close-up with Elan2e and 380EX

[monsak_pimsarn1]

Hi all

 

I have the elan2e and 380ex and want to use this combo for close-up.

When i choose the Av mode in close-up photography, it always gives me

the low shutter speed. But sometime i want to freeze the action of

butterfly or bees. So how can i do to get this, please help.

[kevin_han]

When you use flash, it'll do all the motion stopping. Not the shutter. I doubt if you'll be able to illuminate the close-up subject if your 380EX is on the hotshoe.

[william_hahn1]

Someone referred to this useful site in the original Q&A:

 

http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/faq30/flashfaq.htm

 

Hope it helps....

[ivan_vitev1]

Hi Monsak,

 

The above answer tells the story - the flash will stop the action. You also have at hand CF #8 or #9 - I forgot, you have to check the manual - to set the shutter speed to 1/125 s. This combiation gives superbly exposed slides. (I use it with Sigma 105 EX Macro.) I attach a Sto-Fen Omni bounce and raise the head of the flash just a little bit above its click-stop position (then it resets to 50mm vs 105mm) which probably further softens and diffuses light. I am almost sure though that the 105mm setting will work fine. I get evenly lit macros. No flash exposure compensation is necessary with midtoned subjects (which is not the case with fill flash where my camera-flash combo tends to overexpose).

 

And the flash is mounted on the hot shoe.

 

Ivan

[kevin_han]

Okay. Any movement is easily stopped because most of the light illuminating the subject during exposure is from your flash, which fires for not more than 1/1000 of a second. But for the flash to work this way, you'll need to close the aperture enough so that even at a shutter speed of 1/60, there won't be enough light reaching the film to cause prominent blurring from camera shake. How much aperture depends on the amount of ambient light available. Usually I don't think about all this. I use f/16, shutter at 1/60 or 1/125 and everything in full manual since TTL will decide exposure. Flash is on a dedicated cord.

[nguyen_toan]

On the flash, there's a swith that allow you to do High-speed sync. Have you tried this?

[kevin_han]

Synchronizing with a shutter of 1/4000 brings the guide number to less than 10m. Not worth it unless you're doing fill-in.

[gary_voth]

At the typical apertures you need for minimal depth of field in close up work (f/11 is common), having too much natural light is rarely the problem. I highly doubt he would need anything like 1/4000 of a second. However, Monsak said he is using aperture-priority, which is the equivalent of slow-sync in the Canon system. So, without compensation the camera is automatically balancing flash and ambient for a 1:1 ratio: a prescription for image blur at slower shutter speeds.

 

Monsak, what you need to try is to use the 'M' mode to set your aperture manually to f/8-f/11, and choose a shutter speed of 1/125. Then, in most cases with slower films, your flash will become your main light source and camera shake will not be a problem. Alternatively, leave your camera on 'AV' but dial in -2EV or greater exposure compensation. This will retain some ambient light as fill but allow your flash to freeze the action.

 

If you are in a really bright light situation you may have to use the high-speed sync feature on your strobe. Although your GN is reduced, your stobe is typically only a foot (or three) from the subject and therefore you should be within exposure range.

[monsak_pimsarn1]

Hi all;

 

First of all, thank you so much for the helps. I finally find that if i set CF 9 to 1, in AV mode at every aperture the flash sync speed is always automatically set to 1/125. And i presume that this will give me the ,at least, correct exposure, please correct me if not true. So i understand that both background and foreground will be properly exposed. And for light breeze, this shutter speed would be enough to stop the motion.