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Today’s tip is about using flash exposure compensation to make your photos look more natural. Our favorite New Yorker – photographer David Bergman explains his nifty technique of working with on-camera flash: “I’ve talked a lot over the years about bringing your Flash off of the camera because direct flash is usually not very flattering to your subject, but there are times when you have to shoot on camera, because you’re moving too quickly or just don’t have the gear to take the flash off of your camera body.”
“I don’t recommend auto mode very often, and always shoot my camera on manual, however the flash itself does a really good job reading the light it’s putting out, and TTL mode can be very helpful in a fast-moving situation. If you’ve shot this way before you might have found that the flash looks unnatural – it’s usually too bright on your subject.”
“So how do you use TTL without overpowering the photo? Three words – flash exposure compensation! Almost all flashes have the ability to dial the automatic exposure up or down. It’s usually measured in thirds of a stop to give you a lot of control. If I dial down two stops into the negative for example, I’m telling the flash to do its automatic calculation, and then whatever amount of light it comes up with – just give me two stops less than that.”
“Of course, this works in both ways – you can tell it to overpower the scene by adding up to three stops, but I can’t say I’ve ever really done that. Ideally I don’t want it even look like I’m using flash at all. It’s more like a subtle fill whether I’m indoors, or out. You’ll have to test your own equipment in each situation to find the right balance of Flash to ambient but once you get it set, it’s the best of both worlds! You can use the auto TTL mode on the flash, but you can also bring the output down so your photos look more natural.”
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