Looking for help

[David N Smith]

This is my first attempt at using the "Better Beamer". What can I do to improve my flash photos?
Also, any other critique will be appreciated. I know the leaf is in bad shape but sometimes you have to play with the cards that are dealt you.
Canon 60D, w/Tamron 70-300 @ 300mm and F11, ISO 200, 1/250 sec., +1/3 flash exposure comp and 1st curtain sync.
This had a small crop and I ran it through Nik Viveza 2
Thanks in advance for your help.

David

[David Kenny]

David,

I would try mixing in more ambient light and toning down the flash a bit. You said you had dialed in +1/3 on the flash I would start at -1 on the flash and go from there. Also if you are close to the subjects the better beamer may be overkill. I don't mind the condition of the flower at all.

[David N Smith]

David, thanks for your input. I wondered about using the Better Beamer because I was only about 30 ft away from the subject but thought I would give it a try. I didn't realize I had FEC dialed in or I would have changed it at least back to 0.

David

[Diane Miller]

Using flash as the main light is always going to give you a flat look -- you'll see it referred to here as a flashed look. And turning down the exposure will just give you an underexposed flat image, unless the ambient light is providing some modeling (shading), as David suggested. There are times when you can't get an image without flash as main light, but the results will always look flashed.

Using flash as fill light is its best use -- with sun as the main light and flash filling in shadows a little. Or get the flash off-camera by maybe 30 degrees. If the subject is very far away that will necessitate a way to support the flash (a lighting assistant is good!) and a wireless trigger.

I don't know about the other camera brands, but Canon uses a low intensity pre-flash before the main one, and it can spook some subjects. Sometime when you have time to do a few quick tests, M flash is worth exploring.

[P-A. Fortin]

Your shutter speed (1/250) leads me to believe that you have not activated the high-speed sync option of your flash. That's the "H" next to the small lightning symbol (assuming you are using a Canon flash here). This way you will be able to use any shutter speed, although you won't be able to use your flash at full power, but you won't need to, especially with the beamer.

Personally, I normally use something between -2 and -1 for FEC. I see others setting higher values, so I guess it is a matter of taste. And obviously shooting conditions.

[David N Smith]

Diane and P-A thanks for your input. Any help I get is greatly appreciated as I seldom use my flash so I am a complete noob in that part of photography but I am wanting to learn.

David

[Diane Miller]

Flash isn't simple so don't feel bad -- there is a lot to learn about it, but it's a wonderful tool, worth mastering.

If you have the camera on M exposure mode, you can set the shutter speed faster than the flash sync speed (which is usually between 1/180 and 1/200 sec). (The autoexposure modes -- Av or Tv or P -- will limit the shutter speed to the highest flash sync speed.) So if you have the SS too high, the flash will go off after the shutter is partially open. The shutter is basically a slit between two curtains that move vertically across the image, so the bottom part of the image will be dark (without the light from the flash). As the shutter speed goes higher that black area will be bigger until the whole image is black.

High speed sync gets around this problem by firing the flash as a very fast burst, so there will be some light while the shutter is open. But that will limit the light you can get from the flash, because power with a flash doesn't change the brightness, but the duration. So in HSS a Better Beamer can be especially useful, to concentrate the light and give you more effective power.

My BB will spread the light enough to cover the field of view of a 200mm lens. I could wish for a little more focus for more light in a narrower coverage.