Winslowe

You need more practice to learn the difference between focal length and f/stops.

tscali

Fotoartist: Your picture is outstanding, but I understand how to use fill flash as I implied. My question was what manual settings do I use when I have to use flash.

There are many replies and I have to digest them. Thanks all for the help.

BebuLamar

Most of the responses are for fill flash where the ambient light contribute to most of scene brightness. In case that the flash is either the only light source or the dominant light source then for me I would set the shutter speed to 1/60 (up to 1/250 is ok but I like 1/60) and an aperture that match the power of the flash. I would not care what the light meter said.

DavidM Loc: New Orleans, LA

Use 4.5 aperture, speed 200 and ISO 400. This works for most photos. You'll have to physically move to zoom in or out. Watch the YouTube video below as he explains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3IQFayyyoU

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

http://strobist.blogspot.com
--Bob

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I do not use flash with digital as often as I did when I used film. I do use my studio lights but that is a different story.
How dark is dark? If it is too dark using the exposure meter is usually useless. Under those conditions your flash is the only source of light. I prefer to set the camera to spot meter in which case the flash acts as TTL and I am referring to the in camera flash. External flashes or so called hot shoe flashes can be set to TTL. The reason to do so is that being the flash your main light the background is not important but your subject is your main concern. Is there enough light to make the camera focus? Usually the flash helps with that and you can get a "correct" exposure. Using manual flash I am sure you know you need to know your flash guide number to set the right aperture.
This could be a little bit complicated for you so I recommend learning how to use your flash under those conditions. Neil van Nierker, well known wedding photographer from South Africa has a very good description on flash photography in his website that I am sure you will enjoy reading.

https://neilvn.com/tangents/

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

One of the best iv'e seen on here. Great shot.

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

If you have a problem in seeing you can always take small flashlight to see by and they are available at the dollar store for $1.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

With the Nikon SB 800 and SB910 I shoot in manual on the camera and TTL on the flash. I also tilt the flash up and behind me in doors. I only adjust the ISO and exposure compensation on the flash as needed. If I am shooting all the shots in the same room, once I make my adjustments of ISO I will only need to make adjustments to the flash compensation.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

Look at Neil Van Neikerk’s Books and videos on Craftsy..

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Use a TTL flash and put it in TTL mode. Set your camera's Manual mode for ISO 400, F4.5, and 1/200 shutter speed. The TTL feature on the flash will give the correct exposure on the subject while the shutter speed only influences the effects of ambient light. For example, using high speed sync, you can set your shutter speed very high and make the background go dark. The ISO can be increased to help extend the range of the flash and the aperture can be adjusted to affect DoF. The TTL feature of the flash will adjust to make the proper exposure on the subject.

tomcat

I set my shutter speed for the background effects that I want (slow shutter to expose the background and fast shutter to darken it).
Then set the aperture manually also. Depending upon how close the subject is, but I most often shoot at f/5.6, unless they are far away and I need to open up more.
ISO is set between 100 and 400, depending upon the overall general lighting conditions for the day. If it's bright sunshine then 100 and if it's cloudy, then 400.
Then I set my flash on TTL and let 'er go. The TTL setting will give you a perfect exposure almost every time. TTL will set the amount of flash time depending upon the light hitting the subject. In bright sunshine, it's going to be very brief. There is nothing wrong with setting your camera body for manual and then setting the flash for TTL.
As others have said, if you try to adjust the camera settings for the meter, then you will get overexposures. So ignore the camera meter and practice, practice, practice.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Since the flash, especially in this case, is the primary light source, the ambient light does not factor into the test. Normal to lower levels of room light will work, just make sure the room light won't over power the flash at your maximum synch shutter speed. You want to evaluate the flash output only. You can do further testing to mix sources later, once you know your exact flash output in manual operation.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Taking in to consideration that the OP specified that he would like to operate his flash equipment in MANUAL mode, I offer a method of evaluating the light output of his flash gear and assign a real guide number to his particular unit or units. This assumes that his flash equipment cam be operated in actual MANUAL mode, that is bypassing any and all automatic or TTL dedications.

This method is entirely "old school" but it offers a number of advantages. It can be applied to asses the actual power output of ANY flash unit, speedlight, strobe, mono-light or studio unit. Once the photographer know exactly what their flash gear outputs at any given distance for the subject, it becomes easy to set exposures, figure out flash fill ratios based on ambient ligh readings and them applying the flash accordingly, figuring out light ratios in multiple lighting setups in the field, estimating exposure for bounce flash scenarios and all this even without a flash meter in hand.

Many of the better quality currently available speedlights are rather expensive considering their comparatively low output- most average about 80 watt-seconds. There are a lot of older and very powerful flash equipment on the used market at a fraction of the cost. Many of theses units can put out between 100 and 4000 watt-seconds and can be safely operated with digital cameras with a Safe-Synch or similar adapter to reduce the trigger voltage. There old units are great for all kids of modified, indirect and full and partial bounce lighting and you can still have grater depth of field as per the smaller apertures that can be set.

I do have a peeve- whenever flash is mentioned, some folks immediate\ly allude to its flatness of lighting and unrealistic effect. Theses shortcomings are only the result of poor flash technique. There are many finite methods of blending flash with natural light, use multiple flash setups and systems, modifying flash lighting with some of the numerous accessories on the market, improvising bounce methods, filtration and coloration of the flas illumination and more. It all starts out with understanding how you flash gear operates and how much light it produces.

There is nothing wrong with automatic and TTL features, especially if it is producing the effect the photographer wants to achieve. In many cases, the camera/flash dedication can automatically "perform" some pretty sophisticated calculations. There are command systems that move exposure, ratio and output data, wirelessly, between any number of off camera lights.Surprisingly, to many old-timers, like me, their results are anywhere from decent to excellent! The same results can be obtained in manual modes, however, it requires more work and a wider scope of skill sets that need to be learned, practiced and developed.

For the folks out there when really want to master their flash technique, read up on angle of incidence and the inverse square law. There a little bit of math and geometry but it ain't rocket science. Theses theories give you a feel for what you flash, and other light sources are doing.

Best regards.

throughrhettseyes Loc: Rowlett, TX

Read the flash manual it will tell you how to set it to manually flash. f-stop speed distance iso.