Canister lights vs flash units

[pdoege]

Hello -

I've noticed that a lot of you folks are using internal and external flash units on your cameras.

I have been using a canister light for a while now.

It started with me using a canister light to light the scene while my buddy took the shot. That actually works really well.

Lately I've been using the light in my left hand to set up the shot and shooting with my right hand.

It can be tricky but it seems to work pretty well.

Is anybody else doing this?

Peter Doege

 

[KilgoreTrout]

I have heard of doing this especially with digital cameras. I know that most cheaper digital cameras don't have sync options and have issues with a double flash tripping off slave strobes prematurely. You have to get a special "digital" slave strobe to get it to sync.

The constant on of the canister light makes focus and metering easier for the camera, not to mention composing the subject easier for you. You can see the image that the camera is about to capture (all things being equal). I will use this method whenever I get my hands on a decent light. (At least to compose the image.)

The primary problem with this is that you do not get the same color range. A strobe, for that split second, puts out WAY more light than even a bright HID or Halogen bulb. The result is that photos look better (more vibrant), but were harder to compose.

Internal flash, or a camera's built-in flash is inherently a bad idea to use. They are more likely to bounce light off of debris and back into your photo.

I found this to be a great source for info:

http://www.daveread.com/uw-photo/

Good Day.