Flash Photography - Harder Than It Looks....

As I became more comfortable with using my Pentax Camera's I knew I would be in need of a flash at some point in my photography journey. Having no experience with on camera flash apart from my point and shoot Fuji A700, this was going to be another steep learning curve. Flash Guns can be expensive items, as I soon found out when I saw some eye watering prices for dedicated speedlights the manufacturers say perform best with their camera's. I knew there was a healthy market for 3rd party, or aftermarket items for a fraction of the price of native equipment, so I went hunting on you tube.

You Tube is a great resource for getting informative reviews on the things we need, but you have to be prepared to sort the wheat from the chaff. There is a multitude of you tubers giving their thoughts on why you should buy the products they're talking about and you soon get to know the ones to trust for an honest appraisal. I watched quite a few before I narrowed my list down to a couple of candidates and checked out their specifications.

I wanted something universal that I could use on any camera's I bought in the future and I wanted a decent amount of control over the power and speed of the flash. This had me looking at a speedlight rather than a simple, single power flash that would be more at home on a compact camera. My price range wasn't a lot of cash, but also wasn't going to be stupidly cheap either. One item started rising to the top at a reasonable price, a Neewer NW-561 for around £35. I checked my piggy bank and ordered one.

When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality, things mass produced in China often get a bad reputation with empirical evidence to prove it deserves one. Not the Neewer, it came well packaged with some concise instructions and I set about learning how to use it. The Neewer NW-561 is a fixed 35mm flash, which made it ideal for my 35mm camera's and one less thing to worry about. (until I acquired a Nikon SB-24 that has a zoom capability to tighten or broaden the flash beam, but that's for a future blog). I had also purchased a cold-hotshoe adapter as my Pentax camera's, being the budget spotmatics, did not have one built into them.

To be fair it didn't take me long to get used to the weight of the flash on my camera, it felt nicely balanced despite looking like a house brick. The flash came with a diffuser and also has a reflector card and wide angle diffuser built into it.The instruction booklet has some basic tips on how to use it, setting the flash interval, using the built in diffuser and reflector card and was ok to get me started. I also watched several you tube tutorial video's on flash photography to get me up to a reasonable level to use whilst out and about. The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed some of my images in my previous blog about the NABD were taken with this flash. It really does pack a hefty burst of light and I soon learned, with help from my dear friend Mike, the art of bouncing the light off the ceiling.

I have used this flash many times since I bought it in 2017, it has been very reliable and I have become comfortable with using it. I'm not at pro level yet, but I can instinctively guage a room, or a marquee and set my speedlight up and take reasonable images. Flash photography was once a bit of a mystery to me, but the sheer plethora of situations in which it can be used to improve your compositions makes it a must have item in your kit. Here's a few of my early images taken at an event in 2017 called The Big Barn Rally. I hope you enjoy them.