Flash and AUTO Mode

[Abitconfused]

During event photography, I use a flash with AUTO mode because I am under the belief that this makes the flash more responsive to changing exposures, white balance, and point of focus than the other available modes. Am I correct?

[Stagecoach]

To me Ed it's unclear what you refer to when you say "AUTO" mode.

Are you referring to the camera or the flash and what model camera and flash are you using?

[Abitconfused]

Sorry, I guess I set both to AUTO. For events, I use a D7100 with an SB 800 Nikon flash. Thank you

[george013]

Sorry, I guess I set both to AUTO. For events, I use a D7100 with an SB 800 Nikon flash. Thank you

I dom't know what you mean with "auto". Probably you mean ttl.

George

[Stagecoach]

Sorry, I guess I set both to AUTO. For events, I use a D7100 with an SB 800 Nikon flash. Thank you

Sorry Ed but the camera (D7100} has an "AUTO" mode (often referred as a P&S) mode along with the two "Shutter/Aperture Priority Auto Exposure" modes. I doubt you would be using the "AUTO" mode (P&S) which takes away your control of aperture so can you confirm exactly which camera mode you are using?

In addition the flash has the option of TTL and TTL-BL modes so which of these are you using?

I'm trying to think why any specific Auto mode (and by Auto I mean a mode where all camera/flash settings have not been manually input) would make the flash more responsive to changing exposures, white balance, and point of focus.

Also what are the events you refer to, outside daylight using fill flash, inside using all flash or inside using ambient and flash.

[inkista]

During event photography, I use a flash with AUTO mode because I am under the belief that this makes the flash more responsive to changing exposures, white balance, and point of focus than the other available modes. Am I correct?

Only in terms of exposure. White balance is a separate setting and Auto mode on the camera may be removing the choice from you, which can be an issue. And focusing points are also chosen by the camera with Auto mode, so again, may be an issue. AF-assist may be under automatic control.

Frankly, I tend to tell people while learning to master flash, Step 0 is to be comfortable shooting with the camera in M mode, and mentally swapping stops between iso, aperture, and shutter speed. Because flash exposure is typically about controlling your flash/ambient balance, and the controls for ambient exposure (iso, aperture, shutter speed) are different from those for flash exposure (iso, aperture, flash power, flash-to-subject distance). So you may need specific controls to swap stops the way you want.

Sorry, I guess I set both to AUTO. For events, I use a D7100 with an SB 800 Nikon flash. Thank you

Auto on a flash is different from TTL. So you need to make the distinction which one you're talking about. Both TTL and non-TTL Auto are ways for the flash's power to be automated, but they use different mechanism for doing so.

TTL basically tells the camera to send out a small preflash burst of light so that flash can be metered in the scene. Your regular metering system can only see the light that's on the exposure sensor, and a flash burst isn't there yet, so can't be accounted for before it's put into the scene. The pre-flash metering result is then used by the camera's auto-exposure system to adjust the flash power output to what the camera thinks is a good exposure level.

TTL is the most commonly used form of automated flash power.

AUTO, otoh, doesn't do the preflash thing. It's an older technology that uses an external sensor (or autothyristor) on the flash's body to determine when to cut off the light from the flash as sufficient for good exposure. It does not require flash/camera communication, but if there is no camera communication (i.e., it's used off-camera, or with a non-Nikon camera), then the ISO and aperture settings used on the camera have to be manually entered on the flash for Auto mode to work accurately. That's the difference between the A (non-communicating) and AA (communicating) Auto modes on the SB800.

[Manfred M]

During event photography, I use a flash with AUTO mode because I am under the belief that this makes the flash more responsive to changing exposures, white balance, and point of focus than the other available modes. Am I correct?

As others have said, this is not correct. What auto mode does is takes most of the creating choices away from the photographer and turns them over to the camera. This is fine for the snapshot shooters, but would not be the recommended approach for anyone else. If you are unsure of yourself, at least switch to "P"rogram Mode. I, like Kathy, firmly believe in shooting flash in manual mode; it gives the photographer the greatest level of control as he or she doesn't have to guess at what the camera / flash are going to decide to do. In fact, close to 100% of my flash photography is done with my camera set to "M". The only time I use automation, and there my choice is TTL-B, is in a "Run & Gun" shooting situation where both the photographer and the subject are moving around quite quickly and I don't have the few seconds to figure out my manual flash settings.

The moment you mount a flash on your camera's hot shoe, the camera will not let you exceed the camera's sync speed unless you have high speed sync (Auto FP in Nikon terminology) enabled.


In terms of using flash, I usually shoot off-camera flash but when I shoot on-camera flash I am usually using "bounce flash", where I use a ceiling or wall as my light modifier. Both of these approaches give far better results than aiming the flash directly towards the subject with the flash sitting on the camera's hot shoe mount.

If you do want to shot direct flash and not shoot the flash and camera in manual mode, then I would highly recommend staying away from Auto on the flash. The only time I might go there is I am using non-CPU lenses. For normal lenses, that communicate with the camera, use of TTL, which uses the camera's internal metering system to determine the appropriate exposure. It measures the light from a pre-flash that goes off a fraction of a second before the main flash.

If your camera has TTL and TTL-B capabilities, I think you will find the TTL-B generally gives superior results; the "B" stands for "Balanced Light". Here the camera's metering system also figures in the impact of the ambient light in the exposure. Plain TTL does not.

