Aperture Priority Blur

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jonnybloo

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Ok, i feel a bit stupid asking this but just want to check im not doing anything wrong!

I'm taking shots indoors, poor light as its just house lights, when i use Av priority and the onboard flash (Cannon 550d) it sets the Shutter speed to 1 or 2 seconds and results in a lot of blur obviously.

I thought using the onboard flash would compensate for how its metering what shutter speed to use, but obviously not.

I do have some studio lights and use them in manual mode but with the shutter always at 1/200, is it the same with onboard flash? do you always have to use manual instead of Av as Av wont meter correctly in low light conditions?

Hope that makes sense!

Cheers

Jonny
 
if you have the flash on and are using aperture priority then the camera will assume the flash is just fill and will still expose for ambient light as if the flash wasn't there.

If you want the flash to be your main light then switch to manual at 1/200 again.

Alternatively you can do a bit of both, change your shutter to a lower shutter to get more ambient light in. This wont effect the flash.
 
Thanks Joe, its pretty much what i thought i had just convinced myself that i had used Av with flash before and not had the same issue. Obviously not!
 
Might also depend on the flash mode you're using. Maybe it's in slow sync or something similar? There is likely an option that will use something like 1/60 shutter speed and compensate by using the flash.
 
Look in your manual, in the custom functions somewhere there will be an option for 'slow sync' or similar. You can then change the custom function so that it uses a hand-holdable shutter speed range or sets it to a fixed speed. I remember posting an answer to a similar question a few months ago for a 500D I think it was, I'll try and find it later as its likely similar.

(They could have just made it simpler though like on my Minolta AF cameras where it uses by default between 1/30th and 1/125th with flash and if you want slow sync to give more background detail you just hit the 'spot' button and it activates it)

EDIT:

Found it: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=346564&highlight=slow+sync
 
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s162216 said:
Look in your manual, in the custom functions somewhere there will be an option for 'slow sync' or similar. You can then change the custom function so that it uses a hand-holdable shutter speed range or sets it to a fixed speed. I remember posting an answer to a similar question a few months ago for a 500D I think it was, I'll try and find it later as its likely similar.

(They could have just made it simpler though like on my Minolta AF cameras where it uses by default between 1/30th and 1/125th with flash and if you want slow sync to give more background detail you just hit the 'spot' button and it activates it)

EDIT:

Found it: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=346564&highlight=slow+sync
Click to expand...


Thats great thankyou very much, i will take a look at the options and see what i can figure out. Cheers
 
I found out that using AV is a no go for our livingroom M is much better,Shooting at 1/100 and f 8.0 then using ISO 400,Thats what i will be starting of on xmas morning so i get the background in of my daughters presenst while she is opening them,But then i want to get some close up shots of her so ill have it at f5.6 shotting at 55mm so i can have the background blurred a bit,So the focus is on my daughter.

Not very easy when you just have onboard flash but will have to do.
 
up the iso,that will give you a faster shutter speed.
but keep an eye on the photos as they might get noisy.
should be ok around 800 ?

play with the iso and use what light you have around you,that will give a better photo than using the on board flash
 
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I have had the same problem but upping the iso just didn't make any improvments,So if you living room is badly lit like mine you might have to go the flash way,ISO 400 is what ive gone to any higher i just get more noise with no better light coming in.

Doesn't help not getting much light through the window at the moment.
 
Basically, in Av or Tv the camera treats the flash as a fill in flash and bases the exposure on the ambient light

If you use P, the camera treats the flash as the primary light source and gives you an exposure based on the flash's output.

The problem with this is that it will give a very dark background. Experiment with P and M and see what results you get
 
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