Built in/on-board flash - is it really much use?

Thecageyone

I don't know why, but I detest using a camera's built on flash. It might come from the fact my old bridge cam's flash wasn't very good, it gave a terrible blue hue to faces and over exposed them if they were any way close at all.

The dslr's flash is much kinder alright, but I still keep trying every other way possible to get better light rather than use it. Am I mad? How often do you use your built in flash? [maybe you don't have your flash gun with you, or it's broken? I just can't afford one right atm]

Also: what about gels? I sent away for some free samples and got 100's of them back. I've yet to put them to use.

Yay or neigh to built in flash? Any tips for using it to one's benefit? Can I learn to love it ... ever?

AnimalRights

My 5D II doesn't come with a built in flash which I would prefer it too for emergencies.

Slidinginfinity

Can of worms...opened.

I like having the option when I need a fill flash for snapshots and don't have a flash with me. But I have a DIY pop-up flash diffuser that I try and have with me all the time.

what company did you send to to get the free gel samples?

charybdis

No.

Well at least not for almost all aesthetic purposes. It may be useful if you want a perfunctory shot to demonstrate something and need additional light to get the desired exposure, but on-axis light like this is almost always unflattering and undesirable, especially as a key light.

If the faces in your photographs are blue then I strongly suspect your white balance is incorrectly set. You could gel your built-in flash to a similar colour temperature as the other light in the scene, but I wouldn't bother even using it.

You can get a cheap manual flash from eBay for around 30 Euro and a hotshoe/PC cord for around 10 Euro that will enable you to begin playing with off-camera flash. If you're interested in learning about lighting with strobes, this would be a cheap and useful way to do so.

melekalikimaka

Slidinginfinity wrote: »

what company did you send to to get the free gel samples?

lee

i have 5 swtaches full. great for stobist stuff

Thecageyone

It was indeed Lee filters. Someone on flickr mentioned it to me, just e-mail them saying you're interested in their flash gels and about a week later you get a package in the post There's 100's, all colours and densities, I'm still not sure what some of them do. There's silver ones and dark mesh ones that seem like they're more for reflecting and putting on windows for creative shadows etc? not much good in the small size samples, but the colours might be fun. There's a section in the last month's Practical photography magazine on gels, and you get a few free with the mag too.

ThOnda

I don't have flash on my camera and there are situations when I miss it a lot. Having system flash now does make it easier, but much bulkier and scares the sh;te from small kids. And drunks

The question is "shall I use the feature", but "how shall I use the feature".

AnCatDubh

small kids and drunks eh?

my take on it is that I hate the on board flash with a vengence generally but for;

a) ironically, during the day you can make reasonable efforts at using the on board flash as fill flash (it's far from perfect but if you dial back the exposure compensation a little or your pttl system is of a good enough quality to trust then you might get reasonable results)

b) as an optical trigger. Mine talks quite nicely to its bigger brother sitting wirelessly elsewhere and purposefully off camera. I tell the camera to ignore the on board flash, and just use it as a control trigger.

Now getting its bigger brother to play ball all of the time is where my knowledge needs some sharpening