430EX II Tutorial

[bldvdb]

I'm looking for a general tutorial on how to use the 430 EX II. I did a search and came up with nothing...perhaps I was being too specific. Can anyone throw a link my way?

[OsmosisStudios]

What are you trying to do with it? Any tutorial that explains how to use everything in it will be long. very, very, very long.

[bldvdb]

Long might be good...I need all the info I can get!

I'm just not sure how to get started with it. I shoot in AV but have found that using the flash in AV I have a very slow shutter speed. I'm a beginner by most means. I started this venture in June and it is dark most of the time in Maine...hence the flash.

I appreciate any help!

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by bldvdb

Long might be good...I need all the info I can get!

I'm just not sure how to get started with it. I shoot in AV but have found that using the flash in AV I have a very slow shutter speed. I'm a beginner by most means. I started this venture in June and it is dark most of the time in Maine...hence the flash.

I appreciate any help!

Go into your custom functions in the camera and set it where it will be 1/250 in av mode.. This will allow you to have the proper shutter speed for flash.

[k9mom]

The 430EX II supports High Speed Sync (HSS). Refer to page 16 of your manual or the pdf manual (link, below):

From the PDF online manual:

[inkista]

First thing you want to read is the "EOS Flash Confusion" section of the EOS Flash Bible. It explains why the flash doesn't act like the flash on your P&S when you're in one of the automatic modes. It will make sense when you've read it. Honestly.

The rest of the FAQ is also good reading, but the full Bible when printed out comes to over 100 pages and a lot of it is about film technology that doesn't apply. But you will want to have the bookmark it for when you need to look up something technical or research a specific flash model. It's the best EOS flash reference work out there.

The next place to go for some quickie information is the POTN board's Flash Photography 101.

From there, you probably want to hit PlanetNeil (for on-camera flash techniques) and the Strobist (for off-camera flash techniques). The best two pieces of information I read early on were about balancing your ambient against your flash, and about choosing your bounce direction.