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What is a speedlight flash? Strobist Photography Tutorial Series on Off Camera Flash



This is the first in a strobist photography tutorial series about Speedlights – what are they? Why and when you should use off camera flash? I’ll even teach you some great strobist portrait techniques.

A speedlite is simply a small battery powered flash that is designed to work both on and off camera. Speedlights have grown in popularity even among studio professionals because of their small size, light weight, quick set-up and tear down and best of all – price.

The term Speedlight was actually coined by Nikon in the 1960’s. It was used to describe Nikon flashes that weren’t built into the camera. Canon quickly adopted a variation by spelling the word this way – speedlite and today most companies refer to their standalone camera mounted portable flashes using one of those two terms.

Just like the film cameras of the 1960’s, the original on camera flash units were manual – always putting out the same amount of light. Then companies like Vivitar released units like this 283 which was one of the early Automatic flashes that worked by using a sensor mounted on the front of the flash. This Vivitar 283 is one of my favorite flash units of all time. Then as technology progressed, TTL flashes became common place. TTL stands for through the lens and means that the camera monitors and controls the flash to give you the proper exposure for your scene. And now companies like Yongnuo have reverse engineered the more expensive Nikon and Canon flashes to make speedlights very affordable if you are willing to sacrifice some of the build quality.

In 2006 Maryland based photographer David Hobby began the Strobist® blog and since then the term strobist has become the label attached to any photographer who uses this type of portable flash, even though Mr. Hobby registered the trademark for the name in 2010.

Speedlights have traditionally been the starting point in terms of lighting for most new photographers because they are generally less expensive than studio lights and much more portable, which really opens up a lot of creative possibilities. Now just because they are a starting point – don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to move on to bigger more expensive studio strobes – that’s not the case at all. I’m going to talk about the differences between speedlights and monolights in the next video – but I assure you – most photographers will have at least one speedlight in their kit for their entire career.

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28 responses to “What is a speedlight flash? Strobist Photography Tutorial Series on Off Camera Flash”

  8. Awesome as all your other videos Joe, so happy to find your youtube photography series and never get tired watching them. great to learn from a professional and having fun by learning too. Thank you for putting too much effort and your great job buddy. 🙂

  17. Hi Joe! Thank you very much for the whole channel, I really enjoy watching your videos, they are very instructive and enlightening and have actually improved my skills. I ran some tests on my speedlites and was baffled by the following: I set two 580EXII to fire ettl and took a shot at 1/8000 fully manual, then did the same but my flashes at manual full power both and the resulting picture was darker. If possible, Could you please shed some light on this matter? (pun intended) Thanks again and please keep those vids coming!

  19. The LumoPro 180, which is now the 180R, when used with a Phottix Odin II, allows you to tap into the 180's TTL feature but only works with Canon or Nikon cameras (as of now). A bracket is needed but, as a corporate event shooter, I can say it works flawlessly. Or as good as TTL can get. LOVE my LumoPro. I will never buy the Canon or Nikon equals again.

  20. Hi Joe. I love your videos. I am a newbie to flash, on and off camera. From my reading on the subject, am I correct in assuming that TTL is for a specific brand? I have a Pentax, so I think its P-TTL. I have seen 3rd party speedlights that are compatible with the different brands. Penatx seems to be a little harder to find. When considering HSS, does the same brand specific apply?Thanks, Joe

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