frosted acetate caps that fit over the flash reflector to soften the direct flash and these can be effective as well. M o s t of these accessories can be used with your flash in auto or T T L m o d e , making exposure calculation effortless. Many photographers, especially those shooting 3 5 m m systems, prefer on-camera T T L flash, which features a m o d e for T T L fill-in flash that will balance the flash o u t p u t to the ambient-light exposure for balanced fill-flash. M o s t of these T T L flash systems are adjustable so that you can vary the flash o u t p u t in fractional increments, thus providing the means to dial in the precise ratio of ambient-to-fill
illumination.
They
are marvelous systems and, of m o r e importance, they are reliable and predictable. T h e drawback to these systems is that they are cameram o u n t e d — a l t h o u g h many such systems also allow you to remove the flash f r o m the camera via a T T L r e m o t e cord.
• BOUNCE FLASH Portable flash units do n o t have modeling lights, so it is impossible to see beforehand the lighting effect
One of the best facets of shooting digitally is the ability to shoot virtually anywhere in almost
produced. However, there are cer-
any lighting situation. Anthony Cava made these images w i t h a Nikon D100 at YJZO second
tain ways to use a c a m e r a - m o u n t e d
at f/1.7. In the image of the bride, he set the white balance for shade so the mixture of day-
flash in a predictable way to get excellent lighting—especially at the
light and tungsten would go yellow-red. In the shot of the groom, he set the white balance to tungsten, even though there was a mix of tungsten, fluorescent, and daylight. He could have color corrected each scene but opted for a more creative approach to the color balance.
reception. Bounce flash is an ideal type of
the ceiling that will p r o d u c e the
may n o t be able to compensate with
portrait light. It is soft and direction-
widest beam of light reflecting back
custom white balance for the green-
al. By b o u n c i n g the flash off the ceil-
o n t o your subjects. You should never
colored b o u n c e flash c o m i n g off of
ing, you can achieve an elegant, soft
use color film w h e n b o u n c i n g flash
a green ceiling.
light that fully illuminates your sub-
off colored ceilings or walls—the
T T L flash metering systems and
jects. You must learn to gauge angles
light reflected back o n t o your sub-
autoflash systems will read bounce-
and distances w h e n using b o u n c e
jects will be the same color as the
flash situations fairly accurately, b u t
flash. Aim the flash unit at a point on
walls. Even if shooting digitally, you
factors
such
as
ceiling distance,