I have a flash add on but haven't quite sussed out how to use it. It's pretty old and it came with my SLR when I bought it off ebay. It fits and works on my canon 450D so bonus. I have 2 problems with it.
1. It keeps going off all the time, even when I'm not taking a picture as if it's testing?
2. How should I use it? I tried it on my daughter for her first day of school photo. I tried bouncing the flash off the ceiling but she was darker in the photo than even without flash. Where did I go wrong? I thought possibly standing too close? I was about a meter away with a 18-55mm lens probably zoomed right in but can't remember since it was 5 months ago now since I tried using it.
if you're bouncing off ceiling, i doubt you're too close. perhaps you didn't get the angle right or the ceiling was too high? or maybe it's not powerful enough or you didn't set it to be bright enough when it goes off.
Thanks, will need to look at the manual again. I'm wondering if the batteries might have been going making it flash all the time? Just like a toy starts playing a tune on it's own when it's batteries are running out? Might also mean it's not bright enough then although it blinds me when I look at it (not on purpose).
try using a white card too. If your flash is old it might not have one built in but you can just put a white card (the size of a playing card) on the back of your flash with the flash head pointing straight up, use tape or a rubber band to make it stay. This will spread the light nicely and not create harsh shadows in your subjects face. Play around with the power setting and distances to get the rigth amount of light. Have fun and let me know if you try it.
@imagesbysofia Thanks for that. There is a cover over it which I can remove. It's something I've never seen been used before except news photographers but never really paid attention to the flash so clueless. Will try the card, don't know when but will have a go.
hmm, that sounds like it might be a diffuser. It helps in diffusing the light and make it softer on the subject. It also reduces the power of light quite a bit so you have to compensate to not make your photo too dark.
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1. It keeps going off all the time, even when I'm not taking a picture as if it's testing?
2. How should I use it? I tried it on my daughter for her first day of school photo. I tried bouncing the flash off the ceiling but she was darker in the photo than even without flash. Where did I go wrong? I thought possibly standing too close? I was about a meter away with a 18-55mm lens probably zoomed right in but can't remember since it was 5 months ago now since I tried using it.