Take a good night photo with the built-in flash.

Lead: Knowing how to use flash can give you about 30% more shooting opportunities than ordinary photographers, even if it is built-in flash. Timely use of flash can make photos more exciting and interesting. This paper starts with the function and application of the built-in flash, and then uses the two photography themes of backlight and night portrait to share the skills of using the built-in flash flexibly.

Make good use of the built-in flash to shoot the internal flash function of backlit night portraits;

This time I used Nikon D3200. There are two exposure modes to control the internal flash: M (Manual) and TTL (Automatic). If the shooting distance is fixed, the output of the flash can be fixed by using M mode, and the user can control the output of the flash1/32 ~11(full light) according to the demand (irradiation distance); TTL mode is a very intelligent flash exposure mode. Light enters the fuselage through the lens. In TTL mode, the flash will pre-flash. Through pre-flashing and focusing ranging, the fuselage will automatically add aperture and sensitivity settings for calculation, and make the most suitable fill light in a very short time. The flash index of D3200 built-in flash is about GN 12, which is enough for most shooting situations of 2-5 meters.

Flash compensation

Left: the background is too bright, the flash is not compensated, and the flash error is insufficient; Right: Flash+1EV compensation, and the light supplement is correct. Aperture F8.0, shutter 1/200 seconds, ISO 100.

Left: The background is too dark and the flash is too full of light; Right: Flash -0.7EV compensation, correct light compensation. Aperture F8.0 shutter,1100 second, ISO 200.

Let's talk about flash compensation first. Although TTL mode gives the most suitable supplementary light after the automatic operation of the fuselage, it is inevitable that there will be errors in the calculation of the computer, because TTL mode is affected by the photometric system, and sometimes too bright or too dark background will cause the calculation errors of the fuselage, resulting in insufficient or excessive supplementary light. Therefore, in the functional design, the output of the flash can be adjusted by flash compensation.

Backlight shooting during the day

When shooting portraits outdoors during the day, if you can make good use of light control skills, you can shoot better. Especially in the case of backlight, it is easy to take photos with correct background exposure but dark face without turning on the flash; But turn on the flash to fill the light, the face exposure is correct, but the background is dead white, and it is almost impossible to see where to shoot. In fact, as long as you master some small methods, you can also take ideal photos in the backlight state.

Shooting skills:

The maximum flash synchronization speed of the machine used this time is 1/200 seconds, and it is different from the intermediate models with high-speed flash synchronization FP function such as D90 or D7000, so it cannot break through the constraint of the maximum flash synchronization speed, that is to say, as long as the flash of D3200 is turned on, the fastest shutter speed will be limited to 1/200 seconds. Assuming that the aperture is set to F4.0, most people need a shutter of1/400 ~11000 seconds to shoot in the hot sun, and only use a flash shutter of 1/200 seconds, which is easy to shoot overexposed backgrounds. Therefore, under such conditions, the shutter can be used to shoot first, the flash can be used to fill the light under strong light, and the fastest flash synchronization speed of 1/200 seconds can be used to prevent the background from overexposure; Only in this shooting mode, the aperture size can not be controlled, and it is difficult to accurately control the depth of field.

Even in the shade, the background is bright, and there is no flash compensation, the model still lacks light.

Aperture F5.6, shutter 1/200 seconds, ISO 100.

The flash is compensated by +0.7EV flash, and the model exposure is ideal.

Aperture F5.6, shutter 1/200 seconds, ISO 100.

When shooting portraits on sunny days, TTL flash exposure mode is used to fill the light. If combined with matrix photometry or central photometry, the camera will automatically take the background brightness into account, provide a suitable exposure combination, and then control the brightness of the background with exposure compensation to make the background get ideal exposure.

Night portrait shooting

Night portrait mode, aperture F2.8, shutter115 seconds, ISO 450.

Portrait shooting at night is a difficult subject, which requires a foundation of night shooting and an understanding of portrait shooting in order to take an ideal photo. Digital SLR will have many shooting modes to deal with shooting in different environments. As long as the turntable is switched to night portrait mode, most of them can still shoot night portraits with beautiful lights and good atmosphere. When this mode is turned on, the camera will automatically increase the sensitivity, enlarge the aperture and match the appropriate shutter, so that the background can get the ideal exposure.

Let's share with you the changes in photos after adjusting the aperture, shutter and sensitivity.

Adjust the sensitivity (ISO) to control the background brightness.

With the shutter and aperture unchanged, the ISO value is adjusted to control the background brightness.

When the aperture and shutter are fixed, the flash uses TTL (automatic flash), and the brightness of the background can be controlled by adjusting ISO. With the increase of sensitivity, such as ISO 200 to ISO 800, because of the increase of sensitivity, the sensitivity to the background is gradually increased, the background is brighter and the picture is more atmospheric. Pay special attention to the fact that the higher the sensitivity, the worse the image quality.

Adjust the aperture to control the background brightness.

With the shutter and ISO unchanged, adjust the aperture size to control the background brightness.

Under the condition of the same shutter and sensitivity, it is more comfortable to take a portrait at night if you use a large aperture lens. The larger the aperture, the greater the amount of light entering. Aperture F 5.6 is enlarged to F 4.0, and the amount of light entering each stage of aperture amplification is doubled, and the background is brighter. But in actual shooting, try to use the maximum aperture as little as possible. Generally speaking, the image quality of the maximum aperture is relatively loose.

Adjust the shutter speed to control the background brightness.

With the aperture and ISO unchanged, adjust the shutter speed to control the background brightness.

If the aperture, sensitivity and flash output are the same, the exposure value will be different at different exposure times. In terms of 1/60 and 1/30 seconds, it is very fast for people, but it is twice the exposure time difference for cameras. As the shutter slows down, the exposure to the background will be more adequate and the background atmosphere will gradually become visible. Pay special attention. When the shutter is slow, it is recommended to use a lens with anti-shake to avoid taking a blurred image. If the shutter is slow, it is still recommended to use a tripod to assist shooting.