Need quick Advice on a Canon 580II

rgrebby

rgrebby

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I was planning on borrowing a canon 580II speedlight for a wedding tomorrow. Trouble is I only just managed to get it. No manual and not really much time to figure it all out.

Can someone tell me what I need to know and what I should look out for?

Cheeky I know but, obi wan you are my only hope...
 
Fresh batteries. Camera on Av. Set f/5.6 ISO400. Flash to ETTL. Shoot.

If you have a white ceiling at normal height, point the head straight up and pull out the bounce card. Shoot. Lovely light :thumbs:

If foreground subject is too light/dark, adjust +/- compensation on the gun. If the background is too light/dark, adjust the +/- compensation on the camera. Chimp a test pic until you're happy, although it probably won't be far out on normal auto anyway.

If the main subject is off centre, that can fool the ETTL system. So frame subject in the centre and press the FEL button (*). This fires the pre-flash and locks the exposure. Recompose the shot and fire.

Job's a good un :)

Edit: couple more points added in post #10 below
 
Excellent Hoppy :clap:

Far better than wading through reams of endless detail. A great 'pocket sized' guide to mastering a flash system :)

One that I am going to remember!

Cheers.
Graham
 
HoppyUK said:
Fresh batteries. Camera on Av. Set f/5.6 ISO400. Flash to ETTL. Shoot.

If you have a white ceiling at normal height, point the head straight up and pull out the bounce card. Shoot. Lovely light :thumbs:

If foreground subject is too light/dark, adjust +/- compensation on the gun. If the background is too light/dark, adjust the +/- compensation on the camera. Chimp a test pic until you're happy, although it probably won't be far out on normal auto anyway.

If the main subject is off centre, that can fool the ETTL system. So frame subject in the centre and press the FEL button (*). This fires the pre-flash and locks the exposure. Recompose the shot and fire.

Job's a good un :)
Click to expand...

If Carlsberg made forum posts.......

:thumbs:
 
blue max said:
Excellent Hoppy :clap:

Far better than wading through reams of endless detail. A great 'pocket sized' guide to mastering a flash system :)

One that I am going to remember!

Cheers.
Graham
Click to expand...

kluen said:
If Carlsberg made forum posts.......

:thumbs:
Click to expand...

Cheers guys :) Hope it's not too late for the OP!
 
Great advice. I really must try it.

I usually shoot with the camera on "P" and adjust the flash to +2/3. Strangely, on my film cameras I shot my usual way with no compesation and got well exposed shots every time (well almost every time) but with digital I find that I have a lot under-exposed shots hence the "+" compensation.
 
I think I would put it in P mode and adjust the ISO accordingly to get a good background exposure, flash set to ETTL will sort the subject out.
 
rgrebby said:
Great thanks hoppy, glad I checked before I left :)
Click to expand...

Cool :)

Couple of extra points.

If you run out of range ie the picture is too dark no matter what you do with the compensation control, which is possible with bounce flash, use a lower f/number and/or raise the ISO. Every shift of one stop effectively doubles the flash power, eg opening the lens aperture from f/5.6 to f/4 doubles the effective flash power, and raising ISO from ISO 400 to 800 doubles it again, and so on. Using f/number and ISO in this way makes a huge difference to what you can do in large rooms when bouncing the flash (which uses a lot of power as the light is spread over such a wide area).

Switch on High Speed Sync mode and leave it on (most decent flashes have this feature). This overcomes the problems of flash sync with focal plane shutters (which all DSLRs have) at high shutter speeds, ie above 1/200sec or 1/250sec. You will only ever need this when shooting in bright sun, ie fill-in flash, when the ambient light demands a high shutter speed for correct exposure. More likely on the beach than at a wedding in this weather, but there is no penalty for having it enabled - the camera automatically switches it on and off whenever the shutter speed required goes over the normal max x-sync speed ie 1/200sec or 1/250sec depending on the camera model.

Just be aware that range is substantially reduced with HSS engaged. It works the flash very hard by sending out a continuous stream of flashes at very high frequency (too fast to see) but because of the way focal plane shutters work most of this light is wasted. However, there is still enough power for short range stuff like fill-in flash portraits. It really lifts the dark shadows you get in bright sun, it works completely automatically and seamlessly with ETTL. You won't even know it's doing its magic ;)
 
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