My husband the enabler! *Help needed*

[WillowBelle]

Today is my birthday . My Dh bought me the Canon 580exII speedlight as one of my gifts. I don't physically have it in hand yet. It's on the UPS truck as I type. I have ZERO idea how to use a flash like this.

Here's where I need help....

My DD is in our local theater's production of Alice in Wonderland. Tonight they are taking photos of the kids in groups in their costumes. What type of settings would I need to put the flash on to not blow out the kids? I have a Canon 50D camera. I'm assuming that the kids will be somewhat backlit with the stage lights. The lights in the theater will probably be on (?), but they are pretty dim. I don't want to completely wash out the photo. Any suggestions?

TIA

 

[VVFF]

Today is my birthday . My Dh bought me the Canon 580exII speedlight as one of my gifts. I don't physically have it in hand yet. It's on the UPS truck as I type. I have ZERO idea how to use a flash like this.

Here's where I need help....

My DD is in our local theater's production of Alice in Wonderland. Tonight they are taking photos of the kids in groups in their costumes. What type of settings would I need to put the flash on to not blow out the kids? I have a Canon 50D camera. I'm assuming that the kids will be somewhat backlit with the stage lights. The lights in the theater will probably be on (?), but they are pretty dim. I don't want to completely wash out the photo. Any suggestions?

TIA

Just like how the camera meters the built in flash it will also meter the 580ex. The major advantage is that the larger flash has wider coverage, is more powerful so it can be used at longer distances, and can be reflected to give a more natural light.

 

[annnewjerz]

Can you tell your DH I really want the 80-200 f/2.8 and my birthday is less than a month away??

You shouldn't have any problem with your flash. (With Nikon anyway) the flash works with your camera metering to get the proper exposure. So basically, you can slap the flash on, put it in whatever mode you want (I usually use A mode) and everything sort of adjusts itself from there. If the photo looks too bright for your taste, my speedlight has exposure compensation to dial down the flash a bit, I'm sure yours does too.

If you can, depending on how high the ceilings are or how close to some sort of wall you are, try to bounce your flash to diffuse it a little. It'll look less harsh than just shooting straight on.

Investing in a diffuser for your flash would probably also be a good idea. I use the Gary Fong Lightsphere and it works great (albeit a little bulky to pack up and bring with me places).

Good luck and have fun and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

 

[WillowBelle]

Can you tell your DH I really want the 80-200 f/2.8 and my birthday is less than a month away??

You shouldn't have any problem with your flash. (With Nikon anyway) the flash works with your camera metering to get the proper exposure. So basically, you can slap the flash on, put it in whatever mode you want (I usually use A mode) and everything sort of adjusts itself from there. If the photo looks too bright for your taste, my speedlight has exposure compensation to dial down the flash a bit, I'm sure yours does too.

If you can, depending on how high the ceilings are or how close to some sort of wall you are, try to bounce your flash to diffuse it a little. It'll look less harsh than just shooting straight on.

Investing in a diffuser for your flash would probably also be a good idea. I use the Gary Fong Lightsphere and it works great (albeit a little bulky to pack up and bring with me places).

Good luck and have fun and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Ann.....I'll see what I can do for you but no promises, I have 3 different lenses on my wishlist for Christmas. Really hoping for the fisheye, but we'll have to wait and see. Those will set him back a bit. He also got me a 20" screen for the computer to help with editing!!!!!

I did read a bit about the flash and it does dial down. It looks like it's pretty smart (i.e, so I don't have to be) when talking to the camera. So I'm really hoping that I don't have to sweat it too bad in front of the whole theater trying to figure out how to work it.

It also has a small built in diffuser that you pull down and drop over the light. I'll have to try it both ways to see which I like better. I've seen threads on the Gary Fong one and actually have one for the popup flash on my wishlist, guess I can go take that off .

 

[disneyboy2003]

Congratulations on your new flash! Yes, the Canon 580EX II is very smart! I, too, was pretty intimidated by it when I first got mine a couple years ago.

It wasn't until about 2 years ago at Walt Disney World when I finally built up the courage to walk around with it and test it out. I usually take pictures using Manual settings, and no matter what crazy aperture / shutter speed settings I had, I'd still get great flash-exposed pictures! My foreground subject was always properly exposed by the flash.

Turns out, these external flashes have "TTL metering", which means they automatically determine how much flash to give off, regardless of your camera settings.

You can still control how much flash is given off, too. If, for example, your subjects end up being over-exposed by the flash, you can decrease the "flash exposure compensation" (or FEC), as Ann mentioned. To do this on your flash, you press the center button on the wheel, and turn it counterclockwise. Each turn changes the FEC by 1/3 stop, so turning it counterclockwise will give a -1/3 FEC. So if your subject is overexposed by a full stop of exposure, try adjusting your flash to give a -1 FEC. You'll have to do some trial-and-error stuff to see what looks best.

The only thing you may want to do to make your flash pictures look their best is to adjust your camera settings so that you expose for the background. It took me a while to figure out that I'm supposed to use the manual camera settings to give a proper exposure for the background, and the external flash can pretty much do the automatic "TTL" exposure for the foreground subject. That way, you don't get that typical flash picture look, where the foreground subject is bright against a completely black background.

