The other day, I watched another of the seemingly endless videos teaching how to control your automatic exposure camera and TTL flash to get the right balance. I don’t have anything against auto-exposure, or TTL flash. But when I listen to the contortions people go through to trick the auto system, which was itself tricked by the scene….. well, wouldn’t it be easier to just set the camera and flash manually?
In the video, the photographer was trying to balance flash with daylight. To pull it off, he ended up dialing in minus 2 to 3 stops of exposure compensation in the camera (just to get back to a sunny-16 base exposure) and then plus 2 to 3 stops in the flash compensation to get to a good flash exposure. And that, after a lot of trial and error and chimping. And he’s the teacher!
The photo to the right is a good example. The photo was taken in mid-June, just a little after noon. I would have had a difficult time getting the “auto” exposure features to figure it all out. Instead, I just set the camera and strobe using a few, simple rules-of-thumb.
It’s hard for beginners to get their heads around why the camera misleads them, and then how to dial in an offset to adjust for it. My hypothesis is that it would be easier to learn just a few basics of exposure, and then set the camera and flash for what you want. Quick, done, get what you want.
Maybe it’s fear of having to learn something they think will be hard that scares people off. If only they understood how hard they were working, just to avoid working a little. I’m sure the same is true of human nature in other areas of learning as well.
