Anyone here shoot in Full manual mode camera and Flash?

This is a digital question only. I seem to have more control over my 20D with

580ex flash when I shoot both in manual settings. Do any of you shoot fully

manual. If not what are your settings? Thanks guys!!

Yes all the time. As a professional i have complete controll over my images.

Manual camera mode most of the time. Manual flash mode sometimes. When not in manual camera mode, I use AV or TV as appropriate, with compensations. When not in manual flash mode I use ETTL Evaluative flash mode with compensations.

manual mode on camera always but never in manual with flash. When bouncing/diffusing as I do 100% of the time it is too complicated.

I shoot manual outside and in dark halls where shooting aperture priority would give too long shutter speeds. If the light allows it, I shoot Av indoors because there are many different light levels most of the times. I do adjust for the scene in that case.

Manual mode with camera all the time, manual flash about half the time.

Manual mode indoors always with flash in ETTL. AV mode outdoors most of time, but sometimes MM if lighting is diffcult, with ETTL fill flash.

80% manual camera, ttl flash.

My camera is set to M and I use Metz 60 CT-4 and CT-1 flash units that I manually adjust.

 

For the most part at a reception, when it's usually dark, I'm set about F/4-8 and around 1/30-1/50 and the flash is around 5.6/400 most of the time.

 

Of course, your mileage may vary. This attached pic is from Sunday's wedding, it rained and was nicely cloudy outside, and I bounced the flash.<div></div>

Indoors, 100% manual. Flash on ETTL2. Like Ben said a few posts up, it just gets too complicated to calculate flash when you are bouncing it.

 

Outdoors or when there is a lot of light i use Av.

20d camera in manual indoors, av or tv outdoors; 580ex flash in ETTL evaluative outdoors, ETTL average indoors (CF-14)

My foto partner Craig uses all manual camera settings, the 1D mark2, with an all manual Norman 200b strobe. No idea how he can be so accurate, but he is! He even manual focuses most of the time. hehe, think he likes to suffer or something.

MANUAL! Even do guide number calulations in my Head, on the fly, for full flash and fill

flash. Manual focus. Heck, I even weigh out the grains of flash power to the gram in my

palm, F8 every time! Of course, it takes a few moments for the smoke to clear...

Always Manual >>> Flash & Camera ..

try this one<div></div>

Much easier on manual-- especially the flash. Can't make a mistake. It is all footage. Will never over or under expose. On automatic, the flash is reading more than just footage. It's from all those years of testing film. Using a manual Norman. But it's always perfect exposure when you measure the distance. The 580, with a dome, on a overcast day = is perfect @ 7ft.. manual 1/16.. ISO 100.<div></div>

For weddings, never ... do use Manual camera settings with ETTL flash, and ride the comp

buttons.

 

In the studio, always.

Just one image as example please. Bandwidth etc...

 

Also this is not really a thread asking for examples of images shot manually ;-)

 

Please take a quick look at the Forum guidelines. Thanks.

The reason I started this thread was because as many with my 580Ex on ETTL I seem to get exposures all over the place, so I am going to start shooting everything in Manual and work on footage to subjects. It has been much more accurate in my testing. The gowns will tell me alot more after this weekends 2 weddings. In manual flash I am getting more punch out of the camera when needed.

I mean't to say more punch out of the flash. Another thing, Wouldn't you have a more consistent bounce flash if you kept flash on manual instead of ETTL?

JEFFREy ::::

Yes, very consistant with manual--it will send out the same amount. Not reading a white dress, evaluate/average, etc....and trying to calculate the automatic parameters > in the camera itself. Once you know the manual ~ 7, 10, 12 feet ~ working distance of your flash...its a lot less brain work. Because of digital and CS2, I believe many would rather try and save their captured "improper" exposed image > with Photoshop. Instead of testing ?? With film we did not have that luxury. It was 80+ densities or custom work at the lab.

Count me as an automatic guy. Both camera and flash.

 

I'll dial in exposure compensation on either or both as I see the need. Automatic doesn't have to mean letting the camera make the decisions.

 

I found it easier to get consistent results on manual. I found that I operate faster after learning what to expect from auto mode, and then making minor adjustments on the fly.

 

 

Eric

Past a subject distance of maybe six-ten feet, manual ceiling bounced flash could be very consistent. However, when your subject is closer, some frontal spill from the bounced beam lands on them, making the flash exposure different. Some modifiers actually take the frontal spill of the bounced beam and either re-direct it (white card) or diffuse it further (LS). If you direct the head of the flash away from the subject, such as in wall bounce, and the elements stay the same distances from each other, manual bounced flash is probably very consistent.