Hello everyone !

[Jule Anne]

My name is Jule, and I joined 2 years ago but lost my user name and password. Now I want to get active again with this forum.
I have a canon digital rebel xt and I love it ! Still learning how to use it too ! I also have a canon A80 and an SD500.
I have just bought a canon speedlight 430, but I am still unclear just when I should and shouldn't use it. Can anyone give me some tips on how and when I should use it ? I am reading the manual, and I should be honest and tell you it's a bit confusing to me also !
I love to do pet and flower photography, and I love taking pix of people but I really need to learn some better settings to get more crisp and clear pix of peoples faces. Any suggestions on settings that might be helpful ?
I want to post some pix up in the forum but I'm not sure just how to do it.
Nice to be back on the forum ! I look forward to being a part of it again !
Jule Anne

[Jaymz]

Hi, Welcome :)

[Mark_Cohran]

My name is Jule, and I joined 2 years ago but lost my user name and password. Now I want to get active again with this forum.
I have a canon digital rebel xt and I love it ! Still learning how to use it too ! I also have a canon A80 and an SD500.
I have just bought a canon speedlight 430, but I am still unclear just when I should and shouldn't use it. Can anyone give me some tips on how and when I should use it ? I am reading the manual, and I should be honest and tell you it's a bit confusing to me also !
I love to do pet and flower photography, and I love taking pix of people but I really need to learn some better settings to get more crisp and clear pix of peoples faces. Any suggestions on settings that might be helpful ?
I want to post some pix up in the forum but I'm not sure just how to do it.
Nice to be back on the forum ! I look forward to being a part of it again !
Jule Anne

Hi Jule. Welcome Back!

Your speedlight 430 should be used anytime you have a need for or a desire to use flash. It's a much more versatile flash than what is built into your camera, so you shouldn't hesitate to use it under the following circumstances:

1. Low light and you can't hand hold the camera (usually when the shutter speed using the ambient lighting is less that 1/focal length x1.6) and you don't have a tripod or you're trying to capture action.

2. Low light, hand-held and you're shooting indoor sports (and flash is allowed in the venue where you're shooting).

3. Outdoors in good light, but there is contrast or deep shadows and you want to use flash to "fill in" those shadows (this is called fill flash). Your camera should be in Av or Tv mode for this.

There are lots of other good reasons to use flash, and lots of times you won't want to use flash - others will chime in with their opinions about those (and what I've written above). So, you'll just have to take our advice and practice for yourself to achieve the results you want.

In terms of getting crisper pictures:

Use a shutter speed high enough to support hand-holding, or use a tripod to ensure your camera doesn't move much during the exposure.

Manually select the center AF point and focus on your subject's eyes.

Use Photoshop, Photoshop elements (or your program of choice) to sharpen the images after you've transferred them to your computer (or shoot in RAW mode and apply sharpening as part of your conversion).

There are lots of other ways to get crisper photos, and once again, I'm sure others will chime in with their suggestions.

Have fun!

Mark

[SuzyView]

Welcome, back?!

Lots to cover in this short time. Sometimes reading the manual is actually good, but the flash manuals are so difficult, just read the threads here. :)

SuzyView

[defordphoto]

Welcome back to the forum Jule. This is the area for member introductions. :) Please post in the proper forums and I sent you a PM on how to find your posts.

Enjoy!