Canon Flash Question

Mike_McElhatton · #1 01-02-2005, 02:23 AM

Anybody who has used a Canon 1D or 1DMK II knows that Canon's ETTL/ETTL 2 flash system is just not reliable for getting consistent results. Sorry Canon...you just don't have it right on this one, at least not yet.

This has been the subject of tremendous discussion but by question here is to wedding photographers who are using the Canon EOS system. I find indoor shooting is not too tough; I use a Quantum or Metz Flash set to Auto and have my camera set to 60/5.6 or some other combination. The flash figures it all out pretty well.

But outdoors is another story entirely. If there is time, I set the camera to manual, set the flash for -1 stop, take a test shot, and get pretty good results as long as conditions are not so bright that I have a flash sync speed problem. It can all be worked out pretty quickly except when there is THIS WONDERFUL shot happing RIGHT NOW and there is 1/10th of a second to take the shot or it is gone forever. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't, at least not exposed as I want.

So what do you do for outdoor fill flash when you don't have the time to figure out a manual setting? I generally use Av mode but occassionally need to stumble around because things are too bright and I need to step down to get an acceptable shutter speed.

Mike

Pete_Riding · #2 01-02-2005, 05:43 AM

With a 1DII+550EX setup, indoors where the flash is the main light source rather than playing a minor fill in role I have the flash on at least one stop over, on ETTL, on evaluative, and the body on full manual with a shutter speed of anything from 1/30th to catch some ambient light to 1/100th to freeze movement, plus an ISO of 400 to give the flash chance to light as much area as possible (800 or 1600 if a large print is unlikely or if a wee bit of noise is going to be OK; I don't want to have to do extra noise reduction in post processing as it all takes time). The exposures are generally acceptable on default but I'm using the "expose to the right" principle as described on luminous-landscape.com to get the histogram as far over to the right as possible - where most of the data will be. Otherwise there's a risk of introducing noise in the shadow areas if I'm lightening in post-processing.

Outside where the flash is very much second fiddle to daylight I don't generally have to set it to overexpose. However I almost always have it on high speed synch as the chances of staying under 1/250th whilst on f2.8 or f4 are low. I'll often use ISO400 or drop to ISO100 for setpiece shots that are likely to be enlarged. I find the flash is more capable on HSS than you think it will be. Without wishing to insult you - are you sure its not a max shutter speed issue thats catching you out when in daylight?

I still get the odd disaster but I shoot in RAW - with the low cost of memory and the speed of CaptureOnePro converting I find there's no point in "risking" JPEG, but thats a whole other issue :-) Previously I shot with the D60 and I wouldn't dream of shooting flash in anything other than RAW for that one!