Flash Advice Needed Please :)

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John
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Some flash advice needed please :)

I am a guest a quite a prestigious black tie do this evening in Nottingham! As ever I'll have my 40D with me and a couple of lenses (Canon 50mm and Tamron 24-75 probably)

There is no 'official' photographer at the occasion and there will be awards given out to folk. As my good lady wife is one of the organisers she has kindly volunteered my services to photograph some of the prize winners with their trophies (as well as a few 'top table' shots)

I have recently acquired a Canon Speedlite 580 EX II but I'm pretty pants at indoor flash photography and the ones that work are more luck than judgment I think :bang:!

So my question is - settings!!! Whats the most foolproof way of handling this? Stick my 40D on 'P' and the flash on ETTL and let the equipment do the thinking :thinking: (which is what I'm tempted to do!)?

Any advice very gratefully received!

I'll be off TPF by 3:00 pm today so if you post advice after that please don't think me rude if I don't acknowledge it until much later tomorrow once my hangover has cleared :)

Many thanks in advance!
 
As I understand it, if you use P mode in low light then the camera is going to attempt a flash-only shot, which means your backgrounds will be very dark and your pictures might suffer from "disembodied heads" syndrome. It will limit you to 1/60th - 1/250th, and I *think* that it won't let you shift programs either, can't remember.

If you use Av/Tv/M, you can meter for the background and just let the flash fill in the foreground, which often looks better.

I say all this on the back of an Experience Seminars flash course that I took at the weekend (recommended!), prior to that I could barely turn the damn thing on. No doubt someone who *really* knows what they're on about will pitch in shortly ;)

This might be a useful link to print out and read in the car on the way up!

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html
and
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index2.html

good luck!
 
Thanks blowback for taking the time to comment (and of course welcome to TP :))

If I get time to look at those links I will - although I'm now feeling a 'P' might not be advisable :)

Ta again!
 
have a play with AV and TV mate, real good flash that! also make sure you make use of bouncing the flash off ceilings and walls if you can, you get a more natural picture if you can.
 
Thanks JF - I'll give it some welly and maybe post some of the results at the weekend :)
 
what ever you do dont use P!!

just out of curiosity how long do you have until the event?

this is how I would do it myself.

use manual! go for quite a shallow DOF so a fairly wide aperture.

try and underexpose the whole scene by 1 stop, this will make it possible to highlight the subjects your shooting byt isolating them from the background. you will also be able to see some background dont worry.

also use your flash manually by setting it to M mode. you now want to set your flash to the same F number as your camera is. im not sure if the 540EX shows you a distance in according to the duration but i assume it will.

with the duration i set it so that it the distance it travels only slightly over shoots the subject. not to much otherwidse you will proberly end up blowing the subject out.

this is an example of what im trying to explain, i used these techniques to take this photo.

2665588654_26ba3340ab.jpg


if using a flash manualy is new to i strongly suggest experimenting at home first. it sounds abit much but when you learn how to use a flash manually you appreciated it much more and wont need ttl or ettl.

if you want anymore help send me a PM ill try and help
 
Chris - very grateful for the post! The do is at 7:30 I have an hour or so this PM before I travel up and maybe some time in the hotel as well!

I'll have a play in Manual!

Thanks again

John
 
John,

Have a look at youtube and put 580ex in the search box...there's quite a few basic things to watch.

Bob
 
another thing, you can always check the photos after you take them seeing as your using digital.

once you crack shooting manual you will be amazed at what you were missing out on.

play around with the exposure letting more and less light in using the aperture but remember to change the aperture on the flash.

good luck mate
 
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