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how to avoid Flash hot spot?

A

adonisadonis

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 17, 2009
41
0
Hello to all!

I'm here again to seek advise from our experienced photographers on how to avoid flash hot spots. I normally take half body portraits of my kids and use flash especially on daylight. I normally use flash as I like the look of the eyes with catch light as I think It gives more "life" to the photos compared without using one, however some of the photos I took have some nasty flash hotspots. How can I improve my skills.

At the moment I'm using SB 400 nikon and I really don't want big flash guns. Once again thank you very much and hoping someone can offer their advise.
 
2 things might help: a Diffuser over the flash (actually baking paper will work as well) and enable red eye correction in the flash menu in the camera (on a Nikon, if you push the flash button and hold it, you can adjust with your front or back wheel what type of flash...select the eye icon)

this should help but having a SB-600 will make a BIG difference as the 400 can only shoot forward and, IMHO, is just a glorified pop-up flash.
 
flosseR said:
2 things might help: a Diffuser over the flash (actually baking paper will work as well) and enable red eye correction in the flash menu in the camera (on a Nikon, if you push the flash button and hold it, you can adjust with your front or back wheel what type of flash...select the eye icon)

this should help but having a SB-600 will make a BIG difference as the 400 can only shoot forward and, IMHO, is just a glorified pop-up flash.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. sorry I was not able to mention in details my concern with my photos. IT is usually the forehead, tip of the nose and cheeks that are affected with hotspots in my photos. Since i'm new to using flash, I don't know if how much flash output do I need in photographing half body portrait. At the moment I'm only using sigma 17-50 mm and usually take portrait at 50mm. Yes I agree that SB 400 is not as good as SB 600 but Its just too big for my liking so I opted for small one and just try to learn how i can use it better.

Thank you once again!
 
There are many reasons for hot spots.

Skin can reflect flashlight if it is wet or moist or if the angle of the flash isn't right.
 
Try using some negative flash compensation or dial down its power by a stop or so. It would especially help for closer subjects.
 
Thank you very much for all your input, much appreciated. Ill try negative flash compensation first. thanks.
 
Another thing I've done before is just put a tissue over the flash. They act like a cheap diffuser, and work pretty well. It's worth trying since it doesn't cost you anything, and it usually does the trick for me.

Edit: Oops, for some reason when reading this thread I completely skipped over TheGenerous's post. For me I've found a tissue (the kind you blow your nose with) works better than tissue paper, but either should work
 
mackmgg said:
Another thing I've done before is just put a tissue over the flash. They act like a cheap diffuser, and work pretty well. It's worth trying since it doesn't cost you anything, and it usually does the trick for me.

Edit: Oops, for some reason when reading this thread I completely skipped over TheGenerous's post. For me I've found a tissue (the kind you blow your nose with) works better than tissue paper, but either should work
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll try this one too. Hopefully I can get better pics. Many thanks!
 
If you don't want to use a diffuser (why? You can buy them for $10) you can also bounce the flash off a wall. It's a different kind of lighting and a bit harder to control, but better than a flash directly in the face anyway.
 
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