EOS Flashes

Canon EOS Flashes

EC vs FEC

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 13. April 2012 - 5:36

What is EC? What is FEC? It's alphabet soup that stands for Exposure Compensation and Flash Exposure Compensation. This is used to differentiate what photographers do on the camera vs what photographers do on the flash. The Nikon world is completely different from the Canon world.

In the Nikon world, the formula is: EC + FEC = Total Exposure Compensation. An Exposure compensation of -2 on the camera and a Flash Exposure Compensation of +2 = -2 + 2 = 0, no exposure compensation.

In the Canon world, it's much more interesting.

How Many Flash Shots Before Shutting Down

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 12. April 2012 - 6:13

Like most speedlight flashes, the Canon Speedlite's heads are hermetically sealed. “Hermetically sealed” means that no air can go in or go out. When things are hermetically sealed, things tend to heat with use.

The rumor is that “you can't do too many flashes or the speedlight flash will shut down for 10 to 20 minutes while the flash tube cools down.”

Yes, too many flashes will shutdown the speedlight flash to give it time to cool down. The question is: “How many is too many flashes?”

Flash: Fired but Severly Underexposed. Why?

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 10. April 2012 - 6:55

The other evening, I took this photo:

Flash didn't fire properly

The flash didn't fire properly

The photo is taken f/5.6 1/80s ISO 800 with the flash. I didn't have an external flash with me and just wanted to add some light, f/2.8 1/40s and ISO 1600 or 3200 would have been good enough.

There are 2 exposures:

  • The ambient light, it's enough to give the feeling of the area/background.

Canon: 7D: Flash Exposure Lock

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 16. March 2012 - 5:28

Canon 580 EX II flash/speedlight

Canon has this wonderful thing for flash, it's the E-TTL II system. With E-TTL II, you can control the exposure and the flash exposure separately. Basically, it sends a pre-flash to read the exposure across the 63 metering zones for what's dark (interpreted as background) and what's bright (interpreted as foreground). The problem is that I was looking to set the exposure and to lock that flash exposure for the rest of the photos.

The problem is where is the Flash Exposure Lock (FE Lock) button? I can't see it on the flash. I can't see it in the Canon 7D's menu. And of course, I didn't have any of the manuals with me.

Is My Flash Strong Enough?

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 27. February 2012 - 7:11

Do you remember when you were in high school? When I was in high school, we had to study physics. We had to study light, waves… For the people that either didn't have to study physics or have forgotten it:

The light coming from a flash bounces like billiard balls. This means that light that bounces against a reflecting surface will bounce back with the same angle, i.e.

The Secrets of Straight On Flash

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 30. January 2012 - 6:10

One of the most popular photography website is the http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ from David Hobby. I'm not in the same league and I don't even pretend. But I use flashes regularly. I specialize in simple setups. The problem with most of the photos sites where they give you the lighting diagram, they tell you how they did it but not why they chose this or that solution.

Jasper is not a happy camper. Jasper clearly doesn't want to be here. If he could escape and go back home he would. Treats and weird/special noises didn't help to get his interest.

Jasper clearly doesn't want to be here. If he could escape to go back home he would. Treats and weird, special noises didn't help to get his interest.charlie-20120126-2457.jpg — ©2012 Syv Ritch -- foto-biz.com: http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

Jasper is not a happy camper   click on image for gallery

First look at eyes, no “evil” glowing eyes, good definition and not hard shadows. Here's the technical data:

Flash: The Dreaded Green Eyes

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 2. December 2011 - 6:25

For people, it's red and for almost all animals it's green. By now, the vast majority of the processing software can fix the red eyes with just a click of the mouse. But for cats, dogs and the other animals, they get the green eyes with the flash in their face. Most software cannot process it. Here's my way of almost removing the green eyes in Lightroom, but it's not perfect, Lightroom: How To Remove The Green Eyes in Animals

Buzz The Cat

If you look at the EXIF data from this photograph, you will see:

Flash & Lens Coverage

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 4. November 2011 - 5:59

The Canon 580 and 430 series flashes have a zoom head. Both flashes have the coverage of lenses from 24mm to 105mm. The flash talks to the camera and ask for the lens setting and will adjust accordingly, through the fancy of the electronics … Canon calls it the E-TTL II.

What about for a Canon 7D, the T3i, the 1DMk4, the… the crop/APS-C or APS-H sensor cameras? The flash knows the camera and the flash understands the lens/sensor settings. The flash will adjust the flash coverage automatically, only if you are in the E-TTL mode.

