What settings would you use?

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Hi guys

I know this really depends on the light but if you could take a guess at the settings it would be appreciative

I am taking photos at a bar tonight so lighting won’t be great

I have a new flash to try out. I’ll try and bounce it off the ceiling ?

I have a canon 70D and Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 lens

I want to get a lot of natural body / headshots

I haven’t used manual much. Normally stick to AV

Thanks
 
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I assume the flash has ETTL.
Put the camera to manual, aperture to suit ( f 5 ish) ,shutter at or below sync speed, flash to ETTL and adjust using flash exposure compensation, ignore the camera meter-it will show underexposed
The flash is acting as the main light, if you use AV mode the camera will try and get the correct exposure for the scene and will give you slow shutter speeds, in this case the flash is acting as fill light.
 
TBH I'd leave the flash at home. ISO6400, f2.0, aperture priority, unless that camera sucks for shadow recovery.
 
Might be a stupid question but at what point when increasing iso does it really affect the image quality? Like will you still get a crisp image quality at 5000 iso ?
 
Might be a stupid question but at what point when increasing iso does it really affect the image quality? Like will you still get a crisp image quality at 5000 iso ?

There's a lot of 'depends' - basically it's down to the camera sensor, then getting a decent exposure and processing it well. I'm happy to use iso6400 with my D610 in a (very) dark pub, and will get crisp, detailed shots when viewed up to about 1500 pixels on the long side, but if you're going to pixel-peep then forget it and stay below 400.

Example: 3200
Gospel Bell-5516 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr

Example 6400
GospelBell-7734 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
 
You could experiment at home to get a feel for it, but bear in mind your ceilings will probably be a lot lower. If the bar has dark wood panelled ceilings bouncing probably won't work too well either! I've only used manual flashes tbh, I would start with full power flash at 1/60 and f5.6 ISO 200, and then just chimp and adjust as needed. Remember your shutter speed has no impact on the exposure other than, in the case of lower shutter speeds, allowing more ambient light to appear in the shot. So aperture ISO and flash level are your variables. You'll get a similar exposure shot to shot if you are bouncing.
 
Personally I don’t like images that have obvious on camera flash. For this situation I would expose for the ambient light, fairly wide open, then add a some fill flash. I use a small flash bracket to get the flash close to lens and minimize shadows. Something like f1.8, ISO 3200, ETTL flash with -2 exposure compensation.
 
I got to liking the natural effects and convenience of ceiling bounce. But in pubs with dark ceilings any on-camera flash was too often unable to deliver enough light. So I ended up using a pair of really big old fashioned film era hammerhead flashguns on light stands in the corners of the room, plus a touch of direct low power shadow fill flash on camera. The results were pretty good, although people sometimes complained about the brightness of the flashes.

The problem is that now I've been to the funerals of all my old drinking companions I've kind of gone off drinking, so my bag of big hammerheads is now gathering dust. :-(
 
Might be a stupid question but at what point when increasing iso does it really affect the image quality? Like will you still get a crisp image quality at 5000 iso ?
On the 70d the quality will probably start to go a bit after about 3200 ish, you'll start getting more noise (grain for want of a better word) that said a lot depends on the finished size, I've seen some great shots of the 750d at 6400, but they are web size, you wouldn't want one 20x30 inch on the wall. It's whats good enough for you at the end of the day.
The exposure will also effect the result, shadows tend to show noise more, and under exposure will make it look worse.

Theres a link below about a 1/3 of the way down is a noise comparrison, click on the pics for a bigger view, it's shows you what it looks like up to 12.600.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM
 
Saw this a bit late. OP, remember that if you leave ISO on auto (on a canon), it will default to 400 when the flash is connected and switched on. Sadly, I only found out on a critical shoot and didn't understand why.

I was in Av mode, left ISO on auto (which remained fixed at 400), and shutter speed dropped progressively lower. Quite why I didn't realise and adjust ISO manually, I'll never know.
 
Another option if you want to use flash to capture the subject and mix with the ambient lighting - Manual mode, Set the Shutter to below or at sync... personally in a party situation I might start my first test shot at 1/60 or 1/30 then set the aperture and ISO to get the ambient light exposure I want. For example: Manual - 1/60 - f4 - ISO 800 .... then stick the flash on ttl, bounced behind to a desired bounce point and voila. Subject frozen sharp with ambient light still present. Just a starting point.

Neilvn.com is fantastic for learning on camera flash.
 
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