What’s Your Preference?

TKJI14 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 03:47 AM

I'm a newbie to the photography world and to this website. I'm not even sure whether I'm posting this thread in the right location. If not, I apologize. Okay, so here's my question:

Recently, I caught my three year old "playing" with my bounch flash. Yikes! I'm not sure what she did, but now I'm getting an "orange" tinge to my photos. My thought process is that I'm getting too much ambient light. Am I right? Here's how I tried to resolve the problem:

I switched to manual mode, which I shoot in most of the time anyway. My shutter speed is 1/200. (My camera maxes out at 1/200 when I use my flash.) Should I reduce my shutter speed? Keep in mind that I was shooting at my daughter's dance class, so I can't reduce the shutter speed too much.

I changed the aperture to F11, to allow more light from the flash to be picked up. My photos were still orange, so I changed my aperture to F5.6. Photos were still orange.

My ISO was at 400, but I also changed it to 800. My photos still had an orange tinge.

Oh, I should also mention that I'm not having this problem when I remove the bounce flash and only use the built-in flash. So, it must be the flash, right?

With my limitied knowledge, I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time!!!

ArmySoldier777 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 03:55 AM

Somebody else may already know the answer to the question, but would you mind posting an example photo so we could get a better picture of what you're talking about. Another thing, are you shooting Raw or Jpeg?

dakwegmo · #3 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 03:57 AM

What's your white balance set to?

ArmySoldier777 · #4 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 04:01 AM

Yeah, that's why I asked about shooting either Raw or Jpeg. If he was shooting Jpeg, I thought maybe the camera could be overcompensating with his current WB. I've never actually had that happen to me, because I've never shot Jpeg. But I was wondering about it.

TKJI14 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 04:13 AM

Jpeg!!!!

My WB is set to auto. I've had this flash for two years now and have never had this problem. It wasn't until my daughter "played" with it a few days before Christmas that I'm getting this "orange' tinge.

I'll try to find a photo. The problem is I've color corrected almost all of the photos. If I can't find one, I'll take some new pics and post one of them.

I should also mention that I'm getting red eye in almost every photo now. I have no idea what's going on!

My flash is in ETTL mode. And in case anyone asks, it's NOT set to slave mode... whatever that is. Lol!

sk66 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TKJI14

My thought process is that I'm getting too much ambient light. Am I right? Here's how I tried to resolve the problem:

I switched to manual mode, which I shoot in most of the time anyway. My shutter speed is 1/200. (My camera maxes out at 1/200 when I use my flash.) Should I reduce my shutter speed? Keep in mind that I was shooting at my daughter's dance class, so I can't reduce the shutter speed too much.

I changed the aperture to F11, to allow more light from the flash to be picked up. My photos were still orange, so I changed my aperture to F5.6. Photos were still orange.

My ISO was at 400, but I also changed it to 800. My photos still had an orange tinge.

You are correct in that you are getting too much ambient. I suspect it's a flash setting that was altered causing the issue. You don't say which flash or which camera....but in manual mode yo are still having the issue I would suspect the flash has been set to have a negative EC or something else odd.
Most have a "reset" method for them in the manual somewhere.

TKJI14 · #7 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 04:19 AM

sk66- I have a Canon T2i. The flash is a 430ex II.

I can't locate the manual. I looked online for a pdf version of the user manual. No luck!!! I even tried Googling the factory default setting for my flash. I'm still reading, but no luck so far.

My next stop- the local camera store. I'm sure they can reset my flash.

graciousness · #8 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 04:27 AM

Go to the canon website and you'll find the manual there.

This is the Canon Australia site with the manual. Shouldn't make a difference if it's an AU site -

SPEEDLITE 430EX II Instruction Manual

TKJI14 · #9 (**permalink**) 01-12-2012, 04:29 AM

graciousness, thank you so much!!! I am going to look at it right now. I'm sure everything will be back to normal once I can reset the flash. You certainly are "gracious."

THANK YOU!!!