> 5 minute read

Getting More From Hot Shoe Flash

If you have an add-on flash that sits in your camera’s hot shoe, then you have access to a powerfully creative lighting machine that can transform your photography, wherever you are creating.

With the ability to use flashes off-camera to light objects from different angles, you might be forgiven for thinking the time for on-camera flash has been and gone, but this is not the case. There are plenty of occasions when a powerful and sophisticated flash mounted in your camera’s hot shoe is perfect.

When photographing events like weddings and parties, a camera-mounted flash can help fill in shadows on subject’s faces, boost colours, and prevent subjects from silhouetting when you’re photographing into the light – and that’s just outdoors! Inside, it can light up groups and portraits in large spaces and even help you to photograph interior spaces.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you get the most from your hot shoe flash.

High Speed Sync

To use this flash technique, you need to engage FP mode on the camera. To do this, choose FLASH FUNCTION SETTING from the FLASH SETTING menu, then change the SYNC. setting to FP.

With this set up, you can use automatic or semiautomatic exposure modes to photograph high speed sync flash, but for complete control we’d always advise you to use the manual exposure mode. When creating with manual, use the bar on the left of the viewfinder/rear LCD to get the ambient exposure you require and let the flash do the rest. There are many reasons why you might want to use a fast shutter speed with flash:

• You want to use a large aperture for shallow depth-of-field when using flash outdoors

This is a very common situation encountered by wedding photographers looking to frame spontaneous portraits on the fly. They want to use fill-in flash to brighten up faces and lift shadows, but also wide apertures to blur backgrounds and make their subjects stand out. But using wide apertures can quickly shorten shutter speeds beyond the sync speed limit of 1/250 sec, especially in bright conditions. In this situation, FP mode lets you use shutter speeds up to 1/8000 sec, allowing very wide apertures indeed.

• You want to darken the background in your flash-lit pictures

It’s a look that fashion photographers love and that’s easy to do with FP mode: a correctly lit subject is emphasised against a darker background.

Simply compose your shot as normal, with the flash switched on and the camera in FP mode, then dial in between -1 and -2 stops of exposure compensation. This will pick a faster shutter speed that lets in less ambient light, but the same amount of flash, giving you the result you need. You can also do this without exposure compensation and in manual mode by simply choosing a shutter speed that gives you a -1 or -2 on the exposure scale, rather than a ±0. It’s worth pointing out that this will only work on subjects that are close to the camera, typically within a meter or two.

• You want to freeze motion in your flash pictures

Even though the burst of light from your flash might seem short, it’s often not short enough to freeze really fast movement without using a fast shutter speed, too. FP mode lets you use speeds up to 1/8000 sec with flash, which is enough to freeze dancers in midair, birds in flight, and all kinds of other action.

Slow Sync

When you photograph with flash and daylight, your camera will not select very slow shutter speeds in order to prevent blur from camera shake. That is unless the Slow setting is chosen from the TTL Mode screen, in which case shutter speeds long enough to take in plenty of background ambient light will be used. To do this, select the FLASH SETTING menu, then choose FLASH FUNCTION SETTING. Make sure the TTL MODE section is highlighted, then turn the rear command dial to choose TTL SLOW.

Bouncing and Tilt

Bouncing flash off walls and ceilings avoids that harsh look that direct on-camera flash can give. It results in softer light and you can even simulate daylight coming from a window by bouncing flash off a wall to the subject’s side. A few considerations when doing this:

• If the surface you’re bouncing off is coloured in any way, the light will pick up this colour and give your subject a colour cast. Not always a problem, but something to be aware of if you’re after a natural, neutral result.
• You don’t have to bounce off walls either side of you – the wall behind you is a great option and will result in flat, soft lighting that’s ideal for big groups of people.
• When bouncing flash, you might miss the ‘catchlight’ reflection in your subject’s eyes. Some flashes have a pull-up white card or a small accessory light on the front of the unit that combats this and adds a little bit of light to your subject’s eyes.

Zoom Head

Many external flashes have a zoom head that matches the angle of the light they put out to the angle of view you’re photographing with. If your flash has this, you’ve probably heard its motor moving as you zoom or whenever you fit a new lens.

You can take control over the flash’s zoom head yourself, however, and this can be useful for creative effects and selectively lighting part of the picture. For example, if you create with a wide-angle lens (say 23mm), but zoom the flash manually to a telephoto setting (100mm), the flash will light only the central part of the scene, almost like a spotlight on a stage picking out a performer.

Your Next Steps

CHALLENGE Try making some portraits on a sunny day, using your flash as the main light source and underexposing the background to add some mood. Post your favourite image to social media with the hashtag #learnwithfujifilm and #flash. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels