External flashes

[mom2rtk]

that's interesting, I use my flash all the time and never get comments

as for needing your flash outside at wdw, not neccessarily, but it can be quite useful, I use mine for parades when I'm in an area with partial shade, or for shooting charachters on top of floats with a brite sky behind them

here is an example from the other day, the bright sky would have caused lumierre to be a sillouette, if I gave a plus exposure comp I'd have blown the sky, so I used my flash, keeping the sky and lighting lumierre the way I wanted him..

That's a beautiful shot!

 

[MICKEY88]

That's a beautiful shot!

thanks

 

[Brad M]

Thanks for the help. That makes sense. We can't find in the online manual how to set the fl-50r to slave mode. We also googled it and tried youtube with no luck. Can you provide some guidance on the steps she needs to take to set this flash to slave mode? Thanks again!

Brad

 

[JoeDif]

If the 50 is set up like the 36 there should be a mode button on the back. Cycle through the modes until you get to SL auto and SL manual.

 

[manning]

If you use your external flash anywhere outside, be prepared to get some strange looks/comments from people who either wonder why you would use your flash in broad daylight or wonder why someone with a big camera set up isn't smart enough to figure out how to turn their flash off.

I get it all the time.

I know what you mean. After getting comments a few times I told one person the sun light was lowered by half to save on energy And I needed the flash.


Jethro walked away happy.

 

[disneyfan551]

Oh my....I need help! My flash won't pop up on my D50 anymore. I'm pretty sure that my 8yo dd pushed it down during a picture, and now I just don't know what to do. I'm afraid to take it somewhere...it will probably cost an arm and a leg! Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there maybe a setting that I am just overlooking that is causing it to not pop up? (Obviously, I am a PnS photographer... )
Any help is greatly welcomed!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

When you say it won't pop up, do you mean it won't pop up automatically when in auto mode and a flash is needed? Can you try putting it in manual mode and hitting the button or whatever your model usess to pop it up manually?

Do you have an external flash? You should still be able to use that. But you should still have it checked out.

I know my Canon Xti had a similar problem last summer, but was under warranty so they replaced it for me.

 

[GrillMouster]

In anything but Auto mode you must pop up the flash manually. You do that by pressing the little button on the left side of the flash.

You said "D50", which is an older Nikon DSLR, so I'm assuming the manufacturer's warranty has expired. Did you purchase an extended warranty? Years ago I bought a refurbished D50 as a backup cam and got a cheap Mack warranty with it. I ordinarily don't go for extended warranties, but in this case is was super cheap (like $8 or something) and since the camera was refurbished I thought it might be a good idea. Well, I haven't used that D50 regularly for a while, and a few months ago I noticed sensor blooming in the form of a solid red line appearing in my images. It was still within the Mack warranty period, so I sent it in. They sent it to Nikon, who replaced the sensor and did a bunch of other stuff. I got it back a few weeks ago and it's BETTER than new. Its high ISO performance is substantially better than it was previously, so I'm wondering if they used a better sensor from one of their newer models. They also upgraded the firmware (I thought I had already installed the latest firmware).

For those who are interested, the Mack warranties are available from BuyDig or BeachCamera (same company) for dirt cheap. Just make sure that the one you get covers the value of your camera. Additionally, it's okay if you bought your camera from a different retailer than you buy the Mack warranty. You just need to buy and register the warranty within so many days of buying the camera. For info, on Mack, check their site, MackCam. You'll find mixed reviews of them online. I've only dealt with them this one time and everything was grat. Even though I had my other primary DSLR, I felt like it took forever to get the D50 repaired. In retrospect, I guess 2 months turnaround (including mail time) is fine, considering Mack had to send it to Nikon after they saw that they couldn't repair it themselves.

 

[mom2rtk]

In anything but Auto mode you must pop up the flash manually. You do that by pressing the little button on the left side of the flash.

When I had my problem, I could still pop it up manually, but it would no longer pop up on its own in auto. I was just curious if the OP had a similar problem.

 

[kenny]

Leaving in 4 days and hoping to get some better pics on POTC and HM now that I have a AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G.

Have a D60 so don't think I'll be able to go above ISO 1600 without lots of noise.

