RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

I am new to DSLR photography and trying to learn how to take photos using the manual mode, but I don't know what I am doing wrong.
I am shooting flowers with my Canon T2i. I am using the kit lens 18-55mm with one 12mm extension tube. It is a cloudy day and I have my white balance set to cloudy, have the mirror locked up and am shooting in RAW. I am using manual focus, hand held and a few inches away from the flower. The aperture comes up 5.6 and I dial the shutter speed until it is in the middle it comes up 1/320 and I depress the shutter speed. I hear a click and then about 20-30 seconds later another click, but the neither the image nor the histogram ever comes up on the LCD screen, and it is never recorded on the card. The same thing happens if I use aperture priority mode.
If I shoot in auto the flash pops up and the picture comes up right away.
If I use the "close up " setting, the aperture reads 5.6 and 1/160 shutter speed. This image also comes up right away on the screen and is stored
in the camera.
There is plenty of light outside; it is in the middle of the day. I do not know why the flash pops up.
I also do not know why the camera is setting such a slow shutter speed with an aperture of 5.6.
Can anyone help me to figure out what I am doing wrong. Please

Granddad Loc: UK

Why have are you having the mirror locked up? You are only taking images of flowers which doesn't need the mirror to be locked up. When you say a cloudy day is it dark like stormy dark. The setting you have on your camera suggest to me that it is cloudy but there is a lot of light coming off the clouds to give you a reading of f5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/320, that is a fast shutter speed.
The flash pops up when the camera thinks there is not enough light in auto mode. I don't think that 1/160 is a slow shutter speed if it is a cloudy day and it's a bright cloudy day and the f stop is f5.6.

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

I'm not sure what is happening but you really don't need to lock up the mirror if you are hand holding the shot. What happens when you shoot in manual without the mirror locked up? Do you get the image or not?

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

It's the mirror lock up I'm sure.

It acts funny unless you use the timer modes...

Try either not using mirror lockup OR put the camera on a 2 second timer and see if that does the trick.

wrr Loc: SEK

or could it be that since using an extension tube (without contacts) that you should put the lens on the camera, manually set it to f5.6, remove lens and put extension tube on, lens on and try that.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

Thanks, I'll try without mirror lockup.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

Thanks for your help. Will give it a try

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

Read somewhere that to get sharp closeup photos you should eliminate the slight vibration the mirror makes when taking the photo.
If I don't need it, will certainly unlock it.
It is a bright cloudy day, and I guess I expected a shutter speed of 1/500. I was really surprised when the flash popped up.
Thanks for your help

jimni2001 Loc: Sierra Vista, Arizona, USA

If you are shooting in raw your white balance will not matter. It is set in post processing. The white balance that is recorded is what the camera sees through metering. You will also find that raw photos while holding more information are not quite as sharp as jpeg. I always shoot in raw mode and sharpen in post processing. When using an extension tube you need more light, teleconverters and extension tubes reduce the effective f-stop. This is probably why your flash is popping.

CocoaRoger Loc: Cocoa Florida

This may sound lame but expierement. It's digital, it doesn't cost you money to make mistakes but you'll learn a lot by doing so. Different shutter speeds, different f/stops and different exposure compensations and or ISO and you'll learn pretty quickly just how it all comes together. And the mirror lock up in my opinion is not necessary at all for that. Think of it as a triad---ISO, shutter speed and aperture. 2 out of 3 won't get you what you want. Start with those three and take pictures and see what you get, then you'll learn to see how it all works together. Also, keep an eye on the information in the viewfinder when you use a priority mode and notice what the camera is choosing and lastly, when shooting RAW you should have all of the exif information attached so when you open them you can quickly see which ones are good and those that aren't and you can see what the specific differences are in the images. There's a lot of reading and video's you can do but nothing will surprass practice and once you've practiced, practice more and after that all you have to do is practice again. It's digital, even if you don't know what you're doing take a photo, make a change, take another and another and just ''play'' with the settings if you need to but you'll start to see a pattern in the settings for the good shots and you'll learn. And remember this, even pro's who may spend hours waiting if not days for what they hope will be the perfect light at the perfect time only expect or hope for about a 10% return in ''keepers''. I've found that to be about average for me too. I go out almost everyday and even in the backyard take photos of anything and everything--birds, squirrels, butterfly's, bees and insects, flowers, clouds, patterns in the fence boards or bark on a tree, a faucet handle with the sun at an angle, water drops on the clothesline, anything. And I'll take 300 or so in a couple hours and it's true, about 1 out of 10 is one that I think I did something right or good and the rest are trash. As they say, you learn more from your mistakes than from getting something right the first time so make mistakes, figure out why it's a bad photo compared to the one that came out great and see what you did differently. I'm just a hobbyist, and just got my first DSLR last winter and knew nothing about it or the technicalities of the camera and it's potential but although I've read several books and watched many videos there's no substitute for practice and mistakes. Since then I've had one photo published in my state newspaper and one shown on tv so I must be doing something right and what that is is practice practice and more practice and learning by my mistakes. It's digital, it's free. And don't get the wrong impression, asking questions such as yours is also the right thing to do.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

Thanks

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

Thank you everyone for your valuable suggestions.

gessman Loc: Colorado

comment withdrawn

CocoaRoger Loc: Cocoa Florida

This was taken hand held at about 3 feet with my Tamron 300mm macro/zoom. 1/1600 sec and F18 in direct sunlight in the afternoon. I didn't bother or worry about mirror lock up all I did was try to stand steady. Sometimes maybe we worry about too much?

Danilo Loc: Las Vegas

Just one additional comment:
When using an extension tube there is a light loss factor. Depending on the exact extension tube, your camera is "seeing" only half (or maybe less!) of the light that the day is providing. So when you thought you should get 1/500th you wound up with something less.