[M1ke A]

Having hijacked this thread I thought I'd better start a new one.

I've lost the plot with setting my flash to reduced output (1/8th, 1/16th, etc) to get continuous flash lighting when shooting a burst of 3 - 6 shots.

If I manually set the output on the flash, and use shutter priority on the camera, it throws a wobbly and defaults to the smallest aperture which obviously end up in some nice night time scenes....

If I leave the flash on ETTL/auto and SP I can get shots like this



and



provided I time it perfectly and just take ONE shot. Trying to burst shoot someone will mean the first shot is flash lit but they're too far away, and the rest will be too dark because the flash hasn't recycled in time.

In the case of the above you can see I was shooting into very bright sun (which was a novelty in itself, but I digress ) though other attempts have been at different ambient light levels

I'm only really looking at fill flash levels and dropping the exposure comp and/or Hi speed sync hasn't made any difference.

I can't for the life of me remember what settings combination I did have when this worked so can someone put me out of my misery?

Ta

[JMitchell]

Are you using P A(/Tv) S or M mode? I magine it's S, but you might want to try A (Tv), because IIRC the flash becomes fill only....I seem to remember Ali having a similar problem with flash output (not the same burst problem, but still similar results)
Or perhaps the flash just can't keep up?

[Dave]

Did you use higher ISO before, thus needing less flash & more chance of multiple shots ?

[gsgary]

I think you will have to set it to manual but i don't think you will get more than 2 flashes
I always use secnd curtain for shots like this

[M1ke A]

Ahh I've just found a sequence of golf swing shots that were all flash lit.

Aperture priority, f5, 1/200th. However I can't see if I'd lowered the flash output. Does the Canon DPP software show things like this? I've not used it in over 2 years.

Mind you AP is always going to try and balance the shutter speed and as Gary says you really need to run the camera on manual to get the aperture and shutter speed you want.

Down side of that is it kills the flash recycle time if I remember correctly, and I'm right back to where I started

[Dave]

What ISO on that shot Mike ?

[M1ke A]

500.

They were taken in a driving range so a mix of shadows and uber bright backgrounds.

[gsgary]

Originally Posted by M1ke A

500.

They were taken in a driving range so a mix of shadows and uber bright backgrounds.

Multi stroboscopic flash would look good for a golf shot, might see if i can give it a go

[M1ke A]

Originally Posted by gsgary

Multi stroboscopic flash would look good for a golf shot, might see if i can give it a go

Yeah, but make sure you pick someone who can actually swing a golf bat

I guess something like 1/20th and 5 strobes?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by M1ke A

500.

They were taken in a driving range so a mix of shadows and uber bright backgrounds.

Well your cycling shots are at ISO160, so could it not be the extra few stops of light via ISO500, used less flash juice & therefore able to fire off more sequential shots ?

[M1ke A]

Originally Posted by Dave

Well your cycling shots are at ISO160, so could it not be the extra few stops of light via ISO500, used less flash juice & therefore able to fire off more sequential shots ?

Very possibly though other bike and running events have been shot at ISO 800 and have had the same prob . Mind you it was raining on those particular days so not overly bright outside.

[M1ke A]

I think I must have done previous shots in Aperture priority.

Yesterday's attempts were shot in AP with 1/16th flash. They were all 'flash filled' but the 1/250th sync speed is a splash too fast for motion blur. Also the first shots were rather dark as the cyclists