Tag Archives: TTL

Flash or fake flash?

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Michael Willems

You know that on many cameras, like the Canon 7D or the Nikon D90, you can use your camera’s pop-up flash to drive other flashes. Or you can use an on-camera “master/commander” flash to do the same: A student asked … Continue reading →

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Rhonda

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Michael Willems

Here, from Friday’s workshop, is a photo of Rhonda: Wonderful smile, truly! So that photo is good before we even start – how can you fail with a subject like that? And yet, we have to get the focus and exposure right. Especially exposure … Continue reading →

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What you need

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Michael Willems

A studio setup usually uses big, wall-outlet powered lights (“strobes”) and more. But here’s me, on a recent shoot: As you see, I used speedlights there. They are smaller, lighter, easier. The setup was: Camera and a backdrop. Two light stands. On each light … Continue reading →

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No direct flash

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Michael Willems

You have heard me say it many times: do not use direct flash (like your popup flash), especially when that direct flash is right on top of your camera (like your popup flash). But what if you have no choice? … Continue reading →

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Challenging Shots

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Michael Willems

Some shots can be a little tricky. Like this one, from Sunday’s shoot: Tricky why? Because the model is jumping, making it hard to focus. The solution? You could try AF-C/AI-Servo, i.e. continuous focus. But often in these cases a … Continue reading →

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Another example

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Michael Willems

…of outdoor flash here. Take a typical back yard on a sunny day. Set your camera to “P”, or the green AUTO mode, or A/Av mode, and click. Mmm. Why do we avoid just snapping? Because it can be a … Continue reading →

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Inverse Square: It’s The Law

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Michael Willems

The “inverse square law” regarding light dropoff says that light drops off with the square of the distance. I.e. an object 4 times farther away gets 16 times less light, and so on. This law needs to be part of … Continue reading →

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Portable Studio

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Michael Willems

Your on-camera flash is a portable light studio – provided you use it right. That means: Finding the right balance between that flash and ambient light. In many cases I want the ambient light to be the fill light, so … Continue reading →

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Reflect on this

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Michael Willems

When you use TTL flash (automatically metered flash), you can get great images – I use TTL all the time. Like in this image of Anastasia: But sometimes, oooh, it goes wrong and the image goes too dark. Like here: … Continue reading →

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The WIllems 4-4-4 Rule – redux

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Michael Willems

A readers asked, the other day: Recently in some event shooting that I did, I followed the famous Willems 4-4-4 rule with my 430-EXII set to ETTL metering. The pictures that resulted were a bit overexposed and with the ambient … Continue reading →

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