, set the shutter. There's some good news here. Your shutter speed is not critical. It can even be slow. It doesn't matter. That's because the main light is coming from the external flash which, even at full power, only fires for a few 1000ths of a second. Therefore, if your exposure is set correctly for the external flash, motion will be frozen. The only visible subjects (the ones being lit by the flash) will be lit for just a few 1000ths of a second. You won't get blur. Now, if you have still have some ambient light, the background may blur and you might even get slight ghosts as your active children keep moving through the frame, but you'll easily freeze almost any motion using the slave flash as your primary light. To do that, just set your exposure (again, after a few experiments) to the main subject when lit by the slave flash, not the background. The only way to verify this is using test shots. 3) Finally, set the ISO Use the lowest ISO you can get away with to get the best picture. I can't tell you what ISO to use for any given aperture and slave flash power setting. Every flash is different. They're even different with different batteries in them, since their illumination level is based on a percentage of maximum power. If you set your shutter and you set your aperture, and the test pictures are still too dark, you have two choices: raise the power level on the external flash (if possible) or raise the ISO. Warning: High-ISO is high-ISO, even with a flash. If you set your ISO to one of the higher levels, you will get the same noise and noise-reduction artifacts you'd expect to get without flash. The external flash is not a miracle worker, it cannot improve the sensor. All it can do is provide more light so that you can set the camera in its most advantageous operating range. Try to stay at ISO 200 or below, if you can. Tip: If you're really not comfortable shooting in Manual mode, use one of the automatic modes and adjust the EV setting as needed. Usually, you will have to lower the EV to compensate for the additional light from the external flash. If the pictures are still too bright, lower the power on the external flash. If that doesn't work, you'll have to bite the bullet and use Manual mode. Go ahead, it might be a great learning experience. OK, you're ready to shoot. Make sure the following items are checked: Flash Trigger - turned on, pre flash switch set to the right. Flash Head - turned on, set to manual, power level set, fresh batteries. Camera - flash up, set to -2 flash level, aperture, shutter and ISO all set. Go ahead, shoot those test pictures! Samples It is with some trepidation that I display the following samples to demonstrate the different effects of the various flash options. Trepidation, because these are actually the very first photos I ever took with the DS-1 optical trigger or, for that matter, any external flash with an H-Series camera.. No matter how experienced you are with a camera, it takes a fair amount of experimentation to get really good with new equipment, especially when that new equipment is a light source. So these shots may not be up to my normal portrait standard, but they're not that far off. To be honest, I was actually amazed that I got such good shots the very first time out. Later, I'll work harder on "perfect" focus, detail and color balance. For now, they'll do. Your initial results probably will not be a lot different from mine. You will get better, with practice. So will I. Note: Edy Ortiz, my model, is of Hispanic origin, so his complexion tends a bit to the "olive" side rather than to the more "pinkish" tones of the Northern European complexion. The colors in these samples, though not perfect, are pretty accurate to my eye. I corralled Edy (who is my assistant) into service for this shoot while he was in the midst of painting a ceiling. So, blame any dishevelment on me, and not Edy, please. He was great to work with. And his wife loved the pictures! All the following samples were shot hand-held. The EXIF information is intact, should you want to check my settings. Click on any sample for a larger version. Sample 1 Built-In Flash The first sample was taken with the built-in flash of the H5. No diffuser, no bounce, just direct light straight out of the camera. Not bad as far as direct flash goes. You have to give Sony credit for the flash improvements in the H2 and H5 and beyond. But note the hot spot in the middle of his face, the shadows from the nose, the bright dot on the tip of his nose and the dreaded evil-looking redeye! Not quite a mug shot, but not far removed. Figure 14-18 Shot With Built-In Flash Sample 2 Built-In Flash With Lumiquest Soft Screen Diffuser Things get better with the diffuser. Shadows are softer, hot spots lessened, even the highlight on the tip of the nose is better. Note that there's still red-eye, but it's much reduced. The entire photo is less harsh, though it still suffers from the fact that the light is coming from an unnatural angle - straight on. It still has that "deer in the headlights" look. Figure 14-19 With Lumiquest Diffuser Sample 3 External Flash, Bounced From Ceiling This one was shot with the external flash pointed straight up at the ceiling. Note that the shadows on the side of the nose are much softer now, the "raccoon" shadows around the eyes are gone and the tip of the nose now had a small, unobtrusive highlight. Most important, the red-eye is totally gone. This