High speed flash with telephoto lens

ttfmtrippttfmtripp Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
edited July 20, 2006 in Technique
I have been asked to photograph a school play and I would like to shoot using my telephoto lens at about 400mm. The light is very limited in the hall so I will need to use flash. I have a Canon 30D with a 430EX flash. I have managed to produce some test shots in the hall and using high speed sync flash option I was able to set the camera at a shutter speed of 400sec to prevent camera shake. The problem is if I set the camera to AV to control the shutter speed the camera underexposes the background because AV sets the flash to fill flash.

I want the flash to light the entire stage. Not be used as fill flash. To expose the background I would need to set ISO to 1600, if I want the shutter speed at 400sec. I then get grainy pictures.

Is there any way to set the camera at 400sec, low ISO and let the flash light the entire stage.

Comments

  • Shay StephensShay Stephens Registered Users Posts: 3,165 Major grins
    edited July 19, 2006
    Two words
    ttfmtripp wrote:
    Is there any way to set the camera at 400sec, low ISO and let the flash light the entire stage.

    Manual mode
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  • Antonio CorreiaAntonio Correia Registered Users Posts: 6,241 Major grins
    edited July 19, 2006
    http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=36568&highlight=flash
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  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited July 19, 2006
    Shay's correct.

    Use Manual Mode on the camera - leave the flash on ETTL and you should be fine.

    If the distances are greater than 20 or 30 feet, you may still have to boost the ISO, but in Manual Mode you get to determine the aperture and the shutter speed. The flash will then try to emit the correct amount of light for the chosen aperture and shutter speed. This will of course, look like a flash illuminated shot, not a filll flash shot.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

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  • ttfmtrippttfmtripp Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited July 20, 2006
    Manual vs Shutter priority
    pathfinder wrote:
    Shay's correct.

    Use Manual Mode on the camera - leave the flash on ETTL and you should be fine.

    If the distances are greater than 20 or 30 feet, you may still have to boost the ISO, but in Manual Mode you get to determine the aperture and the shutter speed. The flash will then try to emit the correct amount of light for the chosen aperture and shutter speed. This will of course, look like a flash illuminated shot, not a filll flash shot.

    Thanks for your quick replies. There doesn't seem to be anything in the camera manual which states that Manual Mode does not use Fill flash.

    The school play is today and I am rather nervous about being the school photographer, so I want to get things right. The really nice thing about digital is that you can take test shots just before and view the results. How can we ever get things wrong?

    I just wonder how we ever coped with using film cameras. I will probably be taking about 200+ pictures tonight. With film that would have cost a fortune!

    www.steves.smugmug.com
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