For next year I want to start learning flash photography. Other than my little point and shoots that have a built in flash, I am basically starting from scratch with flashes. For my Nikon Zf, does anyone have recommendations for on-camera flash units to learn with?
Also would be thankful for recommendations on reading or tutorials for on camera flash use, as I honestly have no clue what I am doing with flash photography but wanting to learn more this coming year.
If it helps, primarily would be using this for family/indoor photography, nothing professional.
The Godox V1 or V1 Pro flashes are a good choice for on-camera, because you can just add a trigger and an Angler softbox (with the proper magnetic adapter that is shared with the Profoto A series lights) and you can use it off camera as well. Also the V1 speedlites have a bit less confusing user interface than the cheaper TT685 units.
Like @rico said, Strobist is a great resource. I'd also recommend looking at Joe McNally's books. They are a wealth of information on how to creatively use speedlites in a million and one different ways. The main thing with on-camera flash is that generally you want to bounce the light off of a ceiling or wall. The direct flash is definitely a choice, but it tends to make every pore and wrinkle standout
I'd recommend starting with one light, then add a white interior umbrella in the 40-46" range with a diffusion panel, then add a medium size softbox in the 36" range. I feel like a lot of people just jump directly to big double diffused softbox, which isn't necessarily a bad look, but there's so much you can do just feathering a 46" photek umbrella. If it's good enough for Annie Liebovitz, it's good enough for us mere mortals.
When just getting started with flash, probably any brand/model of speedlite will be adequate as long as it's made to work with your Brand and Model of camera, since they never standardized the hot shoe of the cameras and every manufacturer has a different design, but the center pin is the trigger pin that fires the flash and this is quite universal. So, what does this mean to someone new to flash. Well, there are a few answers to this -
1. Buying a flash from your camera manufacturer of your camera will assure that it works correctly with your camera, but most camera manufacturers want crazy money for their models.
2. Some Brands will work with different camera brands, but this is risky.
3. If you ever wish to get deeper into photography than just one camera and one flash, you are going to need flashes and flash transmitter that will work with your camera. The deeper that you get into photography and wireless flash you will find an even more complicated mess of choices to make.
4. Or, you can go With Godox or Flashpoint (A Rebrand of Godox) These transmitters need to be selected to work with your brand of camera, but will then control the lights with a standardized communication system. All of their lights with the X band receivers will work fine with the transmitter that is for your brand of camera. Godox also makes receivers to receive the X band signals and convert them to match many of the off brand flashes. These attach to the hot shoe of these flashes, but they cost about $40 each. Buying the Godox or Flashpoint lights gets you the built-in X receiver to control the light, so you don't need to buy this separately.
I bought two Godox TT600 speedlites and an X2Tc transmitter to try with my Canon cameras. The X2Tc has a pass thru on it's top, so I could continue to use my old brand's lights and transmitter along with this Godox transmitter and lights. It wasn't long before it became obvious that the Godox system was fare more reliable than my older popular brand light system. The Godox lights would fire every time and never missed, while my old light system would sometimes fail to fire. It cost me a lot of money to transition from my old lights to Godox/Flashpoint, because I have many studio lights as well as speedlites that needed replacing, but I haven't looked back. It was one of my far better photography decisions. There is a rebrand of Godox in Europe, but I don't remember the name. The Flashpoint lights are sold by Adorama in NYC, but also available from them through Amazon. My third Godox AD200 Pro II light will arrive tomorrow, and replace the last speedlite in my field kit. I'll still be keeping the speedlites, as I sometimes need to light small bottles and translucent items from behind, as well as the front. The speedlites are perfect for most of this work.
Get two Godox TT685 II flash heads. They run on AA batteries instead of proprietary Li-ion so they're 1/2 the price of the higher end units like the V1 and V860. Recycle time will be slower and total power will be a bit less, but for just starting out they are superb.
The Godox flashes have built in radio transceivers. So with one flash on your camera you can trigger the other off camera. Now you have a two light setup so once you graduate from lighting 101 you're ready for 201 level course work.
