Flash photography

[Ladybird]

Hi All, here is my dilemma:

I struggle to capture the moving shots in bad light with flash: eg. Entrance of the bride into the church, so I have one chance to capture those shots. What happens is that I need so much light from the flash to light them well, that the recharge time for the flash is so long that I get 1 pic lit and 3 others dark and so on. I have the Canon Speedlight 580EXII and then I put in on the ETTL setting. Does anyone have advice for me to make this better next time?

Thanks!

[Snowdust]

If Canon's eTTL is like Nikon's iTTL, more power can be obtained through manual settings as iTTL will not fire at 1/1. You could shot in manual flash mode or move the flashes closer and remote trigger.

[RexK_Cozumel]

The problem you are having is that the flash needs time to recycle after a full discharge. What you need to do is either move closer to the subject so that the flash does not have to discharge at full power to expose the subject properly or bump up your iso or use a larger aperture or a combonation of all three.

The usual recycle time of a speedlight is somewhere around 2-3 seconds you can speed it up by getting a battery pack that goes with the speedlight which could drop the recycle time to 1 second but still if you have a fast action scene and need to burst 3-4 frames off the best thing is to make sure the flash is not shooting at full power.

Also be careful with shooting too much in burst with a flash as they can overheat.

[Sodaman420]

hi,
i would suggest bumping ISO and lowering flash output. this makes the flash work less hard. it means you are playing more around ambient light levels in the church (what brightness is already given or there without flash). of course, you sacrifice a bit of grain in the photo.
try working at 800 ISO to start-see how it works.

also one thing to consider- if the flash is set at (manual) 1/8 power, it has 8 shots until it has to recharge and stop flashing.
literally, it is using 1/8 of its power at a time.

i'm not sure what camera you're using, but my camera cannot out shoot the recharge rate for 10-15 shots or so. (nikon d80)

with manual use, you get better with practice at guessing how much is required. so, practice up!!!

[Ladybird]

Thanks for the advice, will have to practice a bit with it! x

[benjamieson]

Depending on finances, you might want to look at the Canon CP-E4 - its a battery pack that holds 8AA batteries and takes 2/3rds off the recycle time. I just got one, specifically for wedding shooting, and it rocks.

Also, having 8 batteries in it, means you can shoot pretty much a whole day without changing (though recycling slows by the end of the day)

A good investment!

Ben