Everything you need to know about the Flash

Every time you want to inquire about an external flash to your camera you feeling lost? Does the terminology, jargon and numbers around the world of the flashes are overwhelming and you back away? The technology, if incomprehensible, is useless. Manufacturers seem silly, strive to make their increasingly complex and difficult to understand, flashes to the point that one is away the desire to buy one.

For this reason, this article will try to approach in a simple and easy way to understand the world of external flashes. Here you will see that in the background is not as complex as it looks from outside. We will explain you the types of flashes, you will see if you really need a flash, and if it were that’ll help you look for one.

Now, try to pick a good flash for your camera. You will observe the characteristics of the flashes and thinking at all times in the use you want to give to that flash. This will help you to find the most suitable for your case:

First you will look at the “Guide Number”. You know, it just get you a rare term is the number of guide but there is no need to be nervous. The guide number is as easy as flash power, neither more nor less. And how do you know if you need more or less power? Well simple: if you want to photograph is close to a person in a not very large room, probably do not need much power. Instead, a picture of a huge inland such as a cathedral needs a flash with much more power, and to illuminate the area will be much broader.

The second thing you will look at is the “speed of Recycling”: If you shoot two photos with flash, the other a shot between the flash needs some rest, recover. That time is the rate of recycling. Most users have no problem walking to wait 2 or 3 seconds between shots and another to use the flash. However, some professionals who typically shoot a certain kind of photos very quickly can not afford to wait 3 seconds between a shot and another until the flash is ready. They really take the “speed of Recycling” in mind when buying a flash. In your case it is very likely that this is irrelevant, but you would comment for the record anyway.

In the market there are flashes with one of these options, with two, and even some that offer all three options. Normal for an average user is an external flash such that hook up the camera, the flash shoe. But since you’re going to invest money in a flash you should know the other two ways to connect if you think you’re going to need in the future.

You should keep looking and comparing flashes and now let’s look at some features that offer some flashes and others do not. Functions that you can make life easier and more decent photographic result:

Bounce upward: Some flashes have a swivel top up. This allows you to direct the light from the flash to the ceiling of the room or living room and make the light flash bounce on the ceiling and reflected in the face of your subject. Usually a light portrait “bounced” is much nicer since the bounced light is soft and pleasant light bounce flash directly.

Pivotal to the right and left: This is the same as above but this time sideways. Sometimes you are near a side wall and you bounce light off the wall and ceiling.

Manual and Automatic Control: It is important to know if you choose a flash that offers only automatic or manual control as well. If you want easy and without any problems automatic one will surely be things, but if you want to intervene in the settings, learn the mechanism and start to control yourself in order to get the photo that you have designed in the head with the exact amount of light you have thought, then your flash will have to offer manual controls.

You have two options, or a flash of the same brand as your camera (if you have Nikon buy flash Nikon, if it’s Canon for Canon, Sony, etc.) or flash a generic brand supports all cameras. At first glance one may think, “Well, I bought a generic and so tomorrow if I change my camera flash is still worth it”. It is a right and good reasoning, except for the fact that most flash compatible with Nikon cameras is the most compatible with the Canon, and so on. So if you decide to buy a generic flash, surely it will work, will offer all the basic options, and possibly some additional, but if you buy one of the same brand as your camera can be sure that the compatibility between the two will total 100%.

The world is huge flashes and sometimes incomprehensible. This is a topic that has many branches: master slave flash and flash, through the lens metering TTL sync speed, etc.. Buzzwords and jargon Photographic might sometimes confuse. In the end, most importantly you have to know about the flashes we presented in this article. We hope you will find it as useful.