Saturday, January 08, 2011

New(s) flash

I've really enjoyed the baby-shooting camera that we got before Evan was born, a Nikon D40. But the stupid flash broke on it a few weeks back, and I found forums online where a million other people had the same problem. Nikon really should make cameras where the effing flash doesn't bust for no reason.

Anyway, rather than paying 175 bones to fix it, I spent 125 on an external flash that lets you tilt the bulb so you can bounce the flash off the ceiling. After seeing the difference it makes to have that capability, I'm actually kind of stoked that Nikon sold me a flawed unit that crapped out a few months after the warranty expired.

Check out the difference. Without bounce (flash aimed straight forward):

With bounce (flash aimed at ceiling):

Without:

With:

We've only had the flash a couple of days, but I think we'll have fun with it. Our flash pictures always looked funky, so we'd kind of stopped messing with indoor shots. This way looks way more natural.

All of this explanation is, of course, just an excuse to post more baby pictures. Toddler pictures? Anyway, roar!




3 comments:

  1. Oh wow, I gotta get one of those! I gave up on ever using the flash. I've instead just been taking all shots without the flash and praying they weren't too blurry.

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  2. It's called a Speedlight my friend - not a flash. ;o) You're not in Kansas anymore. If you don't already have a frosted plastic flash cap, get one for a few bucks because it can provide the softening effect when you don't have nearby surfaces to bounce off of.

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  3. Russ -- You should definitely get one. That's how I was rolling, too. With one of these puppies, you can flash people all day long.

    Jered Earl -- My apologies, you can speedlight people all day long, using your Nikon SB-400 AF Speedlight **FLASH** for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras. I suppose it does say SPEEDLIGHT on the back, though. Thank you for pointing this out -- now I can blend in with pretentious camera people and they'll never know my embarrassing history of calling that flash a flash.

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