A couple days ago, a friend of mine mentioned (just in an off comment, he probably did not think I would blog about it) that his next purchase was going to be a flash. For me, that set off all kinds of alarms. I know he is just an amateur working on a budget like many of us, and I also knew a little knowledge about flash photography could easily save him a couple hundred dollars.

There are loads of flash techniques. About the only on-camera technique I would even think of is bounce flash. If I just happen to be in a room where it will work, I will use this. Actually, just recently after the birth of my second child (a wonderful little girl who is crying at this very moment), I used simple bounce flash to light up the hospital room for almost all the shots.

Then, there is off-camera flash (this all relates to what flash you should buy, I promise…just bear with me). In the old days, basically, off-camera flash meant cords, and those still work great, of course. Today, though, there are many easy cordless options using either radio signals or optical infrared signals.

At this point, I could easily chase a very long rabbit trail. So, for now, let’s just say you want to know what flash to buy. But before I totally leave the how-to do off-camera flash, I can quickly say that the Strobist site is the best online resource for off-camera flash folks (from beginners to pros). Check it out. Just work through the Lighting 101 to start off.

Ok, what flash to buy? Well, if you are going to use flash in automatic mode and want it to do all the thinking for you…this is not the post for you, but here is your answer: buy the flash that works TTL (through the lens) with your camera model. Ok, done. There is a place for auto flash, but more than likely, learning just a little about how to run it manual will produce better shots.

So, if you do not really need TTL and plan on running manual anyway, prepare to save money, because you do not need the latest and greatest flash on the market. I bought a used Nikon SB-26 (which even pre-dates my camera by a few years…and that is hard to do), and did not even know at the time how perfect a choice I made. It does all the cool stuff other flashes do, but the one great part is the built in optical trigger. Basically, if it sees another flash go off, it will go off (if that function is turned on, of course). I have even used it with our point-and-shoot camera; the little camera’s flash will set off the big flash.

I have found that to be extremely useful. I usually will tape some pretty thick white paper in front of my pop-up flash so almost none of the light actually goes to the subject, but it will still easily set off the SB-26, usually even around corners, with obstructions, and such. I also have a cheapo radio trigger, but I have found it to be too unreliable. Sometimes it fires and sometimes it does not (keep in mind, I have the cheap ones…the expensive ones obviously work much better). My optical solution is much more reliable, but if I fire too fast, my pop-up flash’s slow recycle rate will hold up the photo, where if using radio, I am not held back by my pop-up flash’s recycle rate.

Ok, so if you find any old flash lying around, that will do to (more than likely). You can buy a little $10 optical trigger, slip it on the foot, and you are wireless. Actually (I am embarrassed to admit), I bought a little optical slave (another name for these little do-dads) before I realized my flash had one built in. So, you can just buy a used flash, but make sure you can adjust the power output 1/2, 1/4, 1/8…etc. Mine goes down to 1/64, and the lower the better, really. Sometimes, you just need a dash of light.

There is a new option, though. In close cahoots with the Strobist community (their Flickr group was recently voted the best online community, or something like that), LumoPro has recently come out with an all manual flash with every cord port you could want, built in optical trigger, and …well, everything the Stobist folks asked for. You can grab one of these LumoPro LP120 flashes for $130 at MPEX.com, the coolest place to buy lighting gear…they have all kinds of little lighting goodies for cheap skates like me.

The Strobist does talk about a couple other new manual flash options out there, but the LumoPro or an older Nikon strobe would be a better bet, in my opinion. If you want to know more about why, I might write more later, or you could read the reviews of those three flashes on Strobist (linked at top of this paragraph) and read his pros and cons about each. That will give you a very good idea of what features to look for (and insist upon).

Want to stretch yourself, keep up with the Strobist blog, and you will see loads of field use of off-camera flash and a wide variety of examples of work.

The first day, about a week ago, things went ok…not great, but lessons learned. I also wanted to field test a pair of Cactus triggers. “What are those,” you might ask? With those, I can remote trigger my flash via radio (i.e. no cords). Those ended up incredibly frustrating, to be honest. They did not fire very consistently. When you read through discussions about these on Flickr, some folks love them and some hate them. They are consistent for some folks and inconsistent for others. For me, when they are needed, the break. When I am goofing around, they work flawlessly.

Wait, this was about the flash. I will get back to the story.
So, the second day comes along. Seeing as my radio triggers were not reliable, I decided to go optical. Meaning, I could use the pop-up flash from my camera to trigger a little optical sensor attached to the flash. I had heard it might not do well on a sunny day (and sunny it was), but it worked just fine, until…

Pointing down into a fountain (our backdrop), someone said, “Cooper, is that your…” There was no need to complete the sentence, everything went into slow motion and their words would have been incomprehensible, anyway. I calmly walked closer to the long, dark shape at the bottom of the water, then took a glace to where my tripod-flash-umbrella set up had been: nothing. It did not hit me till I saw the white (now folded up) umbrella sticking out from the tripod.

I tried to stay cool so my friends, for whom I was taking the photos, would not feel too bad. I layed down on my stomach and fished it out of the fountain. The flash was…wet. It is an interesting feeling to see water pouring from your equipment. I took the batteries out. That is only sensible, but I figure it will not make much difference with such a low power source and the fact they were already sitting in the water with the flash on anyway.

So, needless to say, I did not get much of a field test out of the optical flash trigger, but I pulled out my handy dandy coffee filter, slipped it over my pop up flash to soften the light, and used that for fill light every now and then.

I honestly thought the flash would be fine in the end. I unscrewed every screw I could find and it ended up looking like C3-PO after coming out of Lando Calrissian’s recycling room (if you are not a Star Wars fan, you can probabaly still figure it out). The trickiest part was getting the head open. The bottom was easy, but I never really did get that head open (I probably should have looked it up online, like I did the spelling of ‘Calrissian’ a few seconds ago). I finally figured the plastic cover where the flash actually comes out would just pop off, and it did, both of them.

I hair dried the whole thing till I was more than satisfied and when I put it all back together (it was not too bad, easier than getting it apart) it worked just fine. As a fun side note, sometime after I put it back together, I was looking for some manual or something for my flash online. I found out the red glass looking thing on the front is a built-in optical slave receiver. In other words, my little optical trigger I mentioned was a silly purchase, because my second hand Nikon SB-26 speedlight already has one built in! Sweet. I feel dumb for not knowing that already (I thought it was just a distance calculating light…which is also in there), but you can bet I will be putting that to work.

So, yes, your flash should be fine if you decided to drop it underwater like I did. Take it apart, hair dry that thing (though without the hair part), and I would guess it will be fine. Oh, I forgot to mention that a bad connection with the Cactus trigger the previous week was loose and I dropped it twice, once concrete, once grass. So, I can confidently say this Nikon SB-26 flash is a tough character.