Posts Tagged ‘Flash guns’

Almost all cameras sold today, whether a phone, compact, or ILC, feature a built-in flash. The few that don't (as well as many that do) often have a hot-shoe for adding a speedlight flash. And many photographers have one or more speedlight flashes they can use when the need arises.

But good use of flash isn't simply letting the camera pop up the flash whenever you're shooting in low light levels. In this article we'll look at seven mistakes people sometimes make regarding flash, and how avoiding these mistakes can help you get better photos.

Flash gels are thin pieces of colored plastic that you can place over your flashgun, studio strobe, or any other artificial light source to modify the color of the light. (Actually they don't always have to be colored - we'll look at some neutral flash gels at the end of the article).

The reason they are known as gels is because they were originally made from gelatin. Plastic is a lot more long lasting, cheaper, and easier to use, so you're unlikely to find any flash gels still made from actual gelatin today. In this article we'll look at how you can use flash gels for balancing flash with ambient light, creative use of gels for colored lighting effects, how they can be used for reducing the light power, and creating softer lighting.

TTL stands for Through The Lens, and refers to the camera metering the exposure through the lens, rather than using an external light meter. The exposure meter reading is used by the camera when determining the aperture and/or shutter speed in any auto exposure mode.

Virtually all cameras made today use TTL metering. A TTL flash means that the output of the flash can be set automatically by the camera, based on the camera's TTL metering system.

TTL mode on flash speed light