Simple strategies first. When shooting indoors in a small room with a white ceiling, be sure to bounce the flash off the ceiling by rotating the flash head.  This diffuses the light, creating softer shadows and prevents annoying red eye. Any flash can be bounced in the regular TTL mode.

If you are going to be shooting indoors in a large space with a high ceiling or a room with a colored ceiling, bouncing the flash is not an option.  In these situations it is very productive to use a flip flash bracket.

These devices move the flash to a higher position above the camera in a variety of ways whether shooting landscape or portrait mode, both softening shadows and eliminating red eye in more challenging photographic situations.  Use of a flash cord will allow you to continue using the TTL mode while shooting on a bracket. Here the next photo shows the bracket folded up for compact storage.

If you will be shooting lots of flash photos in a short period of time you might want to consider an external flash battery pack.  This plugs into the flash itself and provides an additional power source.

I use a compact battery pack, which holds 6 AA batteries and is small enough to slip into my pocket.

The use of this battery pack speeds the recycling of my flash, slows down the heating of the actual flash unit and allows me to shoot many more flash photos without stopping to change batteries.  When shooting events such as weddings these can be huge advantages. Both Canon and Nikon models are available for $150.  More powerful, more expensive units are available, but I find this unit meets my needs.  It is relatively inexpensive and very portable.

This may seem counter intuitive, but when shooting portraits or small subjects outside, use your flash. When shooting in shady or overcast situations the use of flash will add sparkle to your portraits and separate your subject from the background.

In sunny conditions the use of a flash will help to soften shadows.  A regular TTL setting can also be used in these situations.

Both the top of the line Canon and Nikon Flashes have commander/remote functions.  This means that when using more than one flash you can have the flashes wirelessly sync in TTL mode. Here I am showing the setup of a two flash pet portrait.

The flash that is in the left of the photo is serving as the key or main light and the flash above directly above the camera is serving as the fill light. The left flash is half the distance from the subject so that we have a two light set up with a 2:1 lighting ratio.  Both flashes are mounted on light stands. The built in flash on the camera is also raised, but it is not firing as it has been set to serve as the commander for the other two flashes.  Each camera is different so use your manual to set the built in flash to commander mode.  Always keep your manual handy.  It is not something that you read when you first get your camera and then file away.  It should be handy to serve as a reference every time you try something new or try something you have not done in a while.  The flashes are set to the remote mode using the menu on the back of the flash. To aid the photographer in setting the SB800 flash Nikon has hidden a little cheat sheet above the diffuser.

Also remember your flash did come with a manual which you need to keep with the camera manual and refer to regularly.

You notice in the set up photo I have a toy that I am using while I arrange the lighting.  Do not bring in your live human or pet subject until your light setting is perfect. The Nikon SB 300 has built in exposure compensation ranging from+3  to -3.  I am a Nikon user so I am more familiar with the features of their products.  After taking a test shot you can adjust the exposure,if needed,by pressing the + and – buttons on the back of the flash.  When taking test shots be sure to allow enough time for the flash to fully recycle. Here is a photo of Angel using this two flash setup.

Shadows are minimal, she is well lit and she has nice catch lights.  This is a portable setup that you can use anywhere.  If you do not have light stands you can use volunteers to hold the flash units.

Using these suggestions while shooting in TTL mode will help many photographers improve their photographic images.

Leaving TTL behind, one of the fun things to do with the flash in a manual setting is high-speed photography.  Expensive cameras have shutter speeds of up to 1/1000th of a second and while this sounds fast, it is not nearly fast enough to freeze the motion of a falling water drop, for example. A flash on manual mode with the power adjusted to 1/16th or 1/32nd of full output will fire at speeds fast enough to freeze a falling drop of liquid. A full power flash fires at about 1/1000th of a second and at 1/128th output fires at about 1/40,000th of a second, which will freeze just about anything.  Bear in mind however, each reduction of power not only increases the speed of the flash it also reduces the amount of light.  A reflector placed in front of the flash, on the far side of the subject will also speed up the firing time.  Set your camera on a tripod and your flash both on a light stand.  Then turn out the lights.  The flash will only freeze the action if there is very little ambient light.  Getting the timing down for this type of photography will take some trail and error and everything must remain stationary. The use of a flashlight is invaluable when working in the dark. The Cognisys StopShot is a tool, which will greatly help photographers who want to explore high-speed triggered photography.

For those interested in high-speed triggered photography I plan to write an article on the subject in the near future. Play with the various settings of your flash starting at 1/16th power until the motion is frozen in a way that pleases you, leaving enough light to illuminate your subject.