[stupot]

Does anyone know of any resources online or books on flash photography, and in particular on Canon Speedlites. I have a 430EX and apart from playing around at home i really have no idea about the settings on the flash.

I'm considering MAYBE doing a course, Experience Seminars run courses all over England and have a dedicated course on Canon flash units. Its not overly expensive at £135 for a day but i wonder could i get the same sort of info from a good book or online resource. Maybe there's a member who could do some sort of tutorial on this, i'm sure others would benefit. (Cheeky i know )

Any pointers on this would be great help

Cheers

[_MB_]

(just because you're a man)

RTFM!!!!!!!!

Honestly the Canon manuals for flash units are really good for understanding what everything does. I'd spend a day messing about with settings and consulting the manual before I spent any money on a course.

[stupot]

Read the Manual from cover to cover not exactly overly informitive to say the least.

[_MB_]

Really? The manual for my 550 is very good. if you're in a bind I can look it out and send it to you. I'm surprised the 430 isn't much cop, I'd have expected it to be more or less identical.

[stupot]

It goes over the settings but no idea really when to use and for what, what i need is something that will go into the whols subject in more detail. For example and this is just one question that springs to mind whats this Guide Number i keep hearing about no mention of it in the manual. I know google will probably give me the answer.

I guess i'm after some book that i can read and come out the other end with the when, why's and where's about the subject and the when not's etc..... If that makes sense?

[Dabhand16]

The guide number is what you use to manually calculate aperture settings. There ought to be a chart in the documentation of your flash as it varies with the ASA (ISO) setting, and the only source of this information is the flash manufacturer. It is a way of expressing the power of a flash. The in-built pop up flashes in most dSLR's will have a GN of about 12

Typically a decent flash will have a GN of about 56 @ 100 ASA. Aperture is GN divided by distance, so in the example here, if you were shooting at a distance of 10 feet, (or if the distance the light had to travel to your subject was 10 feet - if using bounce), the aperture you would set is f5.6.

Unless you are going to use manual settings, I would not worry too much about GNs. Modern kit will control the power and duration of the flash to achieve good exposures - better than the set and hope + bracketing of manual methods.

Current flash technology is more about controlling one or more flashguns to light a subject, or to provide fill light with fine tuning being achieved by exposure compensation from the camera's meter or by changing the power and/or position of one or more of the lights.

[_MB_]

Yeah fair play - I tracked down a copy online and it's not as good as the 550 manual.

Guide number can appear to be a bit of an esoteric quantity.

Simply, algebraically put,

Guide number = distance to subject x aperture

So the 430 I assume has a GN of 43 (canon add the 0 to sound important, Metz are a much more sensible lot).

Take an example of photographing a person using f/8

43 = ?*8

43/8 = near enough 5

For a correctly illuminated shot firing flash at iso 100 at f/8, your subject should be 5 (and a wee bit) feet away.

People can add little bits and bobs to this thread in the usual Pixalo style

[Ali]

Originally Posted by stupot

I guess i'm after some book that i can read and come out the other end with the when, why's and where's about the subject and the when not's etc.....

Oddly enough I've been thinking the same thing.

I've played with the 430ex a little but certainly not to it's full potential and with very little undestanding of it. The manual really doesn't help a great deal and I had been looking for some resources on flash photography. I have a link bookmarked from ages ago that I keep meaning to read called "Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras". No idea if it's any good but I really must settle down and try to make sense of it.

[gsgary]

Originally Posted by stupot

Does anyone know of any resources online or books on flash photography, and in particular on Canon Speedlites. I have a 430EX and apart from playing around at home i really have no idea about the settings on the flash.

I'm considering MAYBE doing a course, Experience Seminars run courses all over England and have a dedicated course on Canon flash units. Its not overly expensive at £135 for a day but i wonder could i get the same sort of info from a good book or online resource. Maybe there's a member who could do some sort of tutorial on this, i'm sure others would benefit. (Cheeky i know )

Any pointers on this would be great help

Cheers

I did one at Manchester very good went round by the canal

[Summerleft]

lol as well as reading the manuals lol You tube has some interesting tutorials flying about.

[Hacker]

Have a look at Strobist which is a great source for lighting using flash, there is a lot of information there but it is very good.

[stupot]

Thanks for the advice folks, well i'm holding off from doing the course and bought myself this

Amazon.co.uk: Canon^® Speedlite System Digital Field Guide: Books: J. Dennis Thomas

Should get me started plus will try Summerlefts suggestion about YouTube and Hackers suggestion of Strobist. That will keep me busy for awhile

[Dabhand16]

Then you will be able to tell us what to do