flash confusion

[robhullfury]

Hi all, bought myself a cheap jessops 300afd a few years back never really used it much. My wife has a cake business and I take shots for her website, im pleased with the results but not the way I achieve them. I pop the flash onto the hotshoe and the settings change on the camera. I realise this should happen but I dont understand what changes and why? I wondered/hoped somebody could go abit more into depth for me? Im shooting using a EOS1000D in the menus of the camera there is an option of Flash Exp Comp I currently have set at 0. what does this do? I am trying to achieve the washed out look on the fabric behind which I use white cotton shot in our conservatory so plenty of natural light to light the subject evenly and just fire the flash off the ceiling to light the backdrop. When dialing in exposures etc it stops me going to certain aperatures and shutter speeds etc. As I said previously im sure its meant to do this so you cant wash every shot out but I am confused why.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies would be great.

Thanks
Rob

 

[HoppyUK]

Hi all, bought myself a cheap jessops 300afd a few years back never really used it much. My wife has a cake business and I take shots for her website, im pleased with the results but not the way I achieve them. I pop the flash onto the hotshoe and the settings change on the camera. I realise this should happen but I dont understand what changes and why? I wondered/hoped somebody could go abit more into depth for me? Im shooting using a EOS1000D in the menus of the camera there is an option of Flash Exp Comp I currently have set at 0. what does this do? I am trying to achieve the washed out look on the fabric behind which I use white cotton shot in our conservatory so plenty of natural light to light the subject evenly and just fire the flash off the ceiling to light the backdrop. When dialing in exposures etc it stops me going to certain aperatures and shutter speeds etc. As I said previously im sure its meant to do this so you cant wash every shot out but I am confused why.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies would be great.

Thanks
Rob

Simple answer is exposure compensation makes the image darker (-) or lighter (+) than the exposure suggested by the camera's auto metering system.

A full answer to your question would, I'm aftraid, fill a book. Like this one, Speedliter's Handbook by Syl Arena. It's excellent, and easy to understand http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speedliters...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327243542&sr=1-1

 

[robhullfury]

great thanks for the reply ill take a looksee at the book.

Rob

 

[Andy_S]

There is a limit to the speed at which your camera can sync with the flash so you will be limited to shutter speeds slower than 1/200 or 1/250ish. The first half of this video explains it quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPbxp6IdkyM Don't worry about the studio flash stuff, the principal is the same. Some flashes have high sync speed mode where it will flash several times very quickly (it will look like one flash) for light at each point of the shutter action.
Don't know about the changes to the aperture though.