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Help with flash
Dec 11, 2022 14:22:47   #
genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island
 
For the first time in years, I decided to try a flash on my Canon 80D. I put on the 430 EX III-RT and ended up with the attached. Flash was set to ETTL and camera was on auto. What was I doing wrong? Thanks for any help.


(Download)

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Dec 11, 2022 18:50:52   #
lukevaliant Loc: gloucester city,n. j.
 
use manual setting 1/60

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Dec 11, 2022 19:34:41   #
Grahame Loc: Fiji
 
genocolo wrote:
For the first time in years, I decided to try a flash on my Canon 80D. I put on the 430 EX III-RT and ended up with the attached. Flash was set to ETTL and camera was on auto. What was I doing wrong? Thanks for any help.


According to the Exif your shot was at, 1/60s, f/4, ISO1250 in Program AE mode. There's no info on the flash, e.g. mode and power, that I can see.

The well overexposed result you got 'suggests' that your flash is not operating in a TTL mode (more likely full power), check that first. Even with the high ISO (assume you wanted to capture some ambient light) the flash should have used power. Check also any +FC (flash compensation) that may be set.

I know nothing about the compatibility of your camera with that flash so have based my response on what I would get from my camera and flash at those settings which in TTL would be give far more acceptable results.

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Dec 12, 2022 00:57:01   #
Grahame Loc: Fiji
 
Grahame wrote:
According to the Exif your shot was at, 1/60s, f/4, ISO1250 in Program AE mode. There's no info on the flash, e.g. mode and power, that I can see.

The well overexposed result you got 'suggests' that your flash is not operating in a TTL mode (more likely full power), check that first. Even with the high ISO (assume you wanted to capture some ambient light) the flash should have used power. Check also any +FC (flash compensation) that may be set.

I know nothing about the compatibility of your camera with that flash so have based my response on what I would get from my camera and flash at those settings which in TTL would be give far more acceptable results.
According to the Exif your shot was at, 1/60s, f/4... (show quote)

Typo correction to above 2nd Para. ".....................the flash should have used LOWER power".

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Dec 12, 2022 09:16:18   #
dbrugger25 Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
1. ISO 1250 seems high for flash photography. Try lowering it to ISO 600 or less. or set it to AUTO.
2. Could you have accidently changed the exposure compensation, causing overexposure?
3. Be sure the flash is truly set to TTL mode.
4. Consider bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling if the direction can be adjusted. Or, attach a bounce card to
deflect the light away from the subject if your flash direction isn't adjustable.
5. Reduce the flash setting to 1.4 power.

Some experimenting should help. Also, read the manual for the flash and camera for instructions or suggestions.

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Dec 12, 2022 09:23:52   #
gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast
 
Do this:
https://youtu.be/S3IQFayyyoU

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Dec 12, 2022 15:40:23   #
genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island
 
gvarner wrote:

This short video and the next one about settings are unbelievably good. Thank you so much.

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Dec 12, 2022 16:48:41   #
gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast
 
genocolo wrote:
This short video and the next one about settings are unbelievably good. Thank you so much.


You’re welcome. I was in the dark about flash until I watched this and a couple others. Mark Wallace has a good one on using a Speedlight outdoors with high speed synch.

https://youtu.be/vEnAhkL0i38

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Dec 12, 2022 20:12:52   #
gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast
 
This is the best one if you haven’t seen it already.
https://youtu.be/wLeaX_WXUJ8

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Dec 13, 2022 15:03:34   #
Grahame Loc: Fiji
 
genocolo wrote:
For the first time in years, I decided to try a flash on my Canon 80D. I put on the 430 EX III-RT and ended up with the attached. Flash was set to ETTL and camera was on auto. What was I doing wrong? Thanks for any help.


Did you find out what went wrong?

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Jan 8, 2023 01:59:16   #
paulrnzpn Loc: New Zealand
 
dbrugger25 wrote:
1. ISO 1250 seems high for flash photography. Try lowering it to ISO 600 or less. or set it to AUTO.
2. Could you have accidently changed the exposure compensation, causing overexposure?
3. Be sure the flash is truly set to TTL mode.
4. Consider bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling if the direction can be adjusted. Or, attach a bounce card to
deflect the light away from the subject if your flash direction isn't adjustable.
5. Reduce the flash setting to 1.4 power.