Canon 580EX II Flash Failures

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 18. February 2011 - 6:26

Canon Rumors, you follow them right? has published a blog post: 580EX II Faulty by Design. Pocket Wizard is having many problems with the Canon 7D and the 580EXII. So they commissioned an “independent” study that found faults with the 580EXII flash design, especially when using the High Speed Synchronization.

Their conclusions are:

Some of the Secrets from the Flash World

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 17. February 2011 - 6:35

As I've mentioned in another blog post, I've been reading “Speedliter's Handbook” from Syl Arena. Reading is nothing, the most important part is actually trying and experimenting. Here are my discoveries from some of these experiments.

Secret #1 of when using the flash

The shutter speed controls the ambient light when using the flash. The Canon 7D has a sync speed of up to 1/250th of a second with the flash. At short range, the flash is the main source of light.

EOS Flashes: Speedliter's Handbook

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 11. February 2011 - 6:57

I buy many photography related books, usually 20+ per year. I rarely do book reviews. Why? Because I only review books, that out of 5 stars, I would rate more than 5 stars. I don't review and pan items, unless I'm really “pissed off” because I've been deceived.

The last book I reviewed, and strongly recommend, was: “Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers” from Elyse Weissberg in How Often Should You Promote? and in Getting The Appointment.

External Flash Meter

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 2. December 2010 - 6:42

Last night after dinner, Anon from Ymous fame, knocked on my door to ask for help. He's the “senior photographer” at his photo club, so he can't ask for help there. His wife bought him an external flash meter for his birthday. I haven't used one of these, a Gossen, from the late 70s, that's the late 1970s.

Anon tried the Sekonic flash meter with his Nikon D700 and his SB800. It was giving readings that were at least 5 f/stops under exposed. But the Sekonic was giving the correct reading when he tried it with his small point-and-shoot camera.

Number Of Flashes 580EXII Before Thermal Shutdown

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 26. October 2010 - 9:26

Canon's manual for the 580EXII flash says:

Cautions for firing continuous flashes

  • To avoid overheating and degrading the flash head, do not fire more than 20 continuous flashes. After 20 continuous flashes, allow a rest time of at least 10 min.

  • If you fire more than 20 continuous flashes and then fire more flashes in short intervals, the inner overheating prevention function may be activated to make the recycling time about 8 to 20 sec. If this occurs, allow a rest time of about 15 min.

Flash: Factors In Controlling Exposure

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 22. September 2010 - 7:46

A lot of people of people are afraid of flash. Flash is much more complicated and much more difficult to control because there are more parameters. Plus note of how many bad flash photos: the deer in the headlight look in a cavern.

EOS Flash: Metering Modes

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 22. September 2010 - 5:41

The exposure mode determine the relationship between the flash and the camera. There are 4 different exposure modes when dealing with EOS Flashes:

  1. Aperture priority: Av
  2. Manual: M
  3. Program: P

Canon 7D: Auto-ISO Flash Setting

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 21. September 2010 - 16:43

If you have your Canon 7D set to Auto-ISO and you slip your flash on, whether it's a Canon flash or a third party flash, like Metz... What are the rules for the Auto-ISO? That will depend on the mode:

  1. Tv or Av or P or CA or Full Auto: The ISO speed will be set at ISO 400
  2. Av Fill-in Flash: If the pre-flash detects over-exposure at ISO 400, then the ISO will drop to as low as ISO 100.
  3. P or CA or Full Auto & bounce flash: The ISO speed will be set between ISO 400 to ISO 1600 depending on the pre-flash.

Flash: Guide Numbers

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 6. May 2010 - 23:00

Not only Canon flashes, but all brands express the power power of their flashes with the Guide Number. Canon numbers their flashes with the guide number. The guide number is the distance at a specific ISO at a specific zoom head position.

Why is the Guide Number so important?

  1. It allows us to calculate the right exposure. Without the right guide number, no correct exposure. It's that simple.
  2. It allows us to compare different flashes.

Canon: Remote Wireless Flash

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 11. January 2010 - 0:00

For the first time, Canon has finally introduced a camera that can operate other eTTL flashes wirelessly without having a separate master flash mounted on the camera. The small built-in flash can be used as a “controller”. The pop-up flash will control either the 4xx, the 5xx series or many other compatible flashes like the Metz flashes.

All the flashes must be within a clear line of sight. The pop-up flash will do a “pre-flash”, a visible flash with the proper commands to the other flashes.

Non Canon Flash Not Working

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 8. January 2010 - 0:00

I have this old, very old flash. It used to be the standard, the work horse of all professional photographers in the 70s. Yes, that's the 1970s. Every professional photographer had a Vivitar 283 flash. That was before the Canon EOS Speedlights or the Nikon Creative Lighting System.

