Using flash in door

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Evening,

It's not something I normally do as I work in my studio, but tonight was asked to take photos and an awards evening as a favour.

It was a dark room so had my flash attached, and don't really use it so set it to TTL, I attempted to use auto, Aperture and manual all gave me similar results, which were very dark. Backgrounds and the subject was lit but not great.

Just looking for some advice for anything I do like this in the future?

Thanks
 
donkeymusic said:
Evening,

It's not something I normally do as I work in my studio, but tonight was asked to take photos and an awards evening as a favour.

It was a dark room so had my flash attached, and don't really use it so set it to TTL, I attempted to use auto, Aperture and manual all gave me similar results, which were very dark. Backgrounds and the subject was lit but not great.

Just looking for some advice for anything I do like this in the future?

Thanks
Click to expand...

It would be much easier to get to the root of the problem with an example of the shot. I am no expert (under statement of the day) but it sounds like you need more power on the flash and or slower shutter or wider aperture. I'm sure one of the other members with more experience can help you more than I can with this.
 
Thanks, this is where my lack of experience comes in, I used TTL which I presumed was like an auto setting so should have given me enough power?

I was using 1/160 and f5-f8, was also using iso800
 
There are variables in your scenario which make it difficult to give a pin point answer
e.g. How big was the room you were in and how close were you to the person you were shooting?

Ultimately you are lacking in ambient exposure.
At 1/160 of a second your shutter speed is to quick to record ambient light in a dark room and your flash will never be powerful enough to light the whole scene.
One way around this would be to drag the shutter.
 
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stupar said:
There are variables in your scenario which make it difficult to give a pin point answer
e.g. How big was the room you were in and how close were you to the person you were shooting?

Ultimately you are lacking in ambient exposure.
At 1/160 of a second your shutter speed is to quick to record ambient light in a dark room and your flash will never be powerful enough to light the whole scene.
One way around this would be to drag the shutter.
Click to expand...

ah, i was going to quick to stop any blue from the students. although i did go to auto and was getting the same results.
 
If you were to shoot at 1/40 instead of the 1/160 the flash will still freeze the movement but you will be letting in an extra 2 stops of light which helps vastly with the ambient exposure.
 
Hi, Have a look at the Sekonic website for webinars that are free to watch. I no it is a lot about using a meter to adjust flash to work with ambient light but may help you with your settings.
Russ
 
There are things that will cause TTL / e TTL to under expose one being light being bounced back into the camera, off a mirror or reflected surface. with out a sample image it is very hard to guess what you did wrong
 
stupar said:
If you were to shoot at 1/40 instead of the 1/160 the flash will still freeze the movement but you will be letting in an extra 2 stops of light which helps vastly with the ambient exposure.
Click to expand...

^^^^ this is exactly it - its called shutter drag.
 
donkeymusic said:
would the flash up the iso?
Click to expand...

I hate to sound old fashioned, but why would the flash control the ISO?

Using Auto ISO can be a great tool for quickly maintaining similar settings in different light levels. But you really should understand ISO before you take advantage of those things.

When mixing flash with ambient you're creating 2 separate exposures. The flash exposure can be handled with ETTL (*within reason). That leaves the exposure for the ambient.

As soon as flash is my primary light source (whether manually controlled, auto or ettl) I will use Manual camera settings. This allows me to precisely expose (usually underexpose) the background. So I can dial in a higher ISO or lower shutter speed to bring the ambient exposure up, or raise the shutter speed / lower the ISO to take the ambient down.

*ETTL isn't perfect and will be confused just like any other metering system, so you have to keep your eye on your subject brightness, adding FEC as required.

The flashgun can't be expected to perform miracles either, bouncing a fairly low powered flash off a dark 16ft ceiling isn't a winning formula - another of those occasions where you have to work with the limitations of your gear.
 
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