Much like regular exposure compensation, flash compensation controls the brightness of pictures lit using flash, and you can use it to change the look and feel of the pictures you make with mixed lighting.
If you make pictures using your camera’s built-in flash, or an add-on hot shoe flash, and you find the brightness is a little too bright or too dark, this can be changed easily with flash exposure compensation.
-1EV
0EV
+1EV
You can access this through the camera’s main menu:
- Press MENU OK and scroll to the FLASH SETTING menu tab.
- Select FLASH FUNCTION SETTING and then highlight the ±5 stop FLASH COMPENSATION scale.
- Use the camera’s rear control wheel to dial in a positive or negative amount, then half-press the shutter release to return to shooting mode.
You can also assign a place in the camera’s Quick Menu to flash compensation, which makes this quicker and easier to set if you’re working quickly and is probably a good idea for anyone regularly using flash. This does not appear by default in the Q Menu, so you’ll need to switch out one of the pre-existing options. To do this:
- Press and hold the Q button for two seconds while in shooting mode.
- Scroll to the Q Menu function you would like to replace with Flash Compensation and press MENU OK.
- From the list that appears, scroll to FLASH COMPENSATION, then press MENU OK.
- The flash compensation icon will now appear in the Q Menu. Half-press the shutter release to return to shooting mode.
Flash compensation is useful for more than just adjusting the brightness of flash-lit photos, however. When creating with flash and ambient light, both flash compensation and regular exposure compensation are useful.
Mixing Flash and Daylight
Using flash outside on a sunny day is a great technique and is easy to do – just pop up your flash, or put it in the camera’s hot shoe, and make images as you would normally for a daylight image. The camera will look after flash metering and balance the two light sources for you. But adjusting the flash power to daylight brightness (the lighting ratio) can give your pictures a very different look and feel.
By using flash as a supplementary fill-in light source, it’s possible to get rid of ugly shadows on your subject’s face caused by strong sunlight and brighten up subjects that are silhouetted by strong backlighting. To do this, you might need to decrease the power of your flash’s output so that it doesn’t take over and look artificial. Do this with negative flash compensation.
With natural light
With fill flash
On the other hand, if you want flash to be the dominant light source, try leaving the flash exposure compensation set to 0 and adjusting the exposure compensation on the camera to -1 to darken the background. This will make your subject stand out against a dark and moody backdrop. When using this approach in lower-lighting conditions, it’s advisable to activate the Slow Sync mode on the camera. Doing this allows the shutter speed to drop below 1/60 sec to maintain the compensation effect. To switch on Slow Sync:
- Navigate to the FLASH SETTING menu, then select FLASH FUNCTION SETTING.
- Navigate to the TTL MODE option and use the rear command dial to select TTL SLOW.
The secret to this approach is to experiment and see what works well in any given situation. Used together, these two compensation functions give you lots of creative control.
© Phil Porto
Your Next Steps
- CHALLENGE Photograph the same subject with varying flash compensation see how many different looks you can create. Post your favorite image to social media with the hashtag #MyFujifilmLegacy and #flash. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels