I attended a Bedford photo walk recently and took a few minutes to play with a Westcott FJ400 flash on my Nikon Z6. I only shot for about 30 seconds and shot in manual mode so I could mix ambient and flash lighting. Since I have shot so much studio and outdoor flash, it is much easier for me to shoot and think in manual flash mode rather than TTL mode. With manual mode, I am the one controlling the flash and can dial in my lighting. When I shoot in TTL mode, I have to depend on the camera to dial in the flash. And while modern digital cameras are amazing, I don’t use them enough in TTL flash mode to really understand what they are doing with the flash. So since I am very experienced with flash, it is easier and faster to do the flash adjustments in my head.
Below are a couple of shots I got from the session – just with a single Westcott FJ-400 with a bare head. I much prefer bare head flashes over soft boxes.