Some experimenting should help. Also, read the manual for the flash and camera for instructions or suggestions.
1. ISO 1250 seems high for flash photography. Try... (show quote)


RE: 1. ISO 1250 seems high for flash photography. Try lowering it to ISO 600 or less. or set it to AUTO.

Yes, I agree, ISO-1250 is high for flash. But 'No' - She had the camera set to auto-mode, so the camera chose the ISO. In auto-mode on Canon, you cannot manually custom select an ISO.


RE: 2. Could you have accidently changed the exposure compensation, causing overexposure?

No. On Canons there is no exposure compensation function available when in auto-mode.


RE: 3. Be sure the flash is truly set to TTL mode.

Yes, but she is likely to have done that. I bet she did have it set on ETTL.


RE: 4. Consider bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling if the direction can be adjusted. Or, attach a bounce card to
deflect the light away from the subject if your flash direction isn't adjustable.

Sure, that can work to a degree of course, but it should not be necessary given the simple example in her case. With camera in auto-mode and flash on ETTL, the flash should know what to cut the power output down to, etc. I just ran a test with my Canon and flash to prove this point. (Another post coming below shortly about that.)


RE: 5. Reduce the flash setting to 1.4 power.

Again, in ETTL and camera on auto, this should not be necessary.

I suspect there may be an electronics fault.

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Jan 8, 2023 02:08:39   #
paulrnzpn Loc: New Zealand
 
Hi there,

Interesting.

I just did two indoor test shots with my Canon 5D Mark 4, and I took both shots with my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT set to ETTL. Results as follows:

Test 1): Camera on Auto-mode and with flash turned on.
Image exposure was great and the camera's histogram showed no clipping at either end. (Certainly no overexposed photo like in your experience.)
My camera's Auto-mode went for 1/40sec, f/2.8 and ISO-400 in my lounge room. (It's still very light at 7:15 PM here - we are in Daylight Saving in New Zealand.)

Test 2): Camera on Manual-mode and I selected your camera's auto-mode choices (1/60sec, f/4, ISO-1250) and with flash turned on.
Image exposure was also great and the camera's histogram again showed no clipping at either end.

The image colour in my manual-mode photo is a bit more vivid than the auto-mode's photo, but I have custom WB set and so on.

My guess in that case is there might be an ETTL communication issue between your speedlight and your camera, or a fault in your speedlight perhaps. Perhaps a bad (dirty) connection on the hotshoe. Compatibility won't be an issue in this case, of course, given you're using a modern Canon speedlight on your 80D, and the 80D is still a 'modern' model DSLR as well.

I sometimes get an overexposed photo with flash too, but I never shoot flash with my camera on auto-mode. In fact, I never use auto-mode for anything. Usually, my overexposure issue is a result of me forgetting to set to 'flash sync' when there is too much ambient light for a wide aperture and/or the (normal) 1/200sec shutter limit with flash. (I almost always shoot flash at ISO-100, and I NEVER use auto ISO.)
Since I don't use Auto-mode, I have never had a situation to experience an over-exposure result with flash in Auto-mode.

One other thought that came to mind is AE, or AE-L. But AE-L is not available in Auto-mode so I don't think there could be any issues in this department.

If I were you, what I would do now is take a few indoor test shots with your camera in Av mode (Aperture priority) and with ISO set to something other than auto (start with ISO-100), and flash set on ETTL. Take some test shots using a few different f-stops, starting with the widest that your lens offers, and include a test at f/4 too, and then some more with the aperture set smaller than f/4 again. If all seems well there, try a test on auto-mode again. If still no good then I would probably conclude there is likely some sort of comms fault in your flash unit when your camera is in auto-mode.

And as others mention, I also agree that to me ISO-1250 seems very high for flash photography. But then in Auto-mode your camera chose that, not you. So again, it may be a comms issue - the camera didn't know there was a flash connected and turned on.

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