Anyway, congratulations again on your new flash! It's probably one of the most important accessories that your husband could have bought for you! It'll open up a whole new world of possibilities for your photos!

(after you've mastered photos using your external flash, you'll then need / want to learn how to use off-camera flash, multiple flashes, wireless triggers, etc. I haven't gotten anywhere near this level yet. )

 

[Quicklabs]

No advice, since I just got my birthday speedlight as well!
Just a wish for a very happy birthday!

 

[annnewjerz]

No advice, since I just got my birthday speedlight as well!
Just a wish for a very happy birthday!

Any chance that was your gift from Augusta and Grace? I wonder if I can convince DH that the dogs owe me something for my birthday---it is only a month away, after all.

 

[wenrob]

Like mentioned the speedlight will "talk" to your camera so it shouldn't be too bad. If you use the little pull down diffuser keep in mind that it limits your distance so you don't want to be too far away from your subjects. If your back round is somewhat dark or dim I would drag the shutter and make your flash the main source of light.

 

[mabas9395]

I am still very new at this, but since I have both the 50d camera and the 580exII, I'll chime in.

Whether you use Av mode or Manual mode will give you very, very, very different results (read this for more info http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index2.html#confusion).

In short, in Av mode you set the aperture and the camera picks the best shutter speed to expose the background correct, even if that means a full 2 second exposure or a 1/500 exposure (use HSS) then lets the flash fill-in the exposure for the foreground subject. If your kids are on a dark stage, you just migt get very long exposure times. But if they are bright in the spotlight, it might be very short.

In Manual mode (for camera exposure, not manual flash), you pick both the aperture and shutter speed to try to expose the background as you see fit and the flash properly exposes your subject. Some times you can acheive an even exposure, but often you may have to go -1 or -2 EV on the background, but thats OK and much better than a 2 second exposure.

With stage lights, you never know what to expect. And the camera/flash metering may get easily fooled by the lighting, so M might be the way to go. Thats what I would do, expecially if you have the chance to practice a bit first.

I see now that the night for your shoot has past. Care to show us the results?

 

[WillowBelle]

Like mentioned the speedlight will "talk" to your camera so it shouldn't be too bad. If you use the little pull down diffuser keep in mind that it limits your distance so you don't want to be too far away from your subjects. If your back round is somewhat dark or dim I would drag the shutter and make your flash the main source of light.

I didn't end up pulling down the diffuser, thankfully. Can you put into simpler terms what 'drag the shutter' means. I prefer to not use a flash, ever, so this is all new to me.

I am still very new at this, but since I have both the 50d camera and the 580exII, I'll chime in.

Whether you use Av mode or Manual mode will give you very, very, very different results (read this for more info http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index2.html#confusion).

In short, in Av mode you set the aperture and the camera picks the best shutter speed to expose the background correct, even if that means a full 2 second exposure or a 1/500 exposure (use HSS) then lets the flash fill-in the exposure for the foreground subject. If your kids are on a dark stage, you just migt get very long exposure times. But if they are bright in the spotlight, it might be very short.

In Manual mode (for camera exposure, not manual flash), you pick both the aperture and shutter speed to try to expose the background as you see fit and the flash properly exposes your subject. Some times you can acheive an even exposure, but often you may have to go -1 or -2 EV on the background, but thats OK and much better than a 2 second exposure.

With stage lights, you never know what to expect. And the camera/flash metering may get easily fooled by the lighting, so M might be the way to go. Thats what I would do, expecially if you have the chance to practice a bit first.

I see now that the night for your shoot has past. Care to show us the results?

I just read last night that using the flash in Av mode it becomes a fill-flash. That was the mode that I put it in . I don't think they came out too bad. It drained the batteries QUICK. Got about 1/2 way through the play before I was back to using the lowest fstop and upped ISO to get them in. I struggled with metering also. The stage lights were killing me! I found that most of the time using spot metering would help keep the balance throughout the picture, kept the mainly lit character from blowing out.

I can post a few, later on today. TBH they are still sitting in my camera. The play doesn't open until Friday night, so I didn't want to post on my smugmug or facebook page where family would see the picture so as to ruin what things would look like for the show.

No one comes here, so I can safely post away without ruining it for everyone else.

BTW, thanks for the link - off to read it now.

 

[wenrob]

Dragging the shutter means using a slower shutter speed to give the back round time to expose while the flash exposes for the subject. Your back round might be a little blurry but your subject will be frozen by the flash. I did it here, bouncing the flash on a wall to the right. The room was almost completely dark.
ISO 400, f/2.8, SS 1/40

When you drag the shutter you don't really have to worry about the camera's exposure, this obviously showed on my meter as way under exposed. I stick around 1/30-1/60 for shutter speed just because I'm comfortable hand holding at those speeds.
To save on battery power for your flash bump your ISO up a little bit. As long as you're getting a good exposure the noise won't be too bad.