waynetgreen Loc: Florida

Greetings,
Looking for some tips on fill flash using the built in with the 7100. I've gone through the settings and come to the conclusion to leave it on standard TTL and then use the flash compensation to achieve a nice balance of shaded subject and bright background light. I have looked through the manual and you tube videos and just getting basic setting information like rear curtain, red eye, etc. I typically avoid flash, especially the built in but sometimes for casual candids with the subject heavily shaded, I would cerainly use it. Any tips or tricks you hoggers use?
Many thanks!

Keen

When you use flash-especially the built in one-diffuse it. You can buy diffuser screens, or you can use a rubber band to attach a hanky, paper towel, or such, over the flash head. This softens the light, and makes for less harsh shadows. This also helps to make zit scars, etc, less noticeable on people. I had a friend who dearly wanted a new photo of her grown daughter, but the daughter refused to let anyone with a camera get near her. Half of her face was covered with horrible zit scars, and on camera flashes threw a harsh light, with stark shadows, which made the scars really stand out. I put a hanky over my camera's flash head, set my camera out of sight, and waited. When the daughter was distracted-while talking on the phone-I pulled out my camera, and fired. She was furious, and cursed me, and her mother. When she saw the photo, she apologized, and became my best friend. The image showed NO zit scars. She was beautiful! The image also depicted her doing what she spent much of her time doing....talking on the phone. The image was a head & shoulders close up, with the phone to her ear, and no zit scars on her face. Everyone was happy.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Fill flash can be used in black lighting and side lighting situations, but not when the sun is behind your back and the subjects are in direct sunlight with deep dark shadows under their eyes, chins, and if they are wearing hats. The flash will fill the shadows, but it won't help with the squinting.

Your approach is sound.

Diffusing an on-camera flash to make it look natural is a whole other story. Any diffuser that is attachable to a speedlight, with the possible exception of the Rogue Flash Bender 2 XL- used in close quarters, like maybe not more than 4 ft from the subject, is a waste of time. The point of modifying a speedlight to soften it's light is to change it's size. Bigger light source = softer light. You will never get anything other than a point source result (contrasty, hard deep shadows, unflattering) if you attach a paper towel/handkerchief/etc to a light source that is still only 2" x 1.25". The Flash Bender provides an effective light source size of 13x16 - which is considerably larger than the hanky over the light approach. About the only thing the hanky or paper towel will do is eat up light output causing you to a)use a higher flash output which results in longer recycle times and b)ultimately use a lot more battery power - without effectively improving the light quality.

https://www.rogueflash.com/collections/rogue-flashbenders?gclid=CjwKCAjwp_zkBRBBEiwAndwD9cRESre7Qrga7gwgHFf1n2jmdyqN1yPOCZdqxrj4m1A6AqX68qC-gRoCcFEQAvD_BwE