This document provides 10 tips for improving flash photography. It discusses using flash to smooth lighting transitions, flash sync speed limits, types of constant lights, strobes and speedlights, batteries for speedlights, avoiding broken battery doors, diffusing flash with softboxes or bouncing it off ceilings, using gels to add color, pop-up flash guidelines, increasing ISO for indoor backgrounds, and swiveling speedlights to bounce light off walls.

1. Take better pictures with flash photography
10 Flash
Photography
Tips
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2. Tip 1: Why Flash? - Hard Light vs. Soft Light 01
Benefit of Using Flash
Flash, used correctly, helps smooth out
the transition from highlights to shadows
creating a more pleasing photo.
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img credit: improvephotography.com

3. Tip 2: Flash Sync Speed 02
Beware of Shutter Speed
Observe the 1/250th of a second (for most
cameras) limit for how fast your shutter
speed can be when using flash with it
otherwise you might get black bars as
seen in the photo to the right.
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img credit: photography.tutsplus.com

4. 03
Constant Lights
Working with constant lights
allows you to see what the
lighting looks like as you move
the light, so you know exactly
what you are getting when
you take a picture.
Studio Strobes
Studio strobes plug into a wall
so they recycle very quickly
and are generally more
powerful than camera flashes
such as speedlights. They are
also made to have softboxes
attached.
Speedlights
Speedlights are very portable,
run off of AA batteries, can be
placed in the hotshot or used
off camera, and are an
effective light source.
Tip 3: Constant vs. Strobes vs. Speedlights
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5. Tip 4: Batteries for Speedlight 04
Types of Batteries
When looking for AA batteries for your
speedlight, keep the following in mind:
In order of recycling speed:
• Ni-MH (Nickel Metal Hydride)
• Alkaline-manganese
• Lithium
In order of number of flashes:
• Lithium
• Alkaline-manganese
• Ni-MH (Nickel Metal Hydride)
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6. Tip 5: Avoiding Disaster 05
Battery Door Warning
Something not commonly mentioned
with speedlights is the battery door. The
battery covers are typically tensioned
with a spring and if your battery door
should break on a shoot, you cannot tape
it to fix it. Be careful when replacing
batteries.
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7. 06
Strobist Kit
Softbox, non-destructive mounting
tape, and gels make this a great kit.
80-20
80% of the light bounces off the
ceiling and 20% fills to prevent racoon
eyes.
Pocket Bouncer
Great way to diffuse flash outdoors.
Tip 6: Diffuse Your Flash
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Bouncing flash off of the ceiling is a
great way to diffuse the light, but
these LumiQuest diffusers make a
world of difference quite
inexpensively.

8. Creative Effects
Match the ambient light
07
Add Color
Tip 7: Don’t Forget About Flash Gels
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9. 08
• Stay within 2-12 feet
• Use Flash Compensation
• Avoid windows and mirrors
• Diffuse the light
Tip 8: Pop-Up Flash
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10. 09
Say No to Dull Indoor Backgrounds
Sometimes when you are really distance
from a background, especially indoors,
your background can end up looking
really dull compared to the flashed
foreground. Decrease the contrast by
raising your ISO.
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Tip 9: Indoor ISO Hacking

11. 10
Twist Your Speedlight
When shooting in vertical orientation,
don’t forget to swivel the head and look
for walls to bounce it off of. If you don’t
have a wall, bring along a piece of foam
core poster board to always have a
portable wall.
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Tip 10: Don’t Forget to Swivel