[rpcrowe]

Ed,

You mentioned, "During event photography, I use a flash with AUTO mode because I am under the belief that this makes the flash more responsive to changing exposures, white balance, and point of focus than the other available modes. Am I correct?"

As the old saying does, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating!" The proof of the validity of any photographic technique is the quality of the images that result from that technique.

I have never placed my camera on full automatic but, if it works for you, that is great

However, image quality is quite subjective and depends on the viewer's point of reference. What is adequate or even good image quality to one viewer, may not be acceptable to the general viewing public. I suggest that you post several images that you have shot in your auto-auto mode and request feedback.

BTW: for run and gun photography, I prefer to get my flash off my camera and usually mount it on a Stroboflash Camera Flip Bracket and bounce the flash using a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro. This results in a handy and light weight rig. BTW, the Stroboflash Camera Flip Bracket is quite inexpensive and it keeps the flash above my lens in either portrait or landscape position.

I have been looking in my files for some examples of event photography using this rig but cannot find any. However, these are some examples of the IQ that rig can provide. These were shot in a relatively dark barn at the Los Angeles Fairplex while some of our Rescue Group foster and adoptive parents were getting ready to enter their dogs in the Hallmark Channel Rescue Dog Show. I shot them with the camera on manual and the flash on TTL. Unfortunately, the Hallmark folks would not let me photograph (even without flash) the actual dog show...





The exposures averaged around 1/60 second at f/4.5 using ISO 400 with an 600EX RT flash bounced into the Flip-It portion of the Flash Diffuser Pro which I pointed at a 45 degree angle toward the subjects since the roof of the barn was far too high to bounce off and there were no walls around to bounce off.

As far as color balance goes, I a;ways shoot in RAW which leaves me a lot of leeway to adjust the color balance. In a controlled situation like a portrait shoot, I like to include a white balance card in each series of shots. However in an uncontrolled situation like shooting in the Fairplex barn, I will often establish a custom white balance and shoot with that. It saves a lot of PP work as long as I remember to change the camera's WB after shooting in the situation..

[Stagecoach]

Whilst we can each give examples of how we use flash for 'events' (and that's a very loose description of scenarios) there are many obvious variables that will affect our settings priorities.

What intrigues me is that Ed has stated that he is "under the belief" that the method he refers to (which is not too clear yet) is preferential to "other modes available".

I wonder what experience or teaching has guided him to this "belief"?

[dje]

I'm assuming Ed is using the Auto mode on the camera and iTTL BL on the flash but I could be wrong.

My flash use is limited mainly to grandkids which in the main classifies as "Run and Gun" I guess. For this I neither have the experience or confidence to use the camera on Manual. I always use iTTL BL for the flash as I usually like to have the background at a reasonable brightness level. That leaves me two options with my D610

Camera on Auto

This classifies me as a P&S guy but I can live with that as it works for me in many situations. Generally, for indoor work, the shutter speed comes up as 1/60 and the aperture f/4. ISO comes up at a level that brings the ambient lighting up to a reasonably balanced situation. The main limitation is that in some cases, f/4 may not give sufficient DOF.

Camera on Aperture Priority

This allows the selection of an aperture value of choice and shutter speed is as set in the camera menu (flash sync speed). However with an external flash, there are limitations with the use of Auto ISO for balancing up the ambient light as the ISO is limited to a maximum value of 400, unless a higher value is required for the flash exposure. So with this mode, I usually use a shutter speed of 1/60 and an Aperture no smaller than about f/5.6.

Dave

[Abitconfused]

I gather from the response that TTL or TTL-B, if available, and manual adjustments would be best, generally, for professional results. Practice, as always, is required. Thank you

[Manfred M]

I gather from the response that TTL or TTL-B, if available, and manual adjustments would be best, generally, for professional results. Practice, as always, is required. Thank you

Like anything else in photography, the answer is "it depends", but it is definitely a better approach than what you were doing in #1.

[William W]

I gather from the response that TTL or TTL-B, if available, and manual adjustments would be best, generally, for professional results. Practice, as always, is required. Thank you

For Event Photography I typically use (Canon DSLR) Cameras in M Mode and Flash in TTL Mode and I make manual adjustments to both Camera (Shutter Speed, ISO and Aperture) and Manual Flash (using FEC - Flash Exposure Compensation).

- BUT -

As Manfred stated "it depends" -

It would be worthwhile you investigating the use of your Nikon Camera in P Mode and the Flash in TTL Mode.

I know for Canon DSLR this combination is very 'intelligent' and a useful selection for those learning or when shooting under pressure of time.

For Canon DSLR and Flash these selections use an algorithm to interpret whether the Flash is to be Key or Fill and this combination does a reasonable job.

Additionally, in P Mode (for Canon) there is a Shutter Speed bias to a faster shutter speed, so there is little chance that there will be Subject Motion Blur resulting from too slow a Shutter Speed, if the AI has selected the Flash to be the Fill Light.

Additionally (for Canon) P Mode allows the use of 'Program Shift' which allows a quick selection of Shutter Speed to allow you to drag the shutter, for any particular shot - I am pretty sure Nikon has the same functionality but by a different name: this is very useful when moving from a different ambient light scenario to another, throughout the event.

Nikon's Flash system is very sophisticated, arguable better than Canon: although I am not intimately knowledgeable of the latest Nikon Flash Systems, I do think it would be well worthwhile you following this avenue of leaning if you want a starting point where you have a camera and flash which (may probably) give >90% good results whilst you learn how to control the whole shoot manually.

WW