Adventures in Photography: Speedlights

Hopefully you've checked out a few of the resources I listed in my last post and found a few of your own. One reoccurring theme is that this shit is expensive. Entry level DSLRs are upwards of $500 bucks as are a lot of name brand speedlights. So, to buy what a lot of those guys are talking about you're in for a grand without anything to modify your light, which we'll get into, or to hold it. And they'll have the gumption to tell you this is cheap. No idea where these people come from but $1000 dollars in my house is a big deal. Then you'll find out about all the cool stuff you can do with two speedlights, three speedlights, softboxes, umbrellas, reflectors, and more. You could easily be looking at thousands of dollars before you even know how to do anything. As a hobbyist photographer there's no way I can justify that kind of money. I do have an entry level Canon DSLR, the t3i with a kit lens, but there is a great little flash out there for around $70. Sure, you're giving up a few features, but I've always been one to buy the cheap version first to see if the expensive version with all the fancy buttons is worth the money. Who knows, I might not even be into photography forever.

Introducing the Yongnuo 560 iii! It's a full manual flash that at the time of this post is $66 on Amazon.

So, why so cheap? Well, part of the reason is its full manual. What does that mean? There are essentially two ways flashes like this work. Manual and TTL (or e-TTL and a few other names that basically mean the same thing.) A lot flashes can do both. In manual mode you are in control of the flash output. Meaning if you want your flash brighter you'll have to walk over to it (assuming you took it off the camera) and push a button to make it brighter or darker. In TTL your camera and flash work together to determine how much light to push out. It's slightly more complex than that but you can kind of think of it as automatic flash. It's not always perfect and can be fooled but for the most part it's pretty cool. However, at a savings of up to $430, I feel like I can walk over to the thing and push some buttons while I'm learning. 

There's also the fact that getting your flash off the camera usually requires some sort of triggering system. Wireless ones can cost a couple hundred bucks each and some don't support TTL. Meaning your fancy auto flash can't receive the signal that tells it how bright to be more or less making your flash manual. This is an extremely broad topic in itself but the point is learning with a full manual flash will most likely be cheaper and will help you understand what's going on if you do decide to upgrade your equipment. If I was going to shoot an event like a wedding for example I'd definitely want some sort of TTL system, but considering I haven't taken any images yet that's getting a little ahead of myself.

A great resource that covers manual and TTL flash, how to use them and written by an expert is neilvn.com/tangents

In the next post I'll go over the flash I chose in a bit more detail as well as the triggering system and the first light modifier I bought.