If you have High Speed Cameras or an SLR camera and you want to take full advantage of it. The moment will come when you will have to go through the automatic and semi-automatic modes, and go deeper into the abysses of the manual mode.
If you are one of those who have already taken the step, congratulations. Now the next thing is to shoot your external flash remotely. But if, on the contrary, you have decided to live comfortably with the flash mounted on your camera, you do not know what you are missing.
Light has a very predictable behavior, it is pure physics. We know for certain that a ray of light is reflected on a polished surface, such as metal or glass, at the same angle as the one that falls on it. Therefore, if we shoot in front of said surface with our flash mounted on the camera, you will obtain a bounce of that beam of light that will go directly to the sensor of your High Speed Cameras.
However, by shooting the flash remotely, you can make the same photograph by varying the angle of illumination, placing the camera in such a way that the reflection that occurs in the glass is not seen, obtaining a totally different result.
You will think that this problem can be solved also by shooting the flash bounced on the ceiling. Sometimes, it may save you the shot, but it will not always be possible. If the ceiling is too high, enough light will not reach the object or, also, it may not be completely white, with the consequent variation in color temperature that can ruin your photo.
One of the limitations that you have shooting your flash in TTL is that you simply make the machine calculate the correct exposure so that the photo comes out well lit. But if you shoot the flash in manual, you can get better results.
If you look closely, here you could have used the flash frontally and have filled in shadows but the image would have been totally flat. The correct combination of lights and shadows make the image copper volume.
Place the model laterally to the sun so that it illuminates the hair and part of the face, closes the diaphragm to limit ambient light to f/8, set the synchronization speed to 1/250 seconds, the maximum that the camera, the ISO to 100 and the power of the flash to 1/2 without any diffuser, because you are balancing the sunlight and you will need a lot of power.
