Thursday, April 3, 2014

Canon 299T Flash Review


So I told you guys how I picked up a flash at the thrift shop the other day and now I'm back to show you a bit more. I'm pretty hopeless at flash, 3 weeks ago I knew nothing and now I know enough to comfortably get by but I still have lots to learn. If I could avoid flash photography I probably would but if I want to do weddings it's a prerequisite especially with those low light, end of the night festivities. Which brings me to why you would want to use flash. Some photographers use flash in the daylight, referred to as a "fill flash" to get a nice overall light onto their subjects, I personally am not such a fan but maybe that's partly based on my own lack of knowledge. The other main reason to use flash is when the lighting is too low for the camera and you can't use a tripod or don't want the effect of a slow shutter. Or hey you could just really like the look of flash photography too!


You can "bounce the flash" which is when you point the flash upwards and it bounces off something (like a ceiling). I like bouncing the flash, it's gives a less harsh tone and also nicer not to have to flash someone in the face when taking portraits. The other way is direct flash which, as you may have guessed is aiming the flash directly onto your subject. For the photos above I did direct flash because I wanted a high contrast image and my brother was very obliging of me shooting a flash in his face - thanks Matty! You can also use a flash off the camera as well but I'm not even going there today!

The canon 299t was made for canon SLR cameras (the film version of the fancy cameras on the market these days) now some of the older film flashes are a big no no when it comes to putting on your fancy new digital gear but the 299t voltage is very low so I had no qualms throwing it onto my 5d mark ii but others may not want to take the risk. Unlike the new canon speedlites flashes you do have to set everything manually on the back


I set mine onto F.NO. mode told the flash what aperture my camera was one, made sure the shutter on my camera was below 1/200 of a seconds - this has to do with the shutter curtains (a faster shutter speed leaves you with only a partially exposed images - not cool!). I also needed to set the ISO on the back of the flash body. There are a couple more features on the 299t the tilt of the flash head - so you can do bounce or direct flash and then there is an pull out section on the top, dependent on the size of lens. If I wanted my pictures brighter I played around with my aperture and ISO. You have to remember that there is the light coming from the flash but there is also the ambient light around that the camera is also recording - sounds confusing - yup and I'm definitely still learning!

I eventually want to pick up a new canon speedlite flash because you can set those onto nice and (easier!) auto settings :) I don't mind the 299t though because chances are what you are photographing at night will have a pretty consistent light reading, so it's just a matter of fine tuning the settings and then snapping away which is what I did when I took pictures of my brothers fancy dress get up the other week :)

Thanks Matty for being my very patient model :)

Does anyone have any flash tips for me, I'd love to hear as a newbie to the flash World.

I personally love really bright washed out flash photos and am not ashamed to admit I like Terry Richardson Style of the white background. Apparently he uses direct flash and as close to the camera lens as possible to avoid any flash shadowing around the person -interesting!

9 comments:

  1. flash will always remind me of Terry ahahah
    i suck at flash use and i only need it when i want to take party picture,have to learn more myself :)
    ´these are very nice,tough!
    Hi Matt :)

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    1. Yeah I definitely have avoided using flash but as I'm slowly learning it's not quite as scary as I initially thought - need to keep practicing :)

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  2. my friend asked me to stand in as a second photographer for weddings but i declined because i suck as low light photography, don't have flash and don't know how to use one. it intimidates me actually. but i thought about getting one because i found out that i'm also terribly at taking pictures when the sunlight is especially harsh and made my pictures come out really wonky and people's faces were covered by shadows. i actually have a family shoot coming up in a couple of week and it kinda scares me. they're good friends so that's a little comforting but still i don't to end up pictures that are horrible because of the sun!

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    1. Ahh Jane your photography is awesome - don't doubt (though it's helpful to be aware of your own shortcomings so you can improve). With harsh sunlight (midday sun) it really is where you position your subjects - a tip is to find some shelter and have them approach almost to where they're walking out back into the harsh sun but not quite! The light should hit there faces nicely but not be that harsh sunlight that causes shadowing. Or put them under a tree so the light is filtered :) I personally would rather move my subjects into less harsh sunlight then use flash during daytime but that's just my own personal preference! Flash really used to intimidate me but since I've been using it at night time receptions I'm really beginning to not mind it - so practice is definitely the key :)

      good luck Jane - deep breaths and believe in your awesome photos :)

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    2. awesomeness fiona! thanks so much for the tip!!

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  3. I really like the idea of using a flash, and I always quite enjoy pictures like these... but I never work with a flash! So I'm even more a newbie than you are. I'd love to see it used more often in the blogging world though, maybe I should get my game on too..

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    1. lol - get your game on for sure :) It's really not too hard once you start playing around with it!

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  4. wow I don't like flash photography but I really really like your results! maybe I should keep open minded and give it a try too

    Katrina Sophia Blog

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    1. Thanks Katrina! I'd say definitely have a play and don't be scared, like I was because once you know how a particular flash works it's a whole lot less daunting!

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