The Flash Compensation System

Written By David Michael

Flash compensation is a system that either increases or decreases the power of a flash from its initial automatic calculation.

A positive value will increase power and a negative value decrease the power, with each full number of compensation adding or subtracting a stop of light.

Flash compensation is most useful if you notice that your flash is consistently under- or over-exposing your subjects, or you find a particular shooting situation in which your flash struggles to calculate power accurately.

0.0 EV Initial exposure

+ 2.0 EV Brighter flash

- 2.0 EV Darker flash 

David Michael
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Working with Ambient Light and Flash Photography