In my company Year End Party, I have my AF540 with me the whole time along with my Pentax K20D and my Handsome Boy lens was mounted the whole time. Whenever I need to shoot portraits, I go to the flash to make the shot instead of agonizing over the result. I am yet to learn to use flash in a better way. The ceiling is at least 30 to 50 feet as in a convention and I ran into a professional photographer with a simple cut out of crafty paper and folded like a cast to reflect the flash as a bounce and a diffuser. I saw it before in DIY kind of blog post. I have unsettled experience with lazy eyes in using PTTL flash. I tried to use some soft tissue wrapping paper around the flash and have it directed straight into the shoot subject. My sweetie are very sensitive the prolonged flash in the pre-flash. While I have no issues with many people, my sweetie got an unexpected high percentage of 'lazy eyes' pictures in the event. It is roughly in 30% of her portraits that I got the unsettled lazy eyes effects from flash. All shots are taken with flash in PTTL mode
I ended up giving the specific signal to my sweetie for the shots and resolved taking multiple shots to skip the lazy eyes, quite unsettling in the event.
And strangely, I have at least a dozen portraits with other people in the event where I don't see any 'lazy eyes' in the flash shots. I come to think of my sweetie more sensitive to the pre-flash than others.
Impressions & Notes:
- Not all people are sensitive to the PTTL flash like my wife does.
- Others have suggested me to try red-eye reduction where a distinct pre-flash get the eyes more adapted in the follow on shot.
- A bounced flash will be less intensive as a straight on shooting with a diffuser.
- Auto mode should be attempted for my wife who is sensitive to flash
- I am yet to explore using an bracket for the external flash with a different angle to the subject
