So I read 2 books - Bryan Petterson's Understanding Flash Photography and Joe McNally's Hot Shoe Diaries.
I loved Bryan's first book - Understanding Exposure, really helped me to shoot in manual mode, and understand a lot about the camera and photography.
For his book on Flash Photography, I must say that the pictures he posts, are quite... underwhelming. I flipped through it before, months back, and decided that I wasn't convinced about using Flash, from his examples. But after I got my flash, it was selling at the airport, and I needed to read something - so I got it anyway. He strongly advocates using the flash on manual (forget TTL), and whilst technically good, I'm not so convinced that he's the best ambassador for Flash Photography.
Whilst struggling through Bryan's book, a friend recommended Joe's book, and kindly lent me a copy. Joe's book, are filled with fantastic examples on how to properly use the flash. He is a TTL kinda person (which I was relieved!), and I really like his pictures. He really knows how to shape light, and bring out the best using the flash. I'm still halfway through the book (it's 300 over pages), but it's quite inspired me to really give Flash photography a real go.
So, the boys and I went down to the basketball court last Sunday evening. We had great fun shooting. I noticed the light was beautiful, and decided to try shooting using the gorgeous golden light. Anyway, as the sunset, I broke out the flash, tried shooting on camera, off camera, with diffuser on, with the orange CTO gel attached - and without. My son was great in jumping over and over again, doing different things, different angles. But I must say that I did like the shot above.
I shot in shutter priority, setting it at 1/1000 at first, before lowering to 1/500 as the sun set. I wanted it to be fast enough to freeze my son in mid air. I used the Tokina 11-16mm, and the largest aperture was F2.8, so I used that to allow the most light in, plus pushing up the ISO.
Flash was off camera, on the floor with orange "gel" (actually a plastic diffuser that came with the flash, normally used for incandescent lighting) attached - giving the impression of the warm glow of a sun set - set to TTL (auto mode) and told my son to go for it!
One limitation was that since I was using my on-camera flash as trigger, the flash had to be on the left (where the sensor is), and in front of the camera. I worked with it, but was limited in the angles I could shoot. (once I'm much more serious in flash photography, I might go invest in wireless trigger that can TTL sync).
And I liked the orange glow of the net and my son, in contrasts with the blue sky. This would have been an impossible shot to shoot, without a flash. I'm now convinced even more, that it is essential to practice and try and master the flash! There's a time and place for available light shooting, and time and place for the flash - when used properly.
Keep on learning and shooting!
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