Using 580ex II for Outdoor Fill Flash

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nevets2001uk

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Steve Gordon
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I did a small portrait shoot for a friend and his sister yesterday evening and took along the 580ex with the intention of using it for fill flash in some of the scenes.

However I think I was doing something wrong as the flash didn't seem to fire very often and I just could not get it to kick in for some shots. For much of the shoot I was using Av mode and I left the flash in ETTL hoping it would fill where required. On some scenes with a bright background however it didn't kick in and the subjects were dark.

I must confess in my rush (and out of my comfort zone a bit) I wasn't paying full attention to the settings but I'm sure my shutter speed wasn't above 1/250th. The batteries were fine and showing as ready. TO add insult after the shoot I tried the flash out at home and it fired perfectly so maybe it was a shutter speed issue. Is there an optimal range where flash will fire. I did even try M settings for aperture and shutter with no luck.

Can anyone with a bit of flash experience advice the best way to utilise it for outdoor portraits? What modes are easiest and under what circumstances will flash fire?
 
nevets2001uk said:
However I think I was doing something wrong as the flash didn't seem to fire very often and I just could not get it to kick in for some shots. For much of the shoot I was using Av mode and I left the flash in ETTL hoping it would fill where required. On some scenes with a bright background however it didn't kick in and the subjects were dark.
Click to expand...

Just a stab in the dark (if you pardon the pun :shake:) but that sounds as if the camera was metering from the background, rather than from your subjects and therefore deduced that no flash was required.

I could be completely wrong though :shrug:
 
Evaluative metering looks at the whole scene as 35 zones and averages them to get a good overall exposure and picks a setting that best suits, so in the case of the shots you describe above it is most likely to have read the scene as being bright and so no flash required. Spot metering would be the way to go....
 
In ev mode it should fire anyway. But if the shutter speed is higher than 1/250, it changes it back to 1/250, what ever you have set. In ettl mode the power of the flash is automatically set by the flash reading the light coming back.
I usually set in Highspeed mode when doing fill in in AV, but also adjust the flash compensation to taste.

On a Dslr you often think the flash has not fired because you can not see it, as the mirror is flipped up at the time it goes off.
 
nevets2001uk said:
I must confess in my rush (and out of my comfort zone a bit) I wasn't paying full attention to the settings but I'm sure my shutter speed wasn't above 1/250th.

Can anyone with a bit of flash experience advice the best way to utilise it for outdoor portraits? What modes are easiest and under what circumstances will flash fire?
Click to expand...

I think you need to set a custom function to make sure the shutter speed stays at 1/250. I suggests checking you exif, as the bright scene may have given you a much shorted shutter speed, If the camera thinks there is enough light on the scene, it probably wouldn't fire.
 
I think we need to be clear which camera you are using...Only with P mode might a camera decide when or when not to fire.
 
Thanks for the further thoughts. I'm using a 1DMKIIN and am certain the flash wan't firing as I test point at the ground as well. I'll put it down to experience and do some proper testing at some point.
 
Whack it on High Speed, in AV mode the shutter speed can really jump around, also change the batteries out, I have noticed my 580's are really sensitive to battery power, best I have found is Duracell for longevity and recycle balance !
 
just bought a 8 cell battery pack for my impending purchase of a 580exII. 40 quid I think for an ebay knock off.
will be investing in the eneloop batteries too
 
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