Took my son to Meet the Mickey session today at City Square mall. Turned out the photo turned out to be soft even when I am using Sigma 17-70mm @ 17mm f2.8. I suspect that flashlight must be needed. Can I ask if I need to buy a external flash like Yong Nuo or Nissin to take sharp photo? And I saw something about Nissin being manual? That means I need to adjust the exposure to compensate for the external flash as the camera does not know its existence?
Are Nissin and Yong Nuo flash easy to use like the inbuilt canon flash?
- Thread starter maisatomai
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1. Sharpness can be due to many factors, including aperture size and focus etc etc.
2. Sharpness, on the other hand, is also determined by many factors. Using an external flash would not get you sharp photos directly, but using a flash allows you to stop down to a smaller aperture and hence supposedly sharper images.
3. Nissin and Yongnuo along with a few 3rd party brands have TTL flashes and manual flashes.
4. TTL flashes work like the on-camera pop up flash while full manual flashes require you to control the flash output but that does not mean that the camera doesn't know its existence. The camera will still trigger the flash but you have to set everything yourself on the flash. But that being said, you have to take note that although TTL flashes can be auto, there are many controls while manual flashes only have very few buttons for you to power on, adjust output and mode. I must say I am a person who like simplicity so getting a TTL flash like SB900 would be a headache to me because I am used to simple manual flashes like YN460. Of course, another drawback of using manual flashes is that the flash power is limited e.g. you can't adjust below a certain power while you can shoot at f/1.2 and 1/800 with certain TTL flashes.
2. Sharpness, on the other hand, is also determined by many factors. Using an external flash would not get you sharp photos directly, but using a flash allows you to stop down to a smaller aperture and hence supposedly sharper images.
3. Nissin and Yongnuo along with a few 3rd party brands have TTL flashes and manual flashes.
4. TTL flashes work like the on-camera pop up flash while full manual flashes require you to control the flash output but that does not mean that the camera doesn't know its existence. The camera will still trigger the flash but you have to set everything yourself on the flash. But that being said, you have to take note that although TTL flashes can be auto, there are many controls while manual flashes only have very few buttons for you to power on, adjust output and mode. I must say I am a person who like simplicity so getting a TTL flash like SB900 would be a headache to me because I am used to simple manual flashes like YN460. Of course, another drawback of using manual flashes is that the flash power is limited e.g. you can't adjust below a certain power while you can shoot at f/1.2 and 1/800 with certain TTL flashes.
Argh! Imageshack. One of the worst photo hosting sites which doesn't allow hot linking and full of crappy ads and annoying popups! Please do yourself (and us) a favour by using either flickr or photobucket.
Ok back to the topic. From the EXIF you were shooting at 21mm, iso160, f/3.2, 1/40", so your shutter speed is ok. The pic looks ok although not critically sharp. A few reasons I could think of: lack of contrast due to lighting, shallow DOF plus slight focusing error, or the lens' performance at this aperture. Just apply USM in PS and it should be fine. To overcome such problem in the future, you could: use a flash so that you could stop down as suggested, or pump up the iso to perhaps 400, stop down to f/4~5.6, and up the shutter speed slightly to 1/60" (under similar lighting condition of course).
Thanks, point noted about flickr or photobucket.
Is nissin di422 or nissin di622 fully auto and easy to use for newbie like me?
Is nissin di422 or nissin di622 fully auto and easy to use for newbie like me?
Oh yes, I learnt one term from a fellow member here, sample variance.
In photography, it simply means shooting in burst and pick the best shot later. Why? Because blur is a random thingy, you are sure to get a decent shot out of the few you fire away. Provided your focusing is spot on.
PS: this method will not work, if your shutter speed is like 1s long.
In photography, it simply means shooting in burst and pick the best shot later. Why? Because blur is a random thingy, you are sure to get a decent shot out of the few you fire away. Provided your focusing is spot on.
PS: this method will not work, if your shutter speed is like 1s long.
In dim light the auto focusing error is usually more prominent, due to the poor contrast provided to the AF sensor. This is assuming that the lens is auto focusing well with your camera body in bright condition. Some lenses do tend to have more errors with some body, while dead accurate when used on others.
I hope to buy a flash. Can anyone please recommend me a flash to start with? Is nissin di422 or nissin di622 easy to use for beginners?
The DI622/622 mark II and DI466 should be compatible with your 600D, see this compatibility page. This means you will get full eTTL if the flash is mounted on the hot shoe of your 600D. But you do loose out something, e.g. for the DI622 mark II, you can only use it as wireless slave but not master. You also do not get high speed sync, multi-flash and modeling light.
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Thanks for replying. I am mounting it on the hot shoe of my 600D. So I think I will get the DI466 as I do not want DI622 as it is too complicated for me. So Ziploc, does it mean that I buy the DI466, plug it into my camera, and I can shoot just like the built in flash? Thanks in advance.
I don't own one of these Nissin flash and I'm a Nikon user, so I can't confirm for sure and that's why I was hessitating to reply to your direct question, and was only helping in areas I know. But according to the manufacturer's compatibility list and the test reports (yes I'm reading the reviews for you since you don't seem like reading them), you get eTTL, so yes it will work just like a Canon flash, bearing in mind though that since 3rd party manufacturers usually reverse engineer the flash communication, there could be unknow/undiscovered compatibility issues. But for normal use and a lower price, that is most probably not a big issue since most commonly used functions will be tested thoroughly.
Perhaps it is best to leave it to a Canon user using the Nissin flash to answer your queries.
Perhaps it is best to leave it to a Canon user using the Nissin flash to answer your queries.
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Thanks Ziploc, you are very helpful. Just curious why aren't you using external flash? Are you using the internal flash of the camera?
I do use external flash, in fact I have 2 speedlights, SB800 & SB900, and I even use them outdoor as fill flash when shooting models. I also use the internal flash when I don't have the speedlights with me and the lighting condition is bad. But usually I would 1st look at the situation and see if I could do without flash, as direct flash can be quite harsh on the subject and unflattering. Other ways would be using bounced flash or the strobist methonds of using various diffusers like omnibounce, bounce card, softbox, reflectors, etc to soften the light from the flash.
Just wonderint if external flash will enable me to have a higher shutter speed than internal flash?
yes and no.
yes - if your flash features high speed sync, which none of the nissin or yong nuo does.
no - both works the same way, just that the external flash has more power and the ability to direct the flash light. shutter speed will be cap at the flash sync speed(1/200s for 600D).
