Basic flash help please

Squawk

Squawk

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James
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Hey all.
Since getting my flash (430EXii) I've used it almost exclusively in manual mode, primarily to get a better appreciation of how flash works.

Recently I've started playing about with ETTL, and I feel I must be missing something. I picked an unsuspecting family member (Mum) and informed her she was to be my test subject. No posing, no nice photos, simply playing about with the flash to figure out how it all works etc.

Just about every image I take is under exposed. I'm shooting indoors from a range of about 5 feet. I've got the flash set to ETTL. I've even dialed in a full stop of flash exposure compensation (on the + side, started out at 0), and still the histogram is heavily to the left. ISO set to 100, shooting between F5 and F8 with the flash pointed directly at the subject. Not posting the pics since all they show is my mum looking a bit duller than she should in a photo. Canon 400D, tried center weighted average metering and evaluative metering.

Anyone got any clue what I'm missing?
 
Fairly dark room (standard in house lighting but slightly dim as one of the 4 bulbs has blown) what bg there is is light in colour in that it's a cream wall, but I pretty much eliminated that with zoom and didn't meter off it.

Shooting in manual, 1/60, everything in the scene is underexposed, nothing at all to the right of the histogram
 
That's not something I've experienced before then. All my TTL problems with flash have been with highly reflective clothes or something on the background. I have had flash problems with dirty contacts, however for me all that ever did was fire at full power so over exposed.

Hopefully someone else can 'shed some light'.
 
Squawk said:
Fairly dark room (standard in house lighting but slightly dim as one of the 4 bulbs has blown) what bg there is is light in colour in that it's a cream wall, but I pretty much eliminated that with zoom and didn't meter off it.

Shooting in manual, 1/60, everything in the scene is underexposed, nothing at all to the right of the histogram
Click to expand...

You need to give us a full set of figures - shutter/aperture/iso......
 
Flash In The Pan said:
You need to give us a full set of figures - shutter/aperture/iso......
Click to expand...

I have?

ISO 100
Shutter 1/60
Aperture between F5 and F8 (as in I started with F8 and then worked backwards).
ETTL at a range of about 5 feet
 
Last edited:
Just thinking out loud, FEC......in camera or in flash? Perhaps one is set wrong even with you adjusting the other?
 
In camera, though it's the 430EX atop a 400D so I think that should work, I'll check. I'll experiment a bit more to eliminate metering issues, more likely to be me than the camera.

Thanks all.
 
Do you have anything on the flash, like a diffuser cap/stofen? That upsets the metering if the flash is pointed directly forward.

Try changing the FEC on the gun, instead of via the camera. Bump the ISO up to 400 in case you're running out of power (you never know) and use 1/200sec to eliminate any ambient contamination.
 
R you bouncing the flash or is it aimed head on.
 
Squawk said:
what bg there is is light in colour
Click to expand...

Just my thoughts, the flash meters in the same way the camera does, If it sees something white (or light in colour) it will under expose the shot.
 
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