Canon 600EX

[Kolourl3lind]

Hello all. I wanted to know if there is a way to turn down the brightness of the flash. Say if I am in a dark setting and I just want a little bit of light to fill in the subject.

Also what  does the setting that change the flashes 50mm to 100mm do?  That's not the power level is it?

Also if you have a diffuser on the flash is it still better to take the diffuser off and bounce the flash instead?

[Kolourl3lind]

One last question. Is there a way to speed up the flash so poeple don't notice you are using a flash? I that would be useful at concerts.

[digital]

I knew the first image you posted was with flash and the second without. I still prefer the 1st but with more exposure the second would have had much less noise.

Speed up flash? The flash fires at the same power at 1:1 as it does at 1:128. What determines correct flash exposure of your subject is duration of the flash. You can slow it down or make it work less hard. Crank up the ISO, slow the shutter down as much as you can to comfortable level and set the aperture to wide open. The flash will work less hard but you will still see a pulse. You're only other option is do all the same tthings witout fash, got ETTR and fix in PP.  

Here is my 5D2 at 6400 with a flash. I have no issues shooting my 5D3 @ 12,800.

5D2 with flash at ISO 1600. I was just getting used to high IOS and shot to low but they were still OK.

 

You're only other option is do all the same tthings witout fash, got ETTR and fix in PP. Even a little underexposure can be corrected. If you could post a link to the RAW of that seconf image I'd take a crack at it.  

Look at posts # 47 & 48

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1108954&highlight=5d2+iso

[Skirball]

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@Kolourl3lind wrote:

Yes I kind of have a grip on the the 3 wisemen but 4th old guy seems to bring all the boos that makes the other 3 act weird. Thanks for the link. I will study up.

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Lol.  Well put.

The 4th guy is a bit of an odditity, because he's affected by 2 of the 3, whereas the 3 are independent of each other.

I recommend trying to shoot in full manual for a little bit.  Ettl flash provides a terrific learning opportunity since it pretty much takes care of the exposure for you.  If you’re in a darkened venue, or just a ‘romantically lit’ room, set your camera to full manual, open up the aperture as far as you’re comfortable with, set your shutter speed to 1/focal length (e.g. for a 100 mm lens use 1/100), and bump up the ISO until you’re about 2 stops under exposed.  Then put your flash on, turn on eTTL, and start firing away using the flash to light the subjects.  If you have a 50mm lens use that, as it’ll give you a lot of room to bump up the shutter speed and observe the change to the ratio between flash and ambient light.  I think that understanding this relationship has a lot to do with understanding how to use flash (well).

[Skirball]

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@Kolourl3lind wrote:

One last question. Is there a way to speed up the flash so poeple don't notice you are using a flash? I that would be useful at concerts.

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No.  Flash is actually quite fast if you're not using it at full power.  But it's extremely bright, and quite noticeable.  However, eTTL uses multiple flash as it fires a test flash so it can assess how much flash is needed to properly expose the picture, and then again for the actual picture.  So it makes the flash seem longer.  I don't use eTTL much as I find it has a tendency to make people blink.  But for a concert situation where people are moving around your keeper rate is going to drop dramatically if you use manual flash.

[Kolourl3lind]

Ok ok thanks. I got to work on it.

[Skirball]

If you do, I guarantee that it will all become second nature soon enough.  It just takes playing with it, and being thoroughly confused by it, a few times and eventually it starts to just make sense.  Suddenly instead of having one more thing to worry about, you have one more thing to help you get the results you want.  Flash photography is a wonderful thing.

[Davoud]

Controlling flash output is done on the back of the flash or on the camera menu under External Speedlight control > Flash function settings. You really must read the both manual for your 600EX and the manual for your camera. Have the flash on-camera as you do so.