How to Shoot Portraits like a Pro using Canon's On-Camera Flash

/ L. David Likes Photography/

Hi, I’m Dave Likes

This Course that follows is like the missing manual to easily get great portraits shot with little or no experience. Just put the flash on the camera, choose the right buttons, use one of my techniques and you will get great portraits 90 percent of the time. What about the other 10 percent you ask? Learn all techniques I teach and lessons taught and you will hardly ever miss getting a fantastic portrait!

Learn to take fantastic photos with on-camera flash and not need expensive studio gear!

  • Learn the 5 techniques that will make you shoot like a pro and beyond with little effort.

  • Learn to use the power of Canon's advanced E-TTL technology, as it was intended, which will save you tons of time.

  • Watch over my shoulder as I show you step-by-step what buttons to push as I show you how and explain why.

  • Learn from practical examples I show throughout the course as I show how my techniques are far superior to standard flash shots.

  • How to use camera controls to adjust and control the brightness of your background with ambient light.

  • Where to focus your camera for the most consistent exposure.

  • The “secret setup” that will allow you to shoot fast without losing focus lock.

  • The clear explanation - after all this time - the exact settings for doing fill flash without underexposing your image.

    Scroll to the very top of the page and click on Photo Tips. Start with Chapter 1: Why Canon Speedlights are King.

Advantages of using Dave’s “Flash and Forget” Technique (FF) when you need accurate exposure

My “Flash and Forget” Technique (FF) utilizes combining Flash Exposure Lock (FEL) with Back Button Focus to keep the flash locked past 16 seconds. Here are some advantages of using this method for consistent exposure.

FF advantage #1: zoom and flash keeps correct exposure

For those that have a zoom lens. Did you know that after you do an FEL that you can zoom in or out and the flash will adjust for the correct exposure? This is so cool! It does not matter what the background is. It does not matter that you zoom. Your preset exposure remains constant for 16 seconds. There are some exceptions I’ve found. Some Canon zoom lens (as well if you use an off brand zoom lens) will not track exposure when zooming. If you notice this happening the fix is to turn off the zooming feature on the flash. Set it to a wider number like 24mm. Now you can FEL and zoom and get consistent exposure. Remember when you bounce flash it automatically turns off the flash lens ability to zoom, anyway.

FF advantage #2: After FEL you can still change Aperture and ISO and flash will readjust

Asterisk indicates Flash is locked (FEL). Make sure Lightning Bolt Symbol does not blink!

Did you know that after you do an FEL that you can still change ISO, Aperture and that the flash will automatically adjust for this? There is no need to push the FEL button for a second time. The lightning bolt symbol will blink when you switch to a setting that is too large for the batteries to handle. Simply change the settings until the flash stops blinking! A kind of side note is that in aperture priority mode if you adjust say your ISO where the camera will pick a higher shutter speed than that of flash sync speed (which is 1/200 second for my camera) that the shutter number in the viewfinder will start flashing. Again, simply change your settings until that stops blinking as well.

FF advantage #3: is you know when the flash is not powerful enough

The lightning bolt previously described will start blinking when you first press the button to do FEL if there is not enough flash power to take the shot. You usually won’t see it blink if your flash is aimed forward. But if you bounce flash at a higher f-stop number, you will see it. This is tremendously helpful! Now you can change several things to get the correct flash exposure. You can lower the aperture number or increase the ISO. Also you can move closer to your subject. Normal non FEL operation will not show this symbol blinking if the flash is not powerful enough for exposure. You are left in the dark when trying to decide what happened? This is especially true when you are combining flash with ambient light. Was the problem due to the flash or the ambient light setting? You just won’t know?

FF advantage #4: is that it is an indication when your flashes batteries are running down

If you are not bouncing flash and are using a normal f-stop setting on your flash yet the flash symbol blinks when doing FEL you know something is up? As the flash lightning bolt symbol will also blink when batteries wear down. By doing an FEL prior to every shot, it gives you an early warning. This is good information to know early on. As recognizing that flash recycle time is taking longer (indicating battery power is almost dead) usually happens pretty late in the game. If you use rechargeable batteries, as I do, it happens late and quickly without much warning.

FF advantage #5: is that it tells you your shutter speed is set too high when doing High Speed Sync Flash

High Speed Sync Flash (H.S.S) setting on your flash allow you to go to a higher shutter speed than 1/200 of a second. And is best used with the flash facing forward. Just know for now that the flash symbol blinks when you set your shutter speed too high. Another quick tip is to not try to do H.S.S. Bouncing flash and using H.S.S kill a lot of battery power. You typically lose more than 2 stops of power when using this function. And therefore it is not recommended for doing on-camera flash bounce portraits.

Remember when you bounce the flash to change the ISO if need be?

A tricky little thing that happens if you set your camera to auto ISO is that once the flash is turned on it defaults to ISO 400 and will not change from there. So if you need a different ISO setting remember to go in and change it manually yourself.

FF advantage #6: is that even in manual camera setting mode FEL still works when using E-TTL!

When you switch to M mode on your camera, you are no longer in a program mode. Now based on the lighting situation you have to decide which aperture, shutter and ISO value will be best for the scene? One advantage is that as long as you are still using E-TTL flash you can still use FEL and FEC for that matter. The flash will automatically track ISO setting and f-stop you set for correct flash exposure. This comes in handy when you want a little more control over the ambient light but don’t want to make the difficult calculations it would take to get correct flash exposure.

FF advantage #7: is flash exposure stays the same when recomposing the image

In portraiture it is the face. Most pro photographers are familiar with FEC and use it. The problem here is that anytime you move your subject in the viewfinder the exposure changes slightly. You end up taking extra shots to get the exposure back on track. With FEL you don’t waste any storage card space. Your flash remains consistent because you keep coming back to the standard reference point for metering exposure.  And you get the correct exposure every time.