Get a third flash head or a dedicated trigger like the XPro II and now you've got two off camera lights. With a couple inexpensive light stands and umbrellas you're doing Rembrandt style portraits.
jeffbuzz wrote:
Get two Godox TT685 II flash heads. They run on AA batteries instead of proprietary Li-ion so they're 1/2 the price of the higher end units like the V1 and V860. Recycle time will be slower and total power will be a bit less, but for just starting out they are superb.
The Godox flashes have built in radio transceivers. So with one flash on your camera you can trigger the other off camera. Now you have a two light setup so once you graduate from lighting 101 you're ready for 201 level course work.
Get a third flash head or a dedicated trigger like the XPro II and now you've got two off camera lights. With a couple inexpensive light stands and umbrellas you're doing Rembrandt style portraits....Show more →
The TT685 is super cheap agreed, and probably a good place to start if you just want the one, but once you start adding lights, the battery management with a bunch of AAs gets to be kind of a pain and Eneloops aren't cheap either. That said, I did not like the fully encapsulated design of the V1 battery. It seems like a bad idea for heat dispersal.
sungphoto wrote:
The TT685 is super cheap agreed, and probably a good place to start if you just want the one, but once you start adding lights, the battery management with a bunch of AAs gets to be kind of a pain and Eneloops aren't cheap either. That said, I did not like the fully encapsulated design of the V1 battery. It seems like a bad idea for heat dispersal.
The upside to standard, non-proprietary batteries is that you can share them with other device. I have piles of AA and AAA Eneloops. They get used in everything from flashlights to thermostats. This keeps all of the cells in regular rotation and healthy.
The downside to proprietary batteries is long term care. If your flashes see prolonged periods of storage without use, dedicated li-ion cells can go bad in a variety of ways. You need to follow a regular schedule of charging/discharging at least every 90 days.
jeffbuzz wrote:
The upside to standard, non-proprietary batteries is that you can share them with other device. I have piles of AA and AAA Eneloops. They get used in everything from flashlights to thermostats. This keeps all of the cells in regular rotation and healthy.
The downside to proprietary batteries is long term care. If your flashes see prolonged periods of storage without use, dedicated li-ion cells can go bad in a variety of ways. You need to follow a regular schedule of charging/discharging at least every 90 days.
It's definitely a trade off for application in other devices vs power, quicker recharge time, and less batteries to keep track of. You can sell the proprietary battery packs with the strobes, which you can't really do with AAs. Eneloops aren't cheap to purchase, and depending on the individual, they may have little to no utility in their home. I only have one device in our house that's powered by AAs.
If I knew I was going to eventually expand past one light, I'd skip the speedlights entirely and just go with the AD200. More than twice the power, reliable and inexpensive battery packs, easier to use than the crap UI in the speedlights. They also have some nice accessories from ring lights to dual power pack adapters to turn two AD200s into a 400 ws strobe. You would need to get a Bowen's S-type bracket, which opens you up to a ton of inexpensive modifiers.
I started with Godox IT30. It has transformed my photography and find myself using it in daylight, too. They hold their value pretty well if you want to flip it later.
Dr_Fishy wrote:
For my Nikon Zf, does anyone have recommendations for on-camera flash units to learn with?
You can do good indoor portrait work with bouncing and an on-camera light like the Nikon SB-700, available new or used at very reasonable prices. If you want to move the light off-camera, the SB-5000 with WR-R11a or the WR-T10/WR-R10 (all findable used at better than new prices) is light, compact, needs no extra batteries, and integrates with the built-in flash controls ("Unified Flash Control") on your Nikon Zf . Alternately, on-camera the SB-500 is as powerful as the SB-700, albeit with no zoom and slow recycle, and also integrates with modern Nikon bodies.
There are no shortcuts, but if you read / try / practice, you'll be good at it and getting results you're proud of pretty quickly.
Having said that, if you're at a party, just point the flash straight up at the (white) ceiling and push the shutter release with everything on auto.
