Any photographer, whether professional or amateur, has had to take photographs in dark rooms. At such moments, you have often dreamed of choosing a flash for yourself, which would help you get better and more beautiful pictures in any conditions. In order to choose the right flash, you need to know about its most important characteristics, which you need to pay attention to first.
Instructions
Step 1
The guide number is one of the most important characteristics of a flash, which indicates its maximum power. This indicator determines the maximum distance in meters from which you can get a high-quality shot at aperture of 1 and ISO 100. That is, the greater this characteristic, the higher the maximum flash output will be.
Step 2
TTL is a special technology by which the camera automatically measures the ambient light in a room and sets a certain flash level to obtain the most correctly exposed frame. Often, the flash will fire a preliminary pulse before taking a picture in order to assess the illumination. TTL technologies differ depending on the manufacturer, for example Cannon uses E-TTL and Nikon uses i-TTL.
Step 3
Automatic zoom. This function is used when the photographer changes the focal length. Therefore, to match a specific change in focal length, the flash is equipped with an automatic zoom. The principle of this function is that the diffuser lens, located in front of the flash lamp, moves and changes the diffusion of light. Consequently, the flash will automatically adjust to the picture you are taking, be it a close-up portrait (shot at a long focal length) or a group photo.
Step 4
Minimum recycling time - this characteristic is indicated if the flash uses new AA batteries. This indicator is especially important if you are going to shoot reports in which a lot depends on the speed of flash recharge.
Step 5
Exposure control - This characteristic shows the available shooting modes, for example, red-eye removal, FV lock, FP sync, slow sync, and so on.
Step 6
The presence of a swivel head will allow you to change the direction of the light flux, for example, to the side or to the ceiling.