is a vast improvement over any of the direct-on flashes. The face is modeled properly and looks more like a face as seen in more natural light. Note also that the contrast is much lower, which gives the face a more "natural" appearance. This is entirely due to the diffusion of the light off the plaster ceiling above. Figure 14-20 Bounced From Ceiling Sample 4 External Flash With Joe Demb's "Flip It" Bounce Card I must confess that I love this little card. Colors seem more intense, yet subtler, than the ceiling bounce. It is more controllable than a ceiling bounce (you can't tilt the ceiling in most places!). And the final shot almost looks like it's a non-flash or continuous tungsten light source. Note the shadows are slightly darker on the left side of Edy's face.That's not the light, which is reasonably consistent across the scene. It's the very slight turn of his head toward his left shoulder that creates the soft shadows on the one side. Figure 14-21 With Joe Demb Flip-It Sample 5 External Flash With "Flip It" On The Left Side I shot this one in portrait orientation, but leaving the trigger and flash on one of the top shoes of the DS-1 bracket, so that it extended far out to my left. I lowered the external flash power by 2/3 stop. I wanted to emulate interior residential lighting, which is generally at eye level, not that bright at night, and I wanted to keep some shadows for a more "theatrical effect". So, using Joe Demb's "Flip It!", I bounced the light from the side, instead of above. Quite surprisingly, I got exactly what I was aiming for with my first couple of shots. Your lighting can be as creative as your imagination allows. The external flash with an adjustable bounce card gives you another parameter to play with when composing your photos. This is a relatively modest departure. You can do much more dramatic and moody lighting with the tools outlined in this chapter. Figure 14-22 Portrait Mode, Flip-It To The Left Important Tip: Note that the complexion color on the direct, bounce and "Flip-It" shots are noticeably different. The direct shots have the slightly bluw "hot spots" typical of direct flash. The ceiling bounce is both a little greener and little "rustier". The last two, shot with Joe Demb's "Flip-It" are a little more neutral and accurate to life. Why the color difference? Because your light will pick up the color of whatever surface it's bouncing off of. Remember, you're using reflected light and the color of the light will take on the color of whatever it hits when it bounces. One of the best things about carrying a bounce card (at least for me) is that you get consistent bounce color regardless of the shooting environment. The H2, H5, H7, H9 Mini Studio Just for fun, I tried an interesting experiment. Instead of mounting the DS-1 trigger on my camera, I mounted it on a standard, inexpensive, studio light stand. I used a common adapter (available at B&H for about $1.00 US) to provide my own cold-shoe just for mounting the trigger. I put the adapter, trigger and flash head on the top of an umbrella coupling, popped open the umbrella, stepped back about ten feet and went to town! Figure 14-23 Remote On Stand With Umbrella Yes, what you're seeing is a mini portrait studio using the H5 and the DS-1. And it works! So cool, so portable. Get a couple of stands, one "Flip It", one umbrella, a pair of non-dedicated flash heads, 2 DS-1 triggers and, for a few hundred dollars, you've got a pretty good mobile portrait lighting system. I don't know how far away you can trigger the slave, but is seems to be a good distance. I shot successfully up to 16 feet from the nearest trigger. Fortunately, the sensor on the DS-1 turned out to be not all that directional, which is exactly what you want. By the way, the preceding picture was taken using the very H5 that triggered the flash. You can tell it worked - look at the light in that umbrella! When you use remote light stands, nothing gets installed on the camera. You're free to roam around and take shots from different angles without compromising the light. It seems this little flash trigger may open up all kinds of serious applications for the H-Series cameras for which, I'm sure, they never were intended. An ultra-zoom portrait camera, indeed! The Downside To External Flash There's a downside to using an optically-triggered external flash: other photographers. Since the slave flash is fired by the light from any other flash, it can be a real pain when you're shooting in a situation where other photographers are shooting with flash - their flash will trigger yours too. The trigger doesn't discriminate, it doesn't know or care whose camera triggered it. Fortunately, the only penalty you pay is in battery life. Flash heads really like fresh batteries and they eat them up really fast. You'll need to carry spares. I use rechargeable NiMH AAs, which is the most common power source for mobile flash units. The Upside To External Flash Your camera batteries will last longer, your flash recycle time will be much shorter. You'll be able to stop action indoors without resorting to ridiculously low shutter speeds and terrible high ISOs. Those dark faces with the light behind will now be sunny faces. Portraits will look like humans. Your dog will not look like an alien life-form. You get a cool new grip for your H-Series camera. You'll look like you know what you're doing. And, within just a few shots, you really will.