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So for the past 3 years i've gone to a particular bar in town and have taken some Halloween photos of costumes during his yearly Halloween party then put them on Facebook. Then everybody gets all excited and tags the crap out of the photos. A lot of people in the photos use them as their profile photos. So that's nice. The bar owner also puts Halloween photos from the party on this projector screen in the bar the following week and gives everyone a slide show.

As you can imagine a bar is quite a dark place, I brought a long my external flash and over all I'm very happy on how my photos turned out. I put them on a flickr page for everyone on Facebook to download so they can grab the original quality, if they wanted to print one out of themselves. So I thought I would also share them here.

They were taking with a 550D (t2i) with the stock lens and a the Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash.

8180709437_f2ce350377_b.jpg

8177392529_0291da9c9c_b.jpg

You can find the rest of them in the link below

*

* <-- Remove the *'s and copy and paste the URL to go to the photos. The site keeps wanting to create a slide show out of the link.

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How come you never post photographs :angry: Pretty good use of flash!

Do you mean camera flash or Adobe Flash in the OP?

Ontopic: Love the pics OP well done.

offtopic: I am looking into buying a DSLR. Just out of interest, whats wrong with the flash on the camera? Why did you decide to use an external one

Do you mean camera flash or Adobe Flash in the OP?

Ontopic: Love the pics OP well done.

offtopic: I am looking into buying a DSLR. Just out of interest, whats wrong with the flash on the camera? Why did you decide to use an external one

because the flash on the camera when pointed at the subject lights them up like a Christmas tree. With an external flash you can angel it so it's not directly at them. In some-cases you point it straight up and bounce the flash off the celing. let me show you photos I took the first year using the built in flash.

Built in flash.

img3896medium.jpg

Sure it looks ok,but the external flash turns out SOOOO much better. I'm sure the settings also had something to do with that photo turning out like blah, but here is another bar photo taken this year with the external.

8180822764_1c42e3a2e5_c.jpg

The flash in this one was not pointed directly at her, in fact it was one notch from down from pointing straight up.

Here are 2 photos I just took for you in a dark room. The camera was on the same setting for both.

Internal Flash.

img6045medium.jpg

External Flash pointing straight up at the white ceiling. (Yes I should dust my repair table keyboard)

img6044medium.jpg

LOL... Good photos warwagon!

Do you mean camera flash or Adobe Flash in the OP?

Ontopic: Love the pics OP well done.

offtopic: I am looking into buying a DSLR. Just out of interest, whats wrong with the flash on the camera? Why did you decide to use an external one

Because the built-in flash sometimes is not good ... External is best one to use with.

Edit: Warwagon beat me to it..

Small flashes are small sources of light. Blast it directly it creates ugly shadows or highlights. External flashes are larger and more powerful, but if you point that at your subject you'll get similar results. With its adjustable flash head, if you point it to the ceiling or wall, the light bounces off of it and effectively turns the ceiling or wall into a giant light source. The result is a softer light that fills in shadows, wrinkles etc. Except if the surface has a colour... Then your photo will have a colour cast.

It's like a clear sunny day vs a cloudy day. Light from the sun on a clear day originate from one source, the sun and you get all sorts of ugly shadows. In overcast days the light is diffused through the clouds, the light is generally even and there aren't really shadows to speak of.

because the flash on the camera when pointed at the subject lights them up like a Christmas tree. With an external flash you can angel it so it's not directly at them. In some-cases you point it straight up and bounce the flash off the celing. let me show you photos I took the first year using the built in flash.

Built in flash.

[snip]

Sure it looks ok,but the external flash turns out SOOOO much better. I'm sure the settings also had something to do with that photo turning out like blah, but here is another bar photo taken this year with the external.

[snip]

The flash in this one was not pointed directly at her, in fact it was one notch from down from pointing straight up.

Here are 2 photos I just took for you in a dark room. The camera was on the same setting for both.

Internal Flash.

[snip]

External Flash pointing straight up at the white ceiling. (Yes I should dust my repair table keyboard)

[snip]

Thanks for that! I'm a beginners beginner at photography but its something ive always wanted to get into.

