Need Advice on Flash

[mario_saliba]

<p>Need some advice on flash usage for in church use. my primary camera is a canon 40d and I usually use a sigma 24-70 f2.8 and speedlight 580exII in ttl mode. The problem is that when I shoot the skin tones are a little bit dull.<br>

Does a diffuser really makes that difference?<br>

Is it the sigma that has to be replaced with a canon brand? or<br>

It is the colour balance that has to be adjusted (brings our yellowish colours)?<br>

Usually churches has high ceilings, and this does not allow for flash bounce. On another occasion, I did use the canon 10-22 wide angle with the same flash but this time bouncing the flash with the ceiling because the room was small and the ceiling was low. The results were far more better.<br>

I also tried to experiment with my other lens, 70-200 f2.8 canon without Is, to make closeup portrait shots in available light with a high iso (because of low light). But the results are not that satisfying. With a high iso (1250 upwareds) brings out a lot of noise.<br>

So I think that inside it is best to use the flash all the times.<br>

Thank you for your kind advice.<br>

Regards</p>

<p>Mario</p>

[cabbiinc]

<p>Well I would first ask for examples of a problem shot. Can you post one or two? Exif data in tact would also be helpful.</p>

<p>Where is your 580 mounted? If it's on the hotshoe then your still pretty close to the lens axis and straight on flash will look flat (no shadows, or not enough shadows to give a sense of depth). Putting the flash on a flash bracket and getting it away from the lens axis can help with this.</p>

<p>What aperture are you shooting at? I've found with my Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 Macro and it's pretty soft up to about f/3.2. If you don't mind soft pics that's not an issue, but if your expecting sharp pics it can be problematic.</p>

<p>If you can't bounce and your dragging your shutter in eTTL mode you will get color shifting. The flash will expose for the subject and not the background. That means that the background will not be affected by the flash and the natural color balance will show. That yellow hue is what the lights naturally put out. One thing you can do is to gel your flash to match the color of ambient. This is something I have yet to master and I do not recommend doing it on a wedding until you are very comfortable. http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-using-gels-to-correct.html this link will get you started. Again, someones wedding is no where to practice and you should be comfortable doing this in different environments. http://www.photogels.com/ this guy just sells gels cut to size with velcro. It's nothing you couldn't do yourself but this is already done for you.</p>

<p>Have you tried bouncing the flash? I've seen some pretty impressive results from 30 foot ceilings with high ISOs with bounced flash. If the ceiling is matte black your out of luck though.</p>

<p>Also you should at least be prepared to shoot with no flash at all. A good tripod will be needed for this. But if you can master shooting with no flash then you won't have the color shifting problem.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[picturesque]

<p>I agree with Dan--can't help you without seeing a sample of what you are talking about. The only thing I can think of is that the Canon flash tends to give yellowish white balance, and tends to underexpose.</p>