XSi and 580EXII

Hi All-

I have rented a Canon 580EXII Speedlight flash for this weekend. I am going to be shooting indoor arenacross

(motocross). I have never used a flash before! The flash will be here today(fri) and I am leaving in the morning for the

race. I will be using a Canon 70-300mm f4-5.6 and a Canon 70-200mm f2.8(Rented also) for lenses.

Question is this:

What settings to get me started? I am comfortable shooting in full manual, but have not done so with a flash.

Thanks

Scott

Another question is white balance--should I use AUTO or a custom WB?

Thanks

Scott

If you're shooting RAW, don't worry about your WB. You can correct it in post. If you're shooting JPG, AUTO will cause you problems as it will make different choices on every subsequent frame. You'll probably want to manually set a white balance for the arena's lights.

If you're comfortable shooting manual, set your manual exposure as you normally would. Leave the 580 in ETTL mode and dial up or down the FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation) until you get the amount of light you want. If you set your manual exposure a little low (under exposed 1-2 stops), you'll get dark backgrounds with prominent riders. If you expose properly, your flash should just add some fill. How close will you be? The Flash can only throw so far.

Another thing to consider is that the XSI and 580 can only sync at 1/250th of a second. That's not going to stop a lot of action if you're planning on using the flash for action shots. You can use the high speed sync mode, but it will severely limit the distance that the flash will reach.

Benjamin--

Thanks for the reply!

I just got the flash and lens in the mail, and there is no manual included, so this is going to be a real learning on the fly type of deal!

Yes I will be shooting RAW(is there another way? LOL)

FEC--thats on the camera correct? Or on the flash?

I have a track access pass so I will be about 10-20 feet from the racers.

Will the High-Speed Sync work for fast action shots if I'm within 25 feet?

Thanks

Scott

You can find manuals online, most of the time. Here's a link to a thread about the 580 EX II manual: http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00LUqk

I asked about RAW vs JPG because i often find that during sporting events I switch over to JPG in order to get more shots in the buffer/faster write times to the card. RAW definitely makes corrections easier, though.

As for FEC - you can likely control it on the camera or flash. With the 580 series flashes, I prefer to do it on the flash because it's faster and seems to make more sense to me. (go to flash to adjust flash output, body to adjust ambient exposure.)

I don't know how to calculate if high speed sync will work at 25'. Depends on your aperture, I suppose. If you're shooting pretty open, you'll likely get some fill. Someone else is better qualified to say how much. My action photography is usually daytime and often snowy. I did shoot an outdoor, night football game that proved challenging for me using a 20D, 70-200 2.8, and a 430ex. I think you're probably best off setting your ISO and Aperture to get the highest shutter speeds you'll need (1/1000th?) to stop motion and put the flash on HSS. If you get some extra fill, excellent.

Here is a cheat sheet of sorts for your flash (and a few others as well) http://www.night-ray.com/PhotoCheatSheet.pdf If you look down to the 4th page you will see that you can get coverage at f/2.8, ISO 100 up to 66 feet. Now that will be at 105mm zoom on the flash. That means that the flash will cover the width of a 105mm lens. You will probably want to set the zoom on the flash to automatically stay in sync with your lens. Check the manual for how to do it but if you have the double square symbol next to your mm selection (on the flash) then your good.

This cheat sheet also tells you that when you go into HSS (High Speed Sync) that you lose one stop of light, and for every stop in speed that you exceed the X-sync by you lose one more stop of light. So for you to shoot at 1/500th at f/2.8 you would basically calculate as if you were at f/4, and maybe add a little just to be on the safe side.

The easy way to do this is to shoot in Manual mode. Set your shutter speed to stop the action (fast) or to include ambient (slow). I would start out at your X-sync speed to try to stop the action. The fact that the flash's duration is so brief and that will be lighting the subject may very well stop the action just fine (I've never done motorcross). Set the aperture for the throw of the light and set the flash to TTL. The TTL system is designed to make your life easier and it will if you work within it's parameters. At 25 feet f/2.8 the depth of field probably won't get the crowd very well.

For white balance it would be nice to be able to do a custom white balance before the event starts. They aren't hard and can be done with a sheet of paper. Getting that nailed for Jpeg use can really speed up post production.

Speed set to X-sync. Aperture set to acceptable flash range/DOF. Flash set to TTL. ISO set to acceptable range to make it all work but low enough not to create noise (you didn't say which body you were going to use).

Good Luck

Dan

Benjamin and Dan--

Thanks for all the help and links!! Much appreciated!

Dan- the body is XSi so I will only get ISO up to 1600.

I'm downloading the manual for the flash right now, and I'll be reading it over a few times today!

Scott

I guess the title did say which camera you were using. My bad.

I'd try to stay away from ISO 1600. You could probably push 800, but I would be more inclined for 400. I have shot some pretty decent stuff at 800 on my XTi but 1600 looks miserable.

The auto zoom on the flash only works when the flash head is aimed straight ahead. The 580 lets you tilt down too, and that disables the auto zoom feature. So if your trying to get that box symbol to come up next to the zoom setting make sure the tilt is set straight ahead.

Dan

Hey guys-thanks again for all the help! Here is a shot from the race-

ISO 1600

SS 160th

F2.8

Flash on but couldn't tell ya what flash settings were? That thing still has me confused :-(

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