flash settings

[Flying giraffe]

just bought myself a 430 exii flash to go with my 550d as i have my parents 50th on sunday, as im not going to have long to learn, i was wondering what settings you guys would recomend for me, av apears to set a long exposure time of 0.5s, for instance, any help would be apreciated as i want to do them justice, thanks for any help. Neil

edit to add what is "bouncing" is this just pointing the flash at the ceiling, or does something else need to be done too?

 

[Hyster]

Try starting with.....

Manual, 1/200th and a wide aperture, up the iso 400 or 800 and bounce the flash of a neutral coloured wall or ceiling.

Slower shutter speed will let in more ambient light if needed.

Play around with flash exposure compensation to adjust the amount of flash.


Have a read of this too.
Loads of articles on the right hand side, including an explanation of bouncing flash, good luck.

 

[HoppyUK]

Assuming there is a normal height white ceiling, I would use bounce-fill flash.

Point the gun straight up, to bounce most of the light off the ceiling. This will soften the shadows, and spread light over a wide area. Get a small piece of white card, about the size of a playing card, and attach it to the back of the gun with a rubber band. This will direct a small amount of light straight forward to the subject, lifting shadows under eyes and chins, and putting a nice sparkle in the eyes.

Put the camera on Av, but go into custom function and choose the option which limits the shutter speed to 1/60sec longest duration. This will help to introduce some ambient light to the background, if there is at least a bit of it, but will not let the shutter speed drop so far as to risk blurring. Or you can use P - does the same thing as default.

Give it a test run. In an average room, it gives great results. You can moderate the flash output with +/- compensation on the gun if it's too dark/bright.

 

[Flying giraffe]

thanks for the advice guys, ill give it a go