Beginners Tips for Using an On-Camera Flash

Every more experienced photographer will tell you to shoot with the flash out of and off of your camera’s hot shoe. It can give you a lot of limits, but some photographers need to shoot with the flash on the camera. These photographers generally end up taking their camera and the flash and pointing it directly right at the subject. But there are ways to take better advantage of what it can do. All of this starts with having a better understanding of what a flash is really designed for and what it’s supposed to do.

On top of this, you have to think about it differently.

Profoto Demonstrates the Differences Between On-Camera and Off-Camera Flash

01. Jun. 2015
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Education
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Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Profoto B1 First Impressions sample photos (2 of 10)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 2.5

A bTS shot from one of our Profoto tests

Profoto recently put together a four video tutorial series starting off with the differences of on-camera and off-camera flash and many other things. It goes without saying that if the flash is off of your camera, then you have significantly more versatility with how you can place it in your scene where when it is tied down to the hot shoe, the flash only can bounce its output.

Photographer Jared Platt demonstrates the differences in a real life scenario when it comes to shooting portraits outside with the sun. Most folks don’t know this, but in direct sunlight is when you’re most recommended to use a flash. But besides that, off-camera flashes can also light a subject from various angles if you have lots of them around.

Profoto also talks about hard lighting vs soft lighting, on-location vs studio and a bare head vs an umbrella. The videos are in a series after the jump.

Review: Switronix TorchLED Bolt On-Camera LED Light

16. Aug. 2012
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Lighting
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Switronix’s TorchLED Bolt is one incredibly bright light. I had sometime to use this light. For the size, it outputs a surprising amount of light. Did I mention it was bright? In my time with this unit we were able to come up with a few ways to showcase it’s raw energy. So take a deeper look into what this light has to offer.

The Complete Gary Fong Puffer Review

01. Sep. 2010
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Lighting
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Even the best photographer could never use Jedi Mind tricks on light. A photographer that cannot deal with the absence of light is lost. That’s why we have tools to help us. The Gary Fong Pufferis a great tool. If all else fails, or if you need a more compact flash diffuser, it is there. The light that comes from your pop up flash can be strong, but with proper use the Gary Fong Puffer, somewhat supple light can be made.