Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

My camera sucks in low light. It's okay. I've come to terms with it. I actually feel a little better knowing I'm not alone and it's not something I'm doing wrong. I've invested in a 50mm fixed lens with 1.8 AV to help compensate for it's poor performance in low light and it helps but only so much. I'm considering investing in a mounted flash for my camera. I don't do any professional work, but I am asked by many family and friends to take photos at parties. For instance, I attended a friend's daughter's sweet 16 and missed out on many shots because they were blurry or my on camera flash (which is horrendous, but I can sometimes work around) is very slow. Soooooooo, what would you suggest? Is there an inexpensive mounted flash option? I'd be willing to spend a little more on it as long as I can use it on whatever Canon I upgrade to in the future... the far, far future. lol! Soooooo, let me know what you think! And thank you all again for all of your help, I really would have no idea where to start otherwise!

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

i got one from Amazon... it came bundled... i was ordering a smaller bag for my camera and it came with the bag, 2 tripods, a battery charger, and stuff like that...

I actually attmpted to use it for the first time yesterday and had no clue what i was doing lol

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

Haha I honestly don't know how to use it either. I thought it would just go. Hmph. Interesting.

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

by tried it... i mean i put it on took about 5 pictures of jessie and they were all weird looking so i took it off and when outside with her instead lol

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

Vivitar TTL DSLR Bounce Flash for Canon Eos Rebel DSLR Cameras (amazon) all you need is the bounce flash and some decent rechargable batteries and that is it. This will help.

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

Thank you! That sounds like what I'm looking for !

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

I have an XSI and use a Speedlight ex430 (or 430 ex). It works well for low light indoor settings. I would also suggest trying as much as possible to put the flash at a 45 degree angle so the light bounces off the ceiling on the subject. Also you can use a flash diffuser (frosted cover that costs a few bucks that goes over the light). If you shine a flash directly on the subject you get good lighting however you get that washed out effect.


Sometimes you need to use the flash (low light indoors), but if possible I try and avoid it to prevent the washout. If you use the 50mm with aperture priority to an F stop in the 3 to 4. depth of field and turn the ISO to 400. (You can get more light in with a lower F stop but then you get VERY shallow DOF.). One other thing, I'm not sure what software you use to process your photos but if you use something that is meant for RAW files (Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom) you can shoot your pictures a little on the dark side and turn up the exposure to normal later. Most of them have a way to rescue lost lowlights (i.e. too dark). It's almost better to have an image that's slightly under exposed than over exposed.

I'm by no means any kind of professional, but I can give you more info if you need it.

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

Thank you! This has been extremely helpful! I'm not any good with editing yet. I'm waiting to find out what kind of software they usually use in the class I'm going to be taking so I can get that one. I tried playing around with Photoshop Elements and was completely lost. In the interim, I've ordered the Vivitar 383 bounce flash and a diffuser for it! It should be shipping today so hopefully I can play around with it before I head to a friend's wedding this weekend.

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

No problem. What class are you taking? I actually took a class at Nassau Comm. College and it was cheap (like 50 bucks or something) for 9 sessions. We had assigments and everything.

As far as the programs, while elements (or full on photoshop) allows you to edit pictures I feel that aperture or lightroom are better tools. Basically photoshop allows you do serious edits one photo at a time. However, aperture and lightroom allow you to deal with a ton of raw images at a time and develop a "post production workflow" for your pictures to rapidly categorize and perform a bunch of quick edits. Photoshop and elements are only needed if you want to do more serious stuff like add people into pictures.

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

Re: Mounted flash for Canon Rebel XS.

If you are just learning and not going in to business you can get a cheapie bounce flash from Amazon or BH. My first one ws a Phoenix for $99 and it did/does the job. The 430 is going to run you a few hundred, so unless this is something you are considering taking further than just a hobby don't invest too much.
Regarding editing, call me a snob but you want to get it right IN camera first before you start to creatively edit. I see so many people "fixing" bad photos with editing when they could have just taken the time to learn what to do correctly first (and yes I'm talking about "pros")
Good luck! And feel free to FM me if you need anymore help