r_s22

<p>Hi Bob, the problem is, the flash did fire. I saw it go off. But as others have said, perhaps it just wasn't at full capacity and my eyes couldn't see the difference?</p> <p>Do you know of any good videos / tutorials that show detailed versions of your suggestions (using bounce cards, domes, etc.) so that I can get a better idea of exactly where to aim the flash, how to set up that sort of attachment, where to stand and so on? I know I can google it easily enough but so much comes up in those searches, if you know of any particular page with that type of information, I'd definitely appreciate being pointed in the right direction!</p>

<p>Unfortunately, it was totally random. The entire shoot was only about 10-15 minutes long! In that time, I only took about 40 pictures total. The darkness / discoloration problem occurred after only about 5 minutes of NON-heavy shooting. The batteries were brand new and fully charged and I wasn't overworking the flash at all. I took less than 20 shots in those 5 minutes. The batteries were still fully charged and the flash seemed to be firing and showing ready lights as normal, that's what was so weird about it.</p> <p>In contrast, last week I had a 2.5 hour shoot in a much darker, more difficult location and had no problems at all aside from the occasional misfire. The week before that, I had a 4 hour shoot and went through multiple sets of batteries but the flash functioned without a problem. So when I say this seemed to happen completely out of nowhere and for no explainable reason, I mean it quite literally. I didn't do anything to tax the flash that shoot and had barely gotten started. It worked fine for about 18 or so images and then, without any changes to the camera / flash settings, position, location or ambient light, the pictures started coming out dark and overly red.</p>

<p>Forgive me if it's a stupid question, but if not bouncing the light, instead pointing the flash directly at the subjects, aside from playing around with the exposure compensation, is there any way to make the light look better?</p> <p>I've never used a softbox - can one be attached to a flash in the hot shoe position when it's facing forward? If so, is there a particularly good one to use (on the 380ex but also for the 600ex-rt since I'll probably rent that for most similar shoots and just have the 380 as a backup)?</p> <p>Or are there any other specific accessories that I should look into for getting better results in that type of lighting with the setup that I have? At this stage, I'm not looking to bother with multiple flashes, stands, remote triggers, etc. because this type of photography is not my primary line of work and when I do use flash, it's sparingly and for fairly small, low key events.</p> <p>Obviously, if I start doing larger events of that sort then I'll want to learn more about the various options. More likely, at that point I'd try to temporarily intern for or assist someone who specializes in that type of work. But for now, I'd just like to maximize the results that can be obtained with a single hot shoe flash, so any advice on that would be wonderful.</p>

<p>Thanks, Thomas. The settings I used were recommended by someone whose primary work is flash photography in this kind of light, and I was very happy with the first batch of photos until this weird thing started happening.</p> <p>I know that it's an older flash and doesn't have the same level of power or durability as the 600ex-rt (which I've rented a few times and will do again); however, just last week I shot a religious ceremony in a dark room with extremely high ceilings and was reeling off a ton of pictures - far more than this mini wedding here - really working the flash hard, and had no problems at all. Occasionally, it would need a moment to recharge but nothing more than the usual.</p> <p>My main concern is why this has never happened before even when shooting in similar circumstances with the same equipment. And if it was just a matter of the flash needing a minute to be at full output, I did allow time for that once this issue started happening and it didn't help. It had plenty of time to recharge, the ready light was definitely on and it looked like it was firing at the same capacity as it had been doing in the beginning. Granted, I'm not so experienced with using flash that I can say that with one hundred percent certainty but to me, everything looked and worked normally aside from how differently the pictures were suddenly coming out.</p> <p>I suppose if it happens again I can try turning down the shutter speed, upping the ISO (like I did this time), and/or dialing down the exposure compensation to aim it straight ahead instead of bouncing. But again, I've done far more demanding shoots with this flash before, in similar settings, and this seemed very different from the usual misfire / need an extra minute to recycle situation. I just wish I knew for sure!</p> <p>Either way, hopefully I'll be able to work around it better next time...</p>

<p>I did think about that but in this case the flash was firing just fine. I allowed enough time for it to recycle and it was going off normally. Again, there were indeed some instances before that where it misfired because it hadn't finished recharging, but those photos look a bit different and things went back to normal within one or two of those dud shots, as always happens. This seemed to be something else entirely.</p> <p>Is there any chance it could be some freak thing like a speck of dust on exactly the wrong part of the flash or lens that was somehow blocking the light? I've never heard of such a thing but I honestly can't think of what would have caused this to happen. It was really, really strange.</p> <p>Or are you suggesting that the flash was firing but not at full capacity? I mean, I wasn't exactly firing shots off in rapid succession and once this issue arose, I did give it a minute to see if it needed time to rechage but that didn't seem to help. I've shot in far darker (near pitch black, darkly surfaced) settings before with the same flash and never had this happen.</p>

