Digital photography takes on a whole new dimension once you learn add flash to your work. It isn't as easy as popping a flash on a camera and shooting. But it can make your photos much better in a variety of shooting situations.
Instructions
1. Get a strobe flash that fits your work as a photographer. If you are shooting basic snapshots with your digital single-reflex lens camera, the popup fill flash will suffice. The moment you move beyond snapshots, however, you will want a flash for your type of photography. It is easy to overpay for strobes, however, so you need to think about how you shoot. Are you shooting weddings? Then you need a top-of-the-line strobe, preferably one that can be placed on a bracket a foot above the camera. Are you shooting portraits? Then you will need a good flash with a pivotal head. For portraits, too, you might need more than one strobe and flash filters.
2. Use the strobe attached to the hotshoe on top of the pentaprism of the SLR. The hotshoe connects directly to the camera's electronics and built-in computer, so it can sync with the shutter-and-aperture combination you or the camera's auto function have chosen. When shooting with the strobe on the hotshoe, however, remember to shoot farther away from people, especially because direct flash can cause red eye in dark areas and harsh shadows that are not very flattering.
3. Use bounce flash whenever possible. Tilt the flash head up to bounce the flash off a ceiling---or wall when shooting vertically---so you can get the advantage of the flash without the harsh shadows. Bouncing the flash will give you a wider, more diffuse light that is more effective in scenes. Most tilt-head flash units will swivel from directly in line with the lens to straight up (a 90 degrees difference), with stops in between.
4. Take the flash off the camera for more professional results. Most wedding and other pro photographers use a bracket to get the flash up and away from the camera. This generally will prevent red eye, and gives you more control over your image quality. The flash can be connected with the bracket to have hotshoe sync, or you can connect it with a cord.
5. Get flash even farther away by holding it out to either side of the camera and pointing it at an angle toward your subject. This takes some practice to get it right, but it can add depth to an image. You also can get a remote trigger for most mid-to-upper-level strobes so you can set the strobe on a tripod or light stand to get it closer to your subjects without being directly attached to it.
