Flash technique

TylerW

I'm predominantly a natural light shooter, but I've got an event coming up next week thats in a very dark club. While I've got some fast glass on reserve, I figure since I've got to deliver, I should start getting some flash technique down. I started playing this weekend, and this is about as far as I was hoping to get, and this was just after a day of tests - which to me means I can take it a lot farther. Any help for a complete novice flash lighting user would be greatly appreciated.

This is all done using a 580 ex flash unit, mostly bouncing off the ceiling and using the diffuser cup. Plans are in the works to build the better bounce card later this week. camera settings were manual, so were the flash settings.

dogwood

I've found ETTL on Canon strobes to be pretty accurate for this type of situation. I'd use manual on my strobe only if I had created guide numbers and was willing to estimate shooting distances.

The very best strobe modifier I've used is similar to the better bounce card but uses "fun foam" available at craft stores. If you search "fun foam" on the lighting forum over at dpreview you'll find hundreds of posts about making and using this diffuser. Best of all, you don't need a bracket or off-camera shoe cord or ceiling to bounce light off and you won't get red eye and it works just as well in portrait or landscape mode.

Here's an example:

TylerW

Is ETTL smart enough to know to vary the flash output depending on if the flash is oriented for ceiling bounce? I didn't experiment with ETTL much, since I didnt think it would do this.

LiquidAir

TylerW wrote:

Is ETTL smart enough to know to vary the flash output depending on if the flash is oriented for ceiling bounce? I didn't experiment with ETTL much, since I didnt think it would do this.

Yes. ETTL-2 uses a combination of a pre-flash and the focus distance to determine the flash power (and exposure depending on which mode your camera is in). In bounce situations it ignores the focus distance and uses just the pre-flash so it is less accurate but it works. Generally when I am bouncing the flash I find my 5D often underexposes by around a stop so I dial in +1 FEC and monitor my histograms as I go.

pathfinder

Tyler,

If you can get the flash off your camera, your images will improve significantly. Your pictures tend to have the hard lighting look of oncamera flash.

I posted this thread about off-camera use of a 580ex controlled by an ST-E2 controller 2 months ago. The camera(5D) was setup to shoot in manual with the speedlite in ETTL mode.

I used the white foamie bounce diffuser with the flash.

TylerW

pathfinder wrote:

Tyler,

If you can get the flash off your camera, your images will improve significantly. Your pictures tend to have the hard lighting look of oncamera flash.

Good idea and brilliant technique, but I'll be shooting candids in a very crowded club. I think my best shot at this would be to have the flash unit on a remote cord and holding it at arms length.

But, I'll take it to heart and see if I can't scare one of those up.

pathfinder

Camera in one hand and flash in the other. Lots of intoxicated revelers.

Sounds like fun:D

The ST-E2 can help autofocus quite a bit in a dark club. Even if you hold the flash in your other hand.

TylerW

pathfinder wrote:

Camera in one hand and flash in the other. Lots of intoxicated revelers.

Sounds like fun:D

lets not forget about the $1200 of glass that isn't mine on the front of the rig!

pathfinder

Good luck and have fun!!

Art Scott

TylerW wrote:

lets not forget about the $1200 of glass that isn't mine on the front of the rig!

You need to jump over to ebay and see if there are any stroboframe or custom brackets flash brackets....they may hold the flash directly over the lens but it is much better than holding the flash in your hand and trying to get great shots withthe camera......a bracket makes for a very stable outfit.

TylerW

Okay, one other question -

I'm trying to get the AF Assist beam / no flash trick to work, but I'm altogether stumped. I found the custom function for controlling the AF Beam and flash independantly, and have it set correctly, (or so I think: AF Beam fires/flash does not) and still the AF beam only ever seems to fire when the camera is in fully automatic mode, which means that it ignores all C.fn settings, which means the flash fires.

Any help with this would be hugely appreciated.

This is with a 580 ex flash unit on a Canon 10d.

TylerW

TylerW wrote:

Okay, one other question -

I'm trying to get the AF Assist beam / no flash trick to work, but I'm altogether stumped. I found the custom function for controlling the AF Beam and flash independantly, and have it set correctly, (or so I think: AF Beam fires/flash does not) and still the AF beam only ever seems to fire when the camera is in fully automatic mode, which means that it ignores all C.fn settings, which means the flash fires.

Any help with this would be hugely appreciated.

This is with a 580 ex flash unit on a Canon 10d.

Answered my own question. the AF assist beam only works with One Shot AF, not AI Servo, like I'm used to using.

Terrence

I just tried the "better bounce card" add-on using inkjet paper and was amazed at the results. I shot with the 50/1.8 in a room with a single incandescent lamp and was blown away by the lighting I was able to achieve with this technique. So far I am sold on this approach.