<p>Sorry, I should have clarified but the position made no difference. Those are just select shots to show you what was happening but I took pictures from all over the room with no problem at first, and then suddenly all pictures, no matter where I stood, started coming out like that. In fact, I had shot several photos from that exact position just moments before and they looked great. That's why it's so bizarre!</p>

<p>That's what I thought the problem was at first but the batteries are the Duracell ones where you can press on the meter to see how much charge is left. They were brand new and indicated a full charge when pressed.<br /> <br /> Also, the flash was definitely firing. I've certainly encountered bad batteries on previous shoots or times where the flash was being overworked and needed a moment to reset. However, in this case everything seemed to be completely normal. The batteries were good, the indicator lights were fine and the flash went off as it should have - just as it was doing for the first few minutes where everything looked good. But the images were suddenly coming out all wrong.<br /> <br /> Additionally, I used the flash 15 minutes later when we went to the park to do outdoor portraits and there was no problem. The settings were exactly the same except that since we were outside with more light, the ISO was lower. However, all of the other settings were identical and in shadier areas, the flash worked perfectly.<br /> <br /> So I'm completely at a loss and would really like to understand what could have caused such a thing to happen, and how to avoid or deal with it in the future. It was a very distressing and frustrating experience, especially since I have no idea where the issue came from and it happened so suddenly with no changes to either the location or settings.<br /> <br /> *EDIT* I should also mention that the flash DID misfire a few times before because I tried to shoot too quickly and it wasn't finished cycling, and the look of those bad / flashless images is clearly different. They're even darker (you can tell the flash just didn't go off) and the color is balanced. Also, as normally happens, the flash was fine after one or two failed shots and the images that followed looked normal. However, when this unknown problem suddenly kicked in, it just kept happening, and the images are slightly less dark and also VERY red. They just have a different look to them than the typical misfire.</p>

<p>Hi, this is a bit of a strange situation so I'm really hoping someone can help me out. I shoot a lot of concerts, theatre, etc. where flash is not required but generally haven't done much indoor portrait and private event photography. So I've really only started using flash this past year and am still getting the hang of it.</p> <p>At the moment, my main setup is a 5D III with a Speedlite 380ex using the hot shoe with a basic plastic diffuser.</p> <p>I had a short shoot in a dimly lit room today (just a bride and groom signing papers and exchanging rings, nothing fancy) and I used a 24-70mm 2.8 II lens, using a colleague's recommended settings for indoor event flash photography, bouncing the flash off the ceiling. At first, it looked just fine. The lighting was even and nicely colored and I was really happy with it.</p> <p>Then, after about 5 minutes, without changing the settings, location or anything else, the photos very suddenly started coming out incredibly dark and poorly colored. I realize that sometimes the flash doesn't fire properly and/or needs a moment to reload but in this case it WAS firing. Yet the pictures were almost pitch black. I had to bump up the ISO to 4000 just to get the lighting to acceptable levels, but the coloring was extremely red. I took a bunch of pictures and the results didn't change. The flash kept firing but the images had completely lost the earlier balanced look.</p> <p>I've attached 3 sample photos (screenshots of the RAW files straight out of the camera; faces are pixellated but otherwise unedited). As you can see, the first image looks normal, the second is with identical settings and the flash did fire but it's completely dark, and the third is what it looked like after I bumped up the ISO to compensate.</p> <p>If it helps, the RAW Properties are as follows:</p> <p>EX 1 (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/6cil3bsu7r166rp/ex1.jpg?dl=0" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/6cil3bsu7r166rp/ex1.jpg?dl=0</a>)<br> ISO 400<br> F-stop f/2.8<br> Exposure time 1/160 sec<br> Exposure bias 0 step<br> Exposure program Manual<br> Metering Mode Pattern<br> Flash mode Flash; compulsory<br> Focal length 24mm</p> <p>EX 2 (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/7192qar5p9fz2i7/ex2.jpg?dl=0" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/7192qar5p9fz2i7/ex2.jpg?dl=0</a>)<br> Same as above, but ISO 500</p> <p>EX 3 (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca2qipf2f5kjtml/ex3.jpg?dl=0" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca2qipf2f5kjtml/ex3.jpg?dl=0</a>)<br> Same as Image 1 but ISO 4000 and Focal length 70mm.</p> <p>I have no idea what on earth happened here. I can see this sort of thing happening if I changed the settings or if the flash stopped working or if we switched to a different location but there was literally no change - from one shot to the next the photos just suddenly started coming out very dark and discolored.</p> <p>It wasn't the batteries because brand new ones had just been put into the Speedlite when the shoot began and as I said, the flash was indeed going off. Granted, I've only done about 10 shoots that used flash but this has never happened to me before and was completely bizarre.</p> <p>Can anyone tell me what might have caused this and what I should look out for or do in the future if it happens again?</p>