Your flash and your lens’s aperture are directly correlated. First off, know that your shutter speed generally controls the ambient light in an exposure while your aperture controls your flash’s exposure. ISO controls overall sensitivity in an image. But then your flash’s power varies. Many people use TTL. But if you’re using manual flash output, then consider this: if your flash is fixed at 1/4 output, and you vary your aperture, the flash will either illuminate more or less of the image that your camera captures.
So how does this relate to TTL users? At a given ISO, your flash can only be so effective because it judges not only the distance that your subject is away from the lens but also your aperture. That’s why sometimes your image might be too dark despite using exposure compensation. The reason for this is because your flash only has so much power output–in fact it’s probably less than 1/10th of what a monolight (studio light) may have. The counter is to raise your ISO settings, but the veterans may tell you to never go above ISO 400 when using a flash. And in general they’re correct because that’s how you can capture the most specular highlights in an image. But sometimes you have to.
After the jump, we used the Phottix Mitros flash with the Odin TTL triggers in conjunction with the Canon 5D Mk II and Tamron 90mm f2.8 VC (which we’re currently reviewing.) The flash was in the same position fixed at 1/32 output while the camera was fixed at 1/200th at ISO 100. The only thing variable was the aperture. The results are just how much your aperture can affect an exposure.
Want more Useful Photography Tips? Take a look at all of them right here.
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Today we start our new series entitled The Basics of Photography. The series is aimed at the aspiring amateur photographer who desires to learn more about his photographic gear and photographic techniques. It will cover all the basics you need to know about photography and explain all the jargon terms. We will start off with the letter A and go all the way through to the letter Z in the coming months. Today’s issue of The Basics of Photography deals with a part of the lens–the aperture.
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In his recent post on HDR photography, Andy mentions the possibility to create HDR images from single RAW files by developing them with different exposure levels. This way, an image with enhanced dynamic range can be achieved from a single exposure — which is handy when you don’t have a tripod with you, or your scene features moving objects. But you still need an HDR software to merge the three files you get from your original RAW image. This made me think: isn’t there an easier way? Why yes, there is. I call it “faux-DR” (from French “faux” = false), and it is a simple technique that can be done with most RAW developing softwares — in this post, I will use Adobe Lightroom exemplary.
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Our first snowfall - in October!
Given the unseasonal snowfall that hit the East Coast on October 29th and the seemingly pending Snowpocolypse Part II everywhere I thought this would be a good time to go over some of the ways to take better photos when it’s snowing out.
In this exciting second installment of my 3-part series on the histogram, we’ll go a step beyond the basics by examining three specific ways to use this interesting tool. Take a look at part one here.
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