Going to get my first DSLR just after xmas.

So the camera flash is useless then? for a serious photographer?

Is an external flash awkward? For one person taking photos (not static)

Thanks for that! I'm a beginners beginner at photography but its something ive always wanted to get into.

Going to get my first DSLR just after xmas.

So the camera flash is useless then? for a serious photographer?

Is an external flash awkward? For one person taking photos (not static)

I wouldn't say it's totally useless, but if I had to choose I would use the external flash :)

Depends, if mounted on the top of the camera then it's pretty easy to work with. But you can also buy a cable which lets you dismount the flash and hold it in your other hand (Off to the side and stuff).

once you start adding a battery grip and flash to the camera it gets a little heavy. Which is why getting a Mono pod is also a really good idea. They are dirt cheap on amazon.

Do you mean camera flash or Adobe Flash in the OP?

Ontopic: Love the pics OP well done.

offtopic: I am looking into buying a DSLR. Just out of interest, whats wrong with the flash on the camera? Why did you decide to use an external one

External flassh

LOL... Good photos warwagon!

Because the built-in flash sometimes is not good ... External is best one to use with.

Edit: Warwagon beat me to it..

The Built in flash CAN be diffused and shaped, it's just we don't know how to do it but it's fairly easy:

FUAK16VF1OABPKX.MEDIUM.jpg

1314_320.jpg

00JDS8-34042284.jpg

I wouldn't say it's totally useless, but if I had to choose I would use the external flash :)

Depends, if mounted on the top of the camera then it's pretty easy to work with. But you can also buy a cable which lets you dismount the flash and hold it in your other hand (Off to the side and stuff).

once you start adding a battery grip and flash to the camera it gets a little heavy. Which is why getting a Mono pod is also a really good idea. They are dirt cheap on amazon.

Cables? old school :p Canons and nikons has IR for wireless and then there's wireless transmitters (though expensive)

I've had to work around my cameras limitations(Nikon D5000) i've 2 external flashes, but my built-in cannot as commander, so i've learned to just use a white piece of cardboard and angle the built in one. Though i've a long way to go (budget wise and strobist-wise), but the portability of external flashes can't be beat as a reliable external light source.

Also, obligatory cheesy:

photo-taken-with-and-without-flash.jpg

  • Like 2

External flassh

The Built in flash CAN be diffused and shaped, it's just we don't know how to do it but it's fairly easy:

FUAK16VF1OABPKX.MEDIUM.jpg

1314_320.jpg

00JDS8-34042284.jpg

[snip]

LOL Redneck Photographer!

Yeah I have seen those but I like my external flash better. Seems that everyone is entitled to their preferences with their devices such as cameras, tablets, etc as long as they are happy with.

Draconian, not all cameras have IR wireless system. Some cameras will need cables.. some people may not have lot of money to work around for wireless system.. I understand cables are old school but you can not do anything about those people who have the cameras without IR wireless unless you donate new cameras to them. Can you please? :laugh:

Informative posts guys, thanks!

Sorry for derailing the topic though +warwagon

Don't worry about it. The way I see it a reply is a reply, plus the more replies a thread has the more people also want to reply :D

LOL Redneck Photographer!

Yeah I have seen those but I like my external flash better. Seems that everyone is entitled to their preferences with their devices such as cameras, tablets, etc as long as they are happy with.

Draconian, not all cameras have IR wireless system. Some cameras will need cables.. some people may not have lot of money to work around for wireless system.. I understand cables are old school but you can not do anything about those people who have the cameras without IR wireless unless you donate new cameras to them. Can you please? :laugh:

Redneck! Hell YEAh!

Shozilla, the photos I posted on how to diffuse the built in flash is precisely that, for people who can't afford an external flash, unlike you :p !

Informative posts guys, thanks!

Sorry for derailing the topic though +warwagon

You do realize the + isn't part of the name? :troll: :p

Don't worry about it. The way I see it a reply is a reply, plus the more replies a thread has the more people also want to reply :D

Preach brother!

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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