Monday, August 12, 2013

Photography part 3 : Lighting the way


Having stuck with the CANON SX 130 IS, i decided that the only way to make use of it is to add additional flash! With such desperate mind and very impressed with friend's bounced flash, and saw few deals at Ebay, got myself the first cheapo flash...



Like a camera with a buddy!
A lot people wondered how does it connect to my camera? well, it doesn't, the flash have a very sensitive light sensor which activates when detect a bright flash, and yes any flash including flash from camera you don't know, or even lighting, have to be careful with that.

First impressions are great, superb bright flash, totally illuminate the dark places where my camera can't reach, but well.. there is some limit with that, direct shot, not be able to diffuse or bounce (self made diffuser is total rubbish ) the flash is too direct. There's is no option to adjust flash power output, thus the only way to compensate is to manual adjust the camera

Very bright, works better compared to just internal flash.

As you can see, although everyone is well lit, something doesn't seem to be right here, the unnatural lighing

Thus bounce is required, in which flash is bounced to a wall and reflect back to the object, creating a "artificial light" . Being so desperate and saw another cheap Bounce, swivel and zoom flash, i bought it just a few days after the previous flash (the item not even arrive yet), although the reviews and my friend advice me not to get it.. well, desperate measures plus cheap. 

Looks like a parasite and started to look ugly, some kinda growth @@

First impression are wow! it can zoom, good for wide lens or tele photo (since u can focus the flash) which no ordinary flash have this feature..well, because that feature is totaly useless. The dials behind are just a way to measure f-stop and not to adjust flash power..  not worth to mention at all. Sometimes it does not detect the flash at all, anyway i try to configure it, it just cannot beat a normal flash. It gave up after some time, not even made if for a proper indoor testing.

And finally, after friends advice and testing, i get a similar flash from Jackie for around RM250, and it works like totally what i expected, way better than the 2 previous flash with way more flexibility. WIth a built in diffuser and external diffuser, that's all i need. But due to a standard flash, the size is big and looks very ugly when mounted. I once bring it mounted for a shot and caught few cameramen attention. But i guess it wasn't a good one thus from that moment onward i use one hand for the flash, one hand for the camera. Flexibility ++


As you can see.. the flash itself is bigger than the camera, it won't look good ><
Using it as external flash, no problems at all!

Everything is well lit, but somehow there's the limit for the clarity. the camera is not made to optimize with external flashes.