by Lawrence Cabal

Created on: May 29, 2008

An external flash is a very good addition to your camera. And you can do a lot and control the light on your pictures. Here are some flash accessories that you should have.

1) A good bounce card.
a. This is for those times that you will bounce your flash. There are expensive bounce cards but there are also do-it-yourself bounce cards. There are good websites out there that teaches you how to make your own bounce cards. There are a couple of good resources out there on how to make a good bounce card. Search in YouTube. If you are not the do-it-yourself person, then there are tons of bounce cards available in the market. There are plastic base or board based ones. It really depends on you preference.

2) Diffuser
a. For those situations that you shoot up close and not planning to bounce your flash. This will eat some of your flash power to avoid to much flare. This can be a tent a dome. Can be made of plastic or cloth. Up to the user what you want. A good do-it-yourself diffuser is the old Pringles lid.
3) Sync Cable / Flash Eye Sensor
a. This is for those that you want to use your external flash as a slave flash. Just remember that the cable has a limit on length and the flash eye sensor can go wireless.
4) Flash Brackets
a. If you want to get your flash further from your lens this is a must have. There are many manufacturers out there that offers some good products. An example is Stroboframe.
5) Small tripod
a. If you want to make your external flash as a slave flash, then you will need a small tripod to hold it in place.
6) Some Color gels
a. This is if you want to be creative and change the color of you flash instantly. You can be creative and have some funky looking photos when you use some color gels with your flash.
7) A soft cloth
a. This is just to wipe the flash down when a bit dirty.
8) A Spare battery
a. This can be ranging from AA batteries or most external flashes can be connected to external power supply. AA batteries are more economical. But having the external flash is having more juice. If using AA batteries, it will be nice to have those rechargeable ones with a fast recharge time.
9) A Flash meter.
a. To be able to make the lighting correct, you should get a flash meter. This will give you the numbers that you will need to set up on your flash and camera. This is really made for indoor/controlled shoots.

Have Fun with your flash!

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