Need Help With 40d

[digdreams1]

Hi guys, I am having problems getting a correctly exposed photo with my 40d and the 580ex in daylight. Normal sunny day, iso 400, program mode factory default settings and tamron 18-200 lens.. Photos seem blown out slightly. have also had this problem with a 20d so I am assuming it is something I am missing rather than a problem with the camera. Any advice to shooting this camera with flash will be appreciated.
Thanks
Rick

[Doug Pardee]

Did you switch the flash to High Speed Sync?

If not, the camera has to use a relatively slow shutter speed (1/250) and that can result in overexposure when shooting flash in daylight.

[OsmosisStudios]

They look fine to me: a bit bright, but not overly so. You do have some blown highlights, but nothing over the top.

I dont know why youre shooting at 100iso if you've got such bright sun AND a flash. I also think that your fill-flash is coming on a bit strong, especially in the first shot. Try dialing back some FeV comp.

[correrog]

I reckon instead of using the flash in the standing up portrait that maybe you could use a white reflector in front of the model horizontally to fill in the dark bits. cos it does look like a sunny day. or take back the fev like osmosis studios says.
what do you think?

[AgBeard]

Were you using any form of difusser on the flash i.e. s Sto-Fen or something simular - I tend to use one most of the time for fill-in flash.

[inkista]

+1 on what Doug Pardee said on high-speed sync. Check that your shutter speed wasn't hijacked by the camera and forced down to X-Sync speed (1/250s). That will happen in the automodes without high-speed sync turned on.

P mode isn't ideal for fill flash photography as you end up with almost no control over the flash/ambient balance. If you want to use the flash for fill, you might want to try being in Av or Tv instead, as the assumption with those shooting modes is that the flash is going to be used for fill, so the shutter speed (in Av) or aperture (in Tv) will be set to what's required for ambient exposure, and then the flash to bring up the subject to the ambient level.

If you're using the 580EX in eTTL mode, you will also want to adjust the FEC (flash exposure compensation) so that your subject is lit the way you want--eTTL sets the flash's power based on metering, and just as your metering might be inaccurate in mostly dark/light scenes, so will the eTTL.

If you shoot and your flash-lit subject looks a little hot, dial the FEC on the flash down. If the subject looks a little dark, dial the FEC up, just as you would dial exposure compensation in on the camera if you weren't using the flash.

You may want to consider eventually shooting in M mode, and using the flash in M mode. I'd recommend reading this Planet Neil blog entry about balancing ambient and flash.