I got a few photos in the manual mode, it worked. But when I switched to the Live View mode, it stopped working. The flash didn't fire at the right time. What happened?

I thought that my Vivitar 283 had packed it in. Tried again it in the regular manual mode and it worked again. So it was something I did.

Canon: Flash Exposure Compensation

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 6. January 2010 - 0:00

I wish Canon had a flash system as good as Nikon's. I'm not saying that it's bad, underpowered, I'm saying is not as sophisticated or as flexible as Nikon's. When dealing with flash, you must deal with exposure compensation. Exposure compensation is topic that you have to feel, there are no hard rules.

  • The exposure compensation does NOT work in manual mode.
  • The flash exposure compensation does NOT work in manual mode.

<

div class="boxtip" markdown="1"> Canon splits the exposure compensation between the camera and the flash.

Flash & Shutter Speed

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 4. October 2009 - 23:00

My preferred mode is Aperture Mode. It's from all these years when the cameras only had aperture priority or manual mode. I'm not saying it's better, I'm just saying that's how I think.

Not long after buying my Canon 7D, I bought a Canon 580EXII flash. Load the camera, load the batteries, a couple of test shots. No problem, it seems to be working. Then I turned around, took another photo and all hell broke lose.

The flash fired, but something wasn't right. Chimping time! Take a look at the LCD, nothing then I hear the mirror slapping down. A 5 seconds exposure. What happened?

FEC: Flash Exposure Compensation

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 19. May 2009 - 23:00

Contrarily to Nikon's flash system, Canon's doesn't add the flash exposure compensation if it is set both on the camera and on the flash.

If you set the flash exposure compensation on the flash of -1EV and the of -0.5EV on the camera, the flash takes priority and the total exposure compensation is -1EV. The exposure compensation on the camera is ignored.

<

div class="boxinfo" markdown="1"> To contradict the previous statements: The Canon's Flash Exposure Compensation is in addition to the fill-in flash automatic reduction of the flash output of around -1.5EV to -2EV.

Flash: Gary Fong Diffuser

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 19. May 2009 - 23:00

Here's another good one from What The Duck. Disclosure: I do own one of these from Gary Fong. I bought mine, many years ago, when the price was reasonable and I didn't know what I was doing.

Gary Fong: Flash Diffuser

Gary Fong: Flash Diffuser

The diffusers' job is to spray light everywhere, and hope or pray, according to your religion, that some of the light sent everywhere will bounce back on the subject of the photo. This implies that:

1.

Flash: Auto Focus Assist Light

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 17. May 2009 - 23:00

Most of the Canon flashes have a big, monster red eye. It's the auto focus assist light. On my 508EX-II, it's made of 3 LEDs. When the ambient level of the light is low, it will illuminate to help the auto focus of the camera. But sometimes it doesn't work.

The modern E series of the Canon flashes use a bar code pattern to illuminate the subject. These red and black stripes give enough of a contrast to allow the camera to focus. The maximum distance of the assist light depends on the flash, but it's between 10 and 30 feet or 3 to 10 meters for the center focus point.

Fill-in Flash and Program Mode

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 16. May 2009 - 23:00

If you turn on the flash and you are in Program mode and if the average light reading is fairly bright, the e-TTL-II will default to fill-in flash. Canon's fill-in flash setting automatically applies a -2 flash exposure compensation for the Canon 7D. No user input is required.

  • What's a fairly bright light reading? Around 13EV or f/8 @ 1/125s @ ISO: 100 or brighter. It's a sunny day, and extremely bright cloudy day.

Does Your Flash Have Enough Juice?

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 15. May 2009 - 23:00

In other words, is your flash strong enough? Mine has a Guide Number, GN, of … That's the biggest one with …

There are many factors that influence the lighting power of a flash:

  1. Power of the flash
  2. Power of the batteries and their condition
  3. The aperture
  4. The distance
  5. The focal lens

So back to my question, do you have enough juice? You won't really know until your flash tells you.

Canon E-TTL II Flash Metering

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 14. May 2009 - 23:00

The E-TTL II is Canon's second generation of the flash E-TTL metering system. E stands for evaluative, enhanced, embellished, improved improved…

A few basics:

  1. The E-TTL II always use the evaluative metering system with all modern EOS cameras. It doesn't matter whether you are using evaluative, spot or average metering system. It's always evaluative matrix metering.
  2. E-TTL II never links exposure to the active focus point. Never, no connection.
  3. E-TTL II always uses a pre-flash. So there's always 2 flashes.
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