Flash Issue - Indoors

[ME4MAGIC]

I am fairly new to flash photography and using an off camera flash and ran into some issues over the weekend. I was shooting a "Surprise 80th Birthday Celebration" for my friends mother at a small venue. When I arrived, I did some test photos using my Canon Rebel XTi (RAW mode) and Canon 580EXII flash mounted off camera on a flash bracket. While most of the test shots were ok, some were extremely dark, considering the flash did fire. Throughout the event, I noticed that most of the photos I would take were dark and underexposed, while a few perfect shots would come out sprinkled throughout the day. I could not figure out why this was happening. I was shooting in "Program" mode and the camera set the exposure at f 5.6, 1/60. (I even tried "Manual" mode with the same or slightly adjusted settings, as well as shooting in "Portrait" mode to see if it would make a difference, but it did not.) I tried everything I could think of, adjusting ISO to 800, changing White Balance from Auto to Flash, yet nothing seemed to work.

The indoor lighting was fluorescent lighting and on all of my shots, the flash did indeed fire, At the beginning, when the Birthday person arrived, the lights were dimmed, and ALL of the shots taken, with flash firing were completely dark and underexposed. I was seeing people with compact point and shoot digital cameras getting better shots than I was. Being I was shooting in RAW, I continued to shoot, knowing I could make adjustments later which I have been able to do.

Later in the evening, towards the end of the party, I did notice on the flash display that it was continually indicating 14mm in the upper right corner and never changed, nor could I get it to change. I am sure that had something to do with what was happening, but I hadn't noticed it earlier. At the end of the event, I had put my camera away, when I was told they needed a few more shots for something they forgot to do, so I pulled the camera out and used the pop-up flash. With these shots, the exposure was right on every time with the flash providing the right amount of light to the photo.

The following day I was playing around with the camera and flash at home and did some more test shots. I placed the flash directly on camera and was watching the flash display as I zoomed in and out and saw the indication change from 25mm to 50mm as I did so. When I took some shots, they were all exposed correctly. My computer screen and everything around it were perfectly lit. When I mounted the flash to the bracket and took the same shots, the indication was changing the same, 25mm to 50mm, but when I took the photos, the exposure was completely different. So much of the exposre was completely underexposed. The only thing not underexposed was my computer monitor screen. Everything around the monitor is completely dark. I will upload these photos tonight after I get them off my camera.

Any help or suggestions anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Joie

[scootermcq]

You said you were firing off camera. How were you triggering the flash? On camera would be TTL if you don't change it, thats why those pictures when you were fooling around were fine. I would assume your flash power was set incorrectly off camera.

[autofocus]

It sounds like the off camera bracket mounted flash was not communicating with the camera. I'm just wondering if the cable you were using between the flash and the camera could have played a part in it?? Just a guess though, being that the speedlight seemed to work OK when directly mounted to the hot shoe. Possibly the cable does not support eTTL???

[autofocus]

...the only reason I think it might be the cable is when I purchased a nine foot cable for my Nikon there were two choices, one supported off camera TTL, while the less expensive one did not. But, still just a guess that this may be the cause to your problem

[ME4MAGIC]

Was using an off camera cable, that supports ETTL to fire the flash off camera. This was indeed indicated on the flash throughout the day.

[zona5101]

since the flash was firing using a ttl cable and the flash zoom head wasn't reacting to changes on the camera, I am going to venture you have the flash in manual and had inadvertently locked in the zoom head and possibly dialed in underexposure comp or manual flash settings that were inadequate for the the majority of the shots.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by zona5101

since the flash was firing using a ttl cable and the flash zoom head wasn't reacting to changes on the camera, I am going to venture you have the flash in manual and had inadvertently locked in the zoom head and possibly dialed in underexposure comp or manual flash settings that were inadequate for the the majority of the shots.

+1

That's kinda where my head was going was you had mistakenly put the flash on manual and the flash was not listening o the metering system

[autofocus]

++1 agree with both Scott and Bruce above now that we know the cable supported eTTL

[ME4MAGIC]

That could very well be... I did try adjusting things on the flash throughout the day, but for the most part, had the mode set in the default that came up. Did try adjusting the stops up on the flash (pressed center button and adjusted using wheel) to see. Didn't really see any difference.

I invite everyone to check back later tonight, when I upload the pix I took at home of my messy desk. I will also include some of the pix from the event as well, just so you can see. Thanks so far for all the thoughts.

As an extra thought, can anyone point me in the right direction as to where I can learn more about my particular flash and how best to use it's features? A book, video, or even a blog posted here or elsewhere?

[ME4MAGIC]

The first two photos were taken with the external flash attached directly to the camera, the second two shots (dark) were taken on the flash bracket using the off camera cord. The info for each pic is below. I converted them to .jpg before uploading.

photo 0000 info
File Name IMG_1058.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 2/20/2011 1:17:24 PM
Shooting Mode Program AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/60
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length 55.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
Flash Exposure Compensation 0
Red-eye Reduction Off
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard

photo 0001 info

File Name IMG_1059.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 2/20/2011 1:17:28 PM
Shooting Mode Program AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/60
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length 18.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
Flash Exposure Compensation 0
Red-eye Reduction Off
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard

photo 0002 info

File Name IMG_1062.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 2/20/2011 1:23:20 PM
Shooting Mode Program AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/60
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length 18.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
Flash Exposure Compensation 0
Red-eye Reduction Off
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard

photo 0003 info

File Name IMG_1063.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 2/20/2011 1:23:23 PM
Shooting Mode Program AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/60
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length 55.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
Flash Exposure Compensation 0
Red-eye Reduction Off
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard