Nikon Speedlight Course

Today I attended a full day course at the Nikon Training School in London on learning to use flash (known as speedlights in Nikon-speak). It was an excellent course and I have come home (exhausted!) but having learnt everything that I need to know to get started with flash photography.

We were taught to use the three commonly used flash program modes, being GN, Manual and TTL - even though there are more programs to choose form the others don't get used much. There were six of us on the course and it was very hands on - we paired up with a partner and took photographs using the different program modes, then bouncing the flash off walls and white boards and learning how best to angle to light, and then used the flash off camera, first with one flash and then two flashes. We also went outside and learnt to expose properly for the background and then to use fill in flash. It was a very good course and we all learnt so much.

This is a shot of my partner taken with the flash on the camera and bounced light - with the exposure reduced to get a more moody feel to the shot. We were concentrating on lighting today and not on composition but I liked how the light looked so natural here.