Useful Photography Tip

Useful Photography Tip #52: How Aperture Affects Your Flash Exposure

Chris Gampat
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04/12/2013
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 04/12/2013 by Chris Gampat

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.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (1 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 2.8
f2.8
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (2 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 4.0
f4
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (3 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 5.6
f5.6
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (4 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 8.0
f8
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (5 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 11
f11
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (6 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 16
f16
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (7 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 22
f22
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Flash Exposure Demonstration (8 of 8)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 32
f32

 

 

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.