3.4 Flash

Figure 3-12: The pop-up flash is best used as a fill flash on a bright day. If you keep the Flash Compensation function set to -1, then it doesn't always look like you used a flash.

The A6300 includes a pop-up flash with an effective range of 6 meters at ISO 100 (guide number 6). Unfortunately, the pop-up flash cannot trigger Sony’s wireless flash (which I like a lot, and which is described in Chapter 13). You can attach a more sophisticated (and higher-power) compatible flash to the hot shoe, and optionally use that to control wireless flash. Still, the pop-up flash is a very handy thing to use, especially when all you need is a little bit of fill light.

You can control flash operation using the Fn --> Flash Mode menu. You can also control the flash intensity using the Fn --> Flash Comp. setting right next to it.

Now seems like a perfectly good time to talk about how the new generation of Sony cameras handles flash exposures differently than flashes from about five years ago. Have a look at the gray card test shots of Figure 3-13. The more experienced among you will know that the camera is programmed at the factory to reproduce an 18% gray card as 18% gray, and in fact the older cameras used to work that way. Newer cameras, however, tend to put more light on the subject – about one stop more, according to my tests. But I grew up thinking that flash should not really call attention to itself (see my blog post at http://bit.ly/1hI5msS), and so this new look just won’t do.

The remedy for this is pretty straightforward:

1. MENU --> 6 --> Exp.comp.Set --> Ambient Only
2. Set Fn --> Flash Compensation --> –1

Notice that list item 1 above sets the exposure compensation control to handle ambient light only (as opposed to Ambient and Flash). I keep the two parameters separate because there are times I want to tweak things by different amounts, for instance if the subject is backlit.

Figure 3-13: An 18% gray card should look like an 18% gray card when you take a picture of it (flash or no flash), as it did with the A700 and all earlier cameras (left). Recent Sony cameras (like the A99 shown above, and the A6300 as well) have been overexposing flash subjects by about 1 stop (center), and so to go back to the look I like I usually set my Flash Exposure Compensation to “-1” (right).

TIP 1: For technical reasons, the flash won't go off when in Silent Shooting mode (Section 7.25). Nor will the hot shoe trigger.

TIP 2: The fastest shutter speed you can shoot using pop-up flash is 1/160^th. However, with an accessory flash you can also use High-speed sync (HSS) and shoot as fast as 1/4000^th of a second, although the intensity of that light will be much lower.