flash photos with EOS 90D overexposed

[rdb60]

I recently purchased a new EOS 90D camera, and tried using it with the Canon Speedlite 430EX II that I've used for years with my older EOS 60D.  I was shooting indoor photos in an office building with typical lighting for an office.  Over the years, I've been in the habit of using the Speedlite with my 60D in these situations to make sure there was enough light in the photos, and also so that I can shoot photos when the light in the room may not be turned on.  As a commercial real estate appraiser, I often have to take photos inside vacant buildings where the electricity is turned off, so I'm just in the habit of always using the flash.  Using the flash also means I don't have to hunt for the light switch in rooms where the light is off--I just shoot and let the Speedlite provide the light needed for the photo.

  I typically aim the flash head up at a 45 degree angle to bounce the flash off the ceiling, rather than pointing it straight ahead.  This always worked well with the 60D set in full auto (green square on the mode dial), but when I tried this yesterday with my new EOS 90D, all my images were horribly overexposed.  Camera was set to Scene Intelligent Auto on the mode dial (the green square full auto mode), and the flash was set to ETTL mode.  Lens was the same EFS 18-135mm that I've used for years with the 60D, and shots were all taken with lens zoomed all the way out for widest angle to capture as much of the room as possible.  Why did this always work with my 60D, but doesn't seem to work with the 90D?  Is there a different setting that might make things work better?  Or is there something wrong with this 90D?

[deebatman316]

Can you post an example picture in the forum. Are you shooting with the camera set to Full Auto. Or a different mode. Try direct flash instead. Is there reflective objects in the room this can fool the camera’s metering system. E-TTL II uses focus distance info from the lens to get better flash accuracy. But this cannot be used with the flash in the bounce position. It’s completely ignored when calculating flash power.

[ebiggs1]

"Can you post an example picture in the forum."

Yes and complete camera settings.

"It’s completely ignored when calculating flash power."

However, if as the OP says it worked to perfection using the 60D, so I see no reason for it to not work on a 90D. Something is missing or left out of the OP's question. The 90D does everything the 60D does only better.

[ebiggs1]

I did real estate photos for my aunt and uncle since they were big time real estate agents in south KC for years.

I never used a flash as it only complicates the issue. I did use a good sturdy tripod. However none of the properties were completely dark always some available light.

[rdb60]

Here's a sample.  Again, this was shooting in full auto mode on both the camera and flash.  Always worked fine with my older EOS 60D, but, well you see the results here with the 90D.

[rdb60]

When you're doing appraisal work, you don't have time to set up a tripod in every room you shoot.  It's not like taking a few photos for a listing where the owner/occupant has a vested interest in having good photos taken.  In appraisal work, I'm often shooting pictures inside a tenant-occupied building, where I'm an intrusion into that tenant's business operation.  That tenant doesn't care that his landlord needs to renew his real estate loan and the bank wants an appraisal for that.  I try to get in and out as quickly as possible to minimize the disruption.  That's part of why I like using a flash instead of hunting for a light switch in a room that's not in use at the moment.  The quicker I can get what I need and get out, the happier the tenant.

[deebatman316]

I would check the speedlite’s LCD screen and ensure it says “E-TTL”. If it says “TTL” that means it’s NOT communicating with the camera correctly. Old off the film TTL relied on light reflected off the film. Since a digital cameras don’t have film. The flash will fire at full output only. Later EOS film bodies dropped support for off the film TTL. They act the same way as a digital camera. The flash will fire at full output only and cause overexposed shots. Older speedlites such as the 430EX II supported both E-TTL & TTL. But the flash communicates with the camera and sets the flash to the correct autoexposure mode. Ie EOS 90D would set the flash to E-TTL. But the old EOS 650 (film camera) would set the flash to TTL. There is no user selectable choice to set E-TTL vs TTL. Like higher end flashes like the 600EX II-RT. With the EOS 90D set to P Mode go into the camera menu and look for “Flash Function Settings”. The camera should show you the picture below. If not your flash IS NOT communicating with your camera correctly. If the camera reports an error message that says it cannot communicate with the flash there’s a problem. The camera cannot communicate with the speedlite leading to overexposed pictures. The 430EX II supports controlling it from the camera’s menu screen. If this isn’t possible there’s more going on. Only older speedlites such as the 550EX cannot be controlled this way.

[rdb60]

Thanks for the hints.  I did go to the menu with the camera in P mode just now, and the screen looks just like the illustration in your post.  I also snapped a couple photos here in my own office just now, with all the same settings as the overexposed shots from yesterday, and these look fine.  Maybe yesterday was just a weird fluke?  I did notice on the camera screen yesterday that things looked overexposed when I took them, but I thought the photo-editing software on my computer would be able to adjust them enough to be usable, so didn't worry about it at the time.  Sadly, they were too over-exposed for my old Corel PhotoImpact X3 software to correct and make look decent--at least not with my limited proficiency at making adjustments in that software. 

At least I was smart enough to just turn the Speedlite off after 3 or 4 overexposed shots, and let the camera use whatever light was available.  When I moved on to another building where the interior lighting wasn't as good, I used the camera's built-in flash, and that worked fine.  I guess I'm just going to have to keep a closer eye on things until I'm more accustomed to this new camera to see if the problem recurs, or whether it was indeed just a fluke.  If it happens again, maybe I'll be able to discern some kind of pattern to figure out why it happens.

[deebatman316 · Accepted solution]

I would retest the camera in auto mode with the speedlite mounted. It could’ve been not slid in all of the way allowing the camera and flash to communicate properly. One time I handed my camera and flash for them to use. But they did not tighten the speedlite lock wheel. This caused the speedlite to switch from E-TTL to TTL. It caused the pictures to be overexposed. Simply turning the lock wheel allowed the camera and speedlite to communicate correctly.

[zakslm]

rdb60,

I had a similar experience with my 90D and 430EX last summer.  I thought for sure there was a problem with the flash or the camera.  I took the flash off and took a couple of shots using the pop-up flash on the camera and they looked fine.

Then I took a very close look at the flash contacts and the hotshoe.  It turns out it that I had to clean the hotshoe.  A spot of some sort of "goop" or debris (like a waterspot, but thicker) was on one of the smaller silver dots on the hotshoe.  Perhaps a cough, sneeze or somehing from a plant or tree was the culprit, but that's not important.  I cleaned it off (microfiber cloth with a few drops of windex on corner of the cloth) and cleaned the other contacts on the hotshoe and the contacts on the flash and the problem was solved. The set up has been working fine ever since. 

Now I make sure to keep the flash contacts and hotshoe clean.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

LZ