Do exposure and flash compensation work cumulatively?

[Vishwajit Negi]

Hi Sanjib, I am a new member and a student of photography on a learning curve like most. I have been fascinated by flash and artificial light as portraiture is a genre I wish to specialise in eventually. So been reading and practising using all sorts of artificial light ( speedlight, studio strobes, monolight etc) for some time now. Will add my two cents and hopefully it makes sense. When using flash you need to break up the process of taking your picture in to 2 parts or 2 different different exposures – one for ambient/background depending on how you want it creatively- dark and moody or natural with detail and then the other exposure for the subject which will be lit by flash. Balancing ambient and flash exposure is the secret and creatively you can go from natural looking shots ( where there is hardly any hint of flash ) to extremely artistic. Since you are talking of exposure compensation in camera, I am assuming you are not on manual but using one of the Auto or semi auto modes like Aperture or Shutter priority. And if you are also talking of flash compensation then I am assuming your flash is on TTL/Auto and not manual selection of power. If for e.g. you under expose your ambient using exposure compensation in camera then your Flash TTL will automatically throw that much more power to try and compensate for a proper exposure and vice versa. So its normally safest to first lock your ambient exposure in camera using the camera’s meter and as per your personal liking and then don’t change those settings. Then focus on lighting your subject with flash at whatever power gives you a good exposure. Your background exposure will not change. What I have realised over time is its best to use manual to first determine what kind of ambient exposure you want using shutter speed. And then light up your subject. I do it manually or with light meter but sometimes if in a hurry I use flash in TTL mode for auto exposure and then depending on whether I like the exposure of what the camera’s algorithm has generated, I can increase or decrease flash exposure using flash compensation or moving to manual power settings in the flash.

[Sanjib Mukhopadhyay]

Thnx!! Let me chk and I shall get back?

[Vishwajit Negi]

Sure happy to help to the extent I can….am always learning something new every time I use flash to control and shape light with or without modifiers