off camera flash problem

<p>

First the setup:

</p>

<p>

EOS 5 -> TTL Shoe Adapter 3 -> Connecting Cord 60 -> Off Camera Shoe

Adapter OA2 -> Speedlight 550ex

</p>

<p>

The speedlight is sitting above the camera on a Newton flash bracket and has a

Lumiquest 80-20 on it using the silver foil reflecter.

</p>

<p>

The outcome is visible here:

<a href="http://www.loopback.net/badphoto.jpg">http://www.loopback.net/

badphoto.jpg</a>

</p>

<p>

All of the light is focused on the foreground subject with almost nothing to light up

the background. Most of this roll looks like this.</p>

<p>Is it the camera setup and replacing all of the connectors with the off shoe cable

2 would help?</p>

<p>Am I using the lumiquest wrong and this is the result one would expect?</p>

<p>Any advice, please</p>

<small>For what it's worth, I shot the wedding with the flash directly on the camera

using a stofen diffuser and everything turned out fine expect for a single picture that

looks like the above with the light focused just in one very specific place.</small>

<p>Thanks</p><div></div>

I have a few thoughts: There is a large difference between camera-subject distance and camera-background distance such that light fall- off is very apparent. It may be a very dim area that the flash accounts for the majority of lighting, and shutter speed may be too high to allow more of background to expose film. Also, the flash seems to be slightly canted upwards such that the face is exposed, but the feet are not. I think the 80/20 bounce device only "throws" 20% of the light forward, so I'm guessing that the ceiling is very high or dark. I got similar effects when I first got a flash when I placed set a custom function that places the shutter speed to 1/125 when on aperture priority. I would end up with a hot spot in the middle when using direct flash and very dark backgrounds with bounce flash. The solution was using Manual to expose the background or placing the shutter speed to best hand-holdable speed and aperture to the wider end (or use "P" mode). I hope this helps.

Is your shutter speed set at a high speed eg.1/250.

It could be a reason your background is so dark, if you are indoors you could

set it for 1/60 or lower wich would bring out the ambient light.

 

Neil

a few things:

 

1) you could have saved quite a few dollars by just buying the OFF camera cord instead of the three separate components (unless you plan on using the flash on a tripod, far from the camera)

 

2) the 80/20 requires LOW ceilings.

 

3) The ratio of flash/ambient light is easily controllable by setting you camera in MANUAL mode and setting your aperture to a desired DOF. Then, set a shutter speed metered on the existing ambient light. The 550 E-TTL will do the rest.

 

Keep in mind that if the shutter speed is too low (1/15 and lower) and your subject is moving you will get GHOST imaging (which sometimes it is a DESIRED CREATIVE effects, other times not).

Hi Bryan,

 

Your example is typical of leaving the work to automation.

Scenes like this are better shot in Manual mode where you can

set the aperture and shutter speed to read the ambient light of

the room (manually meter the background and leave it there

unless they change the light level a lot)), and then shoot letting

the ETTL flash illuminate (and freeze) the foreground subject.

 

Do the above, and you'll only need to toss out that LumiQuest

80/20 and replace it with a LumiQuest ProMax bounce diffuser.

The ceilings in many wedding reception halls are either to high,

or are a color...neither of which work for the 80/20 all that well.<div></div>

Could also just be that the flash wasn't fully charged. If you are shooting with the diffuser, you are blasting away at high power all the time. You didn't say which speed film you were using. At 100, your flash is working very hard.

 

If it's just one frame, I wouldn't believe that there is a problem intrinsic to your set-up.

Sorry Bryan, make that the LumiQuest ProMax Ultra Soft (looks

like the one in the picture above)<div></div>

Thanks for the answers so far.

 

I'm using the 80-20 with the silver foil insert so the ceiling hight (which was high)

shouldn't matter so much. I think the best advice so far is that my shutter speed was

too high, thus not giving the background time to expose through ambient light.

 

I was using Fuji NPZ 800 ISO speed film. It was *very* dark.

 

I'm afraid I don't understand the comment about metering the background and using

those settings with a difused flash. If I've metered correctly for the ambient light then

the flash shouldn't fire at all, right? And I'd wind up with some crazy 1/2 second f/1.4

setting if it's dark. Can someone explain that technique in a different way?

The flash will always fire and read the foreground subject to get

the exposure correct for that subject. That same light will not

reach out and evenly light a whole room however. If it did, the

foreground subject would be grossly overexposed. It has to do

with understanding that distance affects flash exposure.

 

So, if you meter the background and set a REASONABLE

aperture and shutter speed, the camera will expose the

background and lift it to a more natural looking level rather than a

wall of black. At the same time, the TTL flash will take into

account the ambient settings and cut the amount of flash

duration to properly expose the foreground subject (this also

helps soften harsh drop shadows from the flash).

 

The proof is in the pudding. The 2nd photo I uploaded this time,

that is similar to yours, was shot exactly that way. Despite being

shot at night at an outdoor reception, there is no wall of black

behind the subject (due to metering the background to get it

reasonably visable), but the subject is properly lit by the TTL

flash.

 

It seems to defy logic, but that's the way it works.<div></div>

Bryan,

 

I would encourage you to read "Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras" at http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ - flash photography by itself adds complexity, also it really helps to understand how Canon's (!) auto flash works in different modes and lighting conditions.

Mr. Bryan,

I agree with Mr. Oleg, about reading the article on Using Eos Flash system. Different exposure modes (ex. Av, Tv, M, P) read ambient light differently and use the flash also differently (as in fill or main light source). Our EOS 5 doesn't have E-TTL, only A-TTL, but I haven't really grasped the concept well yet. Your 550EX won't take advantage of the inherent E-TTL but will use A-TTL or TTL only on the 5.

 

BTW, what exposure mode were you using on "bad photo"? Manual? Program? In the Av mode, your camera was reacting correctly by choosing a slow shutter because the ambient light was not enough for a 1/60th. I've read in the other postings that they prefer to use manual in very low light and preset aperture to f5.6.

Marc, I am new to flash photography too and was wondering about how to meter the background as you have mentioned. Your photo of Alex looked great. Do you use the camera meter and point it to say an area in the background that best represent the ambient lighting, read the exposure setting, set this reading in M mode and keep it there, then keep shooting, ETTL will do the rest? OR do you use a light meter?

 

Thanks for your time.