Difference between TTL and manual mode for flash photography

My recent love for doing DSLR photography using external flash has made me do a lot of experiments in past 2 weeks. In this post, I am going to talk about the different working modes of an external DSLR flash unit. This post will summarize the working of each mode of operation and which one to prefer based on your subject, lighting, etc. The mode of operation of external flash photography is classified into two main types:

1) TTL

2) Manual
But what is the difference between TTL and manual flash photography? In simple words, one has automatic power control and the other one is full manual.

TTL basically stands for through the lens. Canon DSLR models have E-TTL whereas Nikon ones have i-TTL for the same mode.

When to use: Indoor photography with rapidly changing lights, fast movement, changing angles, distance variation from the subject, etc. are some major factors where e-TTL comes to rescue. It is not convenient to adjust the flash power every time in order to take a shot just because lighting changed. What would happen? The shot that you wanted to take might be gone by the time power is adjusted. If you are going to change aperture or shutter speed as well, try to stick with TTL. I usually like to keep TTL flash on my camera hot-shoe.

Manual: Like the word itself suggests, this mode involves setting the external flash power manually by the user. Shooting photos in manual flash mode require a bit of experience with understanding and adjusting flash power as quickly as possible.

When to use: Outdoor portraits, studio portraits, off-camera flash. This mode of external flash operation works really well when a user has full control over the subject and lighting. Example: Studio portrait photography.

Bad side: For me, the only inconvenient thing was multiple physical movements required to adjust power. Not an issue anymore, there are cheap third party remotes easily available these days.

Pro tip:

1) Variation of f-stop in DSLR photography controls flash exposure, whereas shutter speed controls ambient light.

2) The manual changing of flash power and zoom level can be done by using optical or radio-based triggering.

If you found this post helpful, share the photography love by sharing this post:)

Comments

sRGB vs Adobe RGB colour space explained

Digital images are everywhere, both offline and online. Each digital image is made up of a large number of square sized individual pixels. Zoom into an image at 2000 % or more in any of the viewers, you will see these pixels. Here is an example:

In order to categorize pixel colours, RGB and CMYK are the two widely used colour models. According to the RGB colour model, each pixel colour can be considered as an addition of different shades of red/green/blue light. These light shades are calculated according to the bit depth of the image. Jpeg images are usually 8 bits per colour channel (red, blue or green), which means 2^8 ( 256) different shades of each red/blue/green colour are possible. Few examples to make it clear how different colours shades are represented:
Red: (255, 0, 0)
Green: (0,255,0)
Blue: (0,0,255)
White: (255, 255, 255)
Black: (0,0,0)

What does CMYK do? It is a subtractive colour model for printing purposes and stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. According to …

Darktable vs Lightroom Classic CC

I first heard about Darktable software in 2016 and actually was quite fascinated with the name itself. Within a few hours of hearing about it, I went to the official Darktable website and downloaded it on my Linux machine. Have been using it for quite a while now alongside Adobe Lightroom Classic CC and hence decided to write this small review post. If you are looking for a free Adobe Lightroom alternative, this might be or might not be for you depending on what you need. Darktable is a free open source post-processing software which can do non-destructive RAW photo editing and photo management. Non-destructive means it does not change the original RAW file, all the edits are written to a sidecar file. It has evolved through so many phases of bug fixing and operating system compatibility. The latest version is available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Being an open source software it doesn't surprise me that it is available in 21 language translations. That's the power of op…

Canon CR3 raw format guide

A raw image file is like a digital negative without any lossy compression and minimal processing applied to it. A digital camera shooting images in raw format provides output in the best possible quality, which means files are larger in size and take more space. The benefits offered by shooting raw format overpowers the slight storage hassle though. Few of the well known raw formats include CR2, NEF, RW2, RAF, PEF, ARW, etc. In this post, we will talk about the new compressed raw format introduced by Canon starting with its mirrorless series of cameras.

History of Canon raw formats
Back in the early 2000s, Canon cameras produced raw photos in CRW format. Example of cameras shooting in CRW include Canon D60, Canon D30, Canon 10D, and Canon EOS 300D. Most of the cameras released after the year 2004 shoot raw photos in CR2 format. Examples of CR2 format Canon cameras include 350D, 6D, 7D, 5D, 5D Mark II and many more.
In 2018, Canon introduced its new mirrorless camera known as the EOS …

DSLR photography tips and tutorials for beginners