What would you suggest, aperture or shutter priority?

 

[Golf4food]

Leaving in 4 days and hoping to get some better pics on POTC and HM now that I have a AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G.

Have a D60 so don't think I'll be able to go above ISO 1600 without lots of noise.

What would you suggest, aperture or shutter priority?

Manual.

If you have to choose a mode then shutter is probably safest as the camera will more likely choose the fastest apeture more than it would choose a fast enough shutter in ap mode. Bump the iso as high as you can get cleanly and then tweak the exposure in post processing.

You can fix underexposures problems a little (assuming you are shooting in RAW), but you can't really fix blurry (which is more likely to be the problem in ap mode than sp mode).

 

[zackiedawg]

I use aperture priority, set to wide open. Set your ISO as high as you can stand, aperture as open as you can get, and see where that gets your shutter speed. You'll probably want to be not much slower than 1/100 or so with a non-stabilized lens and moving boat. With stabilization, you can get away with 1/60 or so, just enough to stop the boat movement. You may find F1.8 and ISO1600 isn't enough to get the shutter speed you want; if not, consider adjusting the EV as needed. Also, I tend to use center-weighted metering to help meter or control the highlights with the spotlighted characters and scenes - matrix-metering too often blows highlights from what I've seen and results I've gotten.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

Not to hijack this thread, but what about 30mm f1.4 with inbody stabilization, what settings would you recommend.

 

[kenny]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I would be shooting RAW. Was staying away from Manual as I find I have a hard time adjusting everything quickly and still getting the shot I want.

The 35mm F1.8G does not have stabilization. The kit lens does but doesn't offer the speed or aperture I think I'll need.

Thanks for the advice on EV. Will have to make that adjustment if can't lens can't get the shutter speed I need.

 

[SportsChick]

I got some great dark ride photos at 3200 and 1.8 with my Canon T1i. FI tried on his XTi at 1600 and 1.8 and struggled with enough light

 

[Gdad]

I would set it to Shutter Priority at 1/40th and 1600 ISO and fire away. Better a dark picture than a blurry picture.

 

[kenny]

I got some great dark ride photos at 3200 and 1.8 with my Canon T1i. FI tried on his XTi at 1600 and 1.8 and struggled with enough light

Thanks. The D60 will do up to 3200 but not very well. I'll try it but think it might end up with too much noise.

 

[Bstanley]

I would set it to Shutter Priority at 1/40th and 1600 ISO and fire away. Better a dark picture than a blurry picture.

I agree 99% (I set it to 1/30th or 1/50th sometimes).

I have a Canon Rebel XS - ISO 1600 is the camera's limit. I tried various settings on my December trip and setting Shutter Priority with 1/40th or so worked the best by far. Especially if you are going to be shooting RAW - since there is at least another stop of data in the RAW file. I was using the f1.8 50mm (Plastic Fantastic I believe some call it) lens. The biggest challenge was focusing - it seemed the camera struggled a bit - I ended up trying manual focus and I struggled a bit as well (where did the split screen of my FTb go?).

The moral of the story - 1600 ISO is just enough to get a Dark Ride picture, but it isn't a sure thing...

 

[scoot241]

On my XSi I used the Sigma 30mm f/1.4, ISO 800 or 1600 depending on the ride, and shutter priority locked into 1/50 of a second. Worked great for me.

 

[ThurlFan]

Another vote for shutter priority. On slow moving rides like Spaceship Earth you'll want to be at 1/40 or faster; faster moving rides (or those with a higher number of moving elements like Pirates and Pooh) you'll want to be 1/50 or faster. Also, I used spot metering. Most of the time on Pirates and Haunted Mansion the camera was complaining that aperture was too low, so if I had been in Av mode the shutter speeds would have been slowed far too much to get a clean image.

Here's some examples using that strategy a few weeks ago with my Canon XSi and f/1.8 50mm prime with an ISO of 1600. In all cases, the camera selected f/1.8

1/40

1/30

1/50

1/50

In a couple instances our ride vehicles stopped, allowing me to spin the shutter dial and get a slower speed. Here's the result:

shutter 1/20 (still resulted in camera selecting f/1.8)

shutter 1/25 (still resulted in camera selecting f/1.8)