flash and manual mode (Page 2): Yeppers. You get 10 points! :thumbup:...

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

billozz wrote:

is that whats known as "dragging the shutter" ?

Yeppers.
You get 10 points!

:thumbup:

billozz Loc: Birmingham, England

GoofyNewfie wrote:

Yeppers.
You get 10 points!

:thumbup:

thanks i added an edit to my original comment

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

billozz wrote:

is that whats known as "dragging the shutter" ? if i understand correctly your background is well lit by the abient light and the subjects have been lit with the flash.

If I may butt in...(and answer your question)

Yes, shooting with a much slower shutter speed than sync is called "dragging the shutter"

The reason you drag the shutter is this: the shutter controls the ambient light mix....the slower it goes...the more ambient vs flash you get in the mix.

The flash isn't affected by the shutter speed (for the most part) and so you have X amount of flash...and you "mix in" ambient by slowing down the shutter.

Here is a very good post by David Hobby demonstrating just that:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/09/lighting-102-33-balancing-flashambient.html

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

rpavich wrote:

If I may butt in...(and answer your question) br ... (show quote)

What rpavich said!
Strobist should be required reading.
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

billozz Loc: Birmingham, England

JR1 wrote:

This is the only link Canon owners will ever need

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html

on a similar thread would you recommend one off these for some shots i am going to take at a freinds wedding

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flash-Diffuser-Softbox-for-Canon-270EX-320EX-430EX-580EX-II-Nissin-Di466-Di622-/330912892242

Pentony Loc: Earth Traveller

MagicMark wrote:

Bill,

I always set my shutter to the highest sync speed possible (with most cameras that's around 1/200 or 1/250 of a second). Then I set my aperture. Usually I can guess pretty close what this will be (around f/5.6 to f/8) then I take a test shot and check my image to see if I need more or less light. Then I adjust the aperture accordingly. The shutter speed will effect the ambient light levels and the aperture will effect the flash light levels.

Hope this helps. :)

It helps me. Will adjust shutter speeds and see what happens. Thanks!

Pentony Loc: Earth Traveller

JR1 wrote:

This is the only link Canon owners will ever need

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html

What about Nikon users? Please post reference for Nikon users.

Pentony Loc: Earth Traveller

rpavich wrote:

If I may butt in...(and answer your question) br ... (show quote)

Thanks!

cthahn

billozz wrote:

can someone explain how i use manual mode with on camera flash. surely the camera cannot take account of the flash as it hasnt happened yet and in manual mode you would set your shutter and aperture to get the right exposure without the flash albeit that the shutter might be a little slower than you would like, how then do you factor in the flash. hope i have made myself clear.
thanks
Bill

Manual and flash is used depending upon the effects the photographer wants to have. That is one reason why good quality flash units have adjustable flash output, some down to 1/128 power.

cthahn

billozz wrote:

can someone explain how i use manual mode with on camera flash. surely the camera cannot take account of the flash as it hasnt happened yet and in manual mode you would set your shutter and aperture to get the right exposure without the flash albeit that the shutter might be a little slower than you would like, how then do you factor in the flash. hope i have made myself clear.
thanks
Bill

Manual and flash is used depending upon the effects the photographer wants to have. That is one reason why good quality flash units have adjustable flash output, some down to 1/128 power.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

JR1 wrote:

This is the only link Canon owners will ever need

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html

very interesting , Thank you.
Bob.

floridamet

Why do you want to shoot flash manual mode?
If you want to darken the background use a high shutter speed and stop down.
For better lighting take the speedlight off the hot shoe.
If you want to use the speedlight for fill light. Set the speedlight to minus (on the speedlight to about -1)
With the modern advance in flash technology, use TTL, from this old timer there nothing like it.

jgitomer Loc: Skippack Pennsylvania

billozz wrote:

can someone explain how i use manual mode with on camera flash. surely the camera cannot take account of the flash as it hasnt happened yet and in manual mode you would set your shutter and aperture to get the right exposure without the flash albeit that the shutter might be a little slower than you would like, how then do you factor in the flash. hope i have made myself clear.
thanks
Bill

Being a film era dinosaur I would go out and purchase an exposure meter with flash measuring capability. My process would be to fire the flash and use the reading of the flash meter to set my shutter and aperature.

If you don't want to purchase an exposure meter just do some controlled experiments. Pick an aperture that gives you the desired depth of field and then take a series of photos varying the shutter speed and/or ISO setting. Take notes so that when you look at your images you will know which settings to use in the future.

Jerry

Dewar Loc: Summer in MN & Winter in FL

If you are using flash in manual mode, there was a very important statement made by MagicMark. Put another way ...., "the shutter (speed) will affect the (ambient) background light and the flash (intensity and duration) will affect the subject (foreground)". It was always hard for me to realize that the shutter speed had relatively nothing to do with the exposure of the subject.

Toby

Mark's right. Shutter speed controls the ambient light and aperture controls light from the flash. You can also get into reduced flash power and high speed sync but that another discussion