ettl off camera flash and auto modes

[Tzetsin]

Ok, this might take some time to explain...

Obviously I'm pretty new with my camera and the equipment, I'm learning fast though, mabey too fast?

Ok heres the setup...

Canon 60D - 100mm usm 2.8 macro, 50mm 1.8 II, 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 kit lenses
430 ex speedlight large umbrella and stand.

Now i've been shooting faithfully every single day, Almost always in manual mode. I have nothing against the more automatic modes, as you'll read soon, but I feel if you dont know how to do it manually, you wont know what you can really do in the more automatic modes...

So anyway, last time i was in the camera store I was complaining that I cant get any tack sharp images with the lenses i had, so I was eyeing up Canon's 70 - 200mm 2.8L lense. Unfortunatly it was Just a smidge outside my budget for the day, so I was trying on other primes to guage clarity and functionality. While i was doing this i tried on a 430 ex II speedlight. I noticed right away that everything was immediatly much much much more clear. That flash was giving me the tack sharp images I've always been trying for, even with my kit lense. So I ended up getting the flash instead of a lense. (an now i have lots more to put towards saving for the lense i wanted ;D ) I bought a translucent umbrella later.

Anyway... I've been working alot with off camera flash and am noticing something thats been frustrating me to no end...

On top of the off camera flash, i've been using the priority modes to help speed up my shooting since I've been using live subjects. Here is where i have the trouble... when I use Apeture priority, my shutter speed drops down to 90 / 60ish, I want to bump that up... alot. I've tried using exposure compensation, but that doesnt seem to do anything at all, so I tried using shutterspeed priority but the GD thing bypasses what I want an jacks the shutter speed even lower than in aperture mode.

I know this setup will produce perfectly exposed shots @ 250th/s with F22 in inky blackness using the camera manually and ettl on the off camera flash, So my question... finally, is;

why does my camera opt to slow down my shutterspeed instead of boosting flash output in ettl?? Its insanity, I'm already in low light, the flash is more than powerful enough to shoot any speed I want. Even in program mode, any setting I manually enter is completely bypassed when i focus.

This problem is really impeding my learning and I cant think of an appropriate search word for google, and I did RTFM, nothing in the off camera flash part.

any input to shed some "Light" on this would be awsome.

Thanks for reading!

-Jason

[OsmosisStudios]

In anything but Manual, the camera assumes you want the flash to act as fill light. It will always do whatever it can to use it as fill.

Switch to manual, set the aperture you need and a shutterspeed fast enough to remove ambient (fast). In eTTL the flash will provide the necessary light for the scene even as it changes.

[Tzetsin]

So what your saying is that if i want to use the flash as a key light, I HAVE to use manual mode? How about when the Tv/Av/Program modes bypass the settings i enter?

[OsmosisStudios]

You can use TTL, but the camera has to be in manual, yes