I just recently bought this DVD which is a recording of Will Crockett's
seminar on making effective use of on-camera or portable flash units. He
advertises it as the "Better Flash means Better Profits" DVD but you
don't have to be a pro shooting for money in order to profit from this
tutorial. I rather enjoyed it (as I always do his seminars) and thought
it was well worth the $39. You might also get some free prints with it.
<https://www.shopshootsmarter.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage_sss/product_id,150/category_id,5/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,26/>
He covers TTL, plus normal auto mode and manual flash usage. He covers
when to use each mode and why and when not to use them and why which is
just as important.
In a nutshell he maintains that there is no digital TTL flash available
on the market that works other than as the main light which generally
means indoors. When shooting TTL he recommends metering the ambient
light. If you find that the ambient is at f/4 then set the camera to
f/5.6 to assure that the flash will be brighter than the ambient.
Otherwise, the TTL exposure (from any digital camera/flash) will likely
be wrong. But it will likely be right if you follow the main light rule.
As you can tell from above, he maintains that no digital TTL flash works
properly for fill flash. (by "properly" he would include consistent good
behavior). Fill flash is the role of the auto mode flash. He also
maintains that almost any auto mode flash in the world will give a good
exposure when used at a distance of 6-9 feet. He also maintains that,
while there are a few that can exceed that range by a slight amount they
are rare. So don't try using auto mode outside that range. You will
not be consistently successful. That also goes a long ways to explain
my travails with the T-32 last week in an auditorium where 99% of what I
was shooting was way outside that range. As I said, I'd have been
better off shooting manual.
Finally, manual flash (and focus) is for static setups. He gave as an
example shooting portraits of 160 corporate managers on the golf course
with Gary Player. Fixed distance, fixed setup, change subjects and
shoot. Of course, Dr. Flash has no digital TTL so shoots manual in
almost all cases. But now I think I understand where TTL might actually
be useful and also where it wont.
Note that this knocking of TTL specifically pertains to digital TTL and
not our much beloved film era OTF TTL. That's gone and replaced by
pre-flash measurement... which is sorely affected by bright sun as is
infra-red TTL flash control. Don't go there. Doesn't work outside...
at least not consistently enough for Will Crockett who wants near
perfect exposure on JPEGs.
Dr. Flash
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