Flash advice needed

[lukasgunar]

Hello,
I would need some advice on how to shoot with flash outside. I'm using Canon 30D with Speedlite 580EX, lens 24-70 f/2.8L.
I've been using flash indoors with better bounce card so basically I've been firing flash to the top and the card bounced just a hair of light in front so everything worked pretty well. The problems occured when I used my flash outside. I've been firing it straight on dialed down to -3 just to lift the shadows but unfortunatelly the result was many times very disappointing. The faces were burned out. Most of the times I tried to use f2.8 to blur the background and the flash was in ETT-L mode. As the day was very bright, I was using times aroung 1/2000 of second and of course flash was in hi-sync mode.
Can you please help me to figure out what I was doing wrong?

If some example pictures would help, I'll be happy to provide them but I can imagine that anyone of you has already seen pictures with faces burned out.
Many thanks

lukas

 

[JubbaKing]

Check your exposure compensation button on the camera. Maybe it's on +2? Post examples for us.

 

[EOS_JD]

What mode are you shooting in? Outside I use -2 stops and Av (aperture priority). Also you need to make sure the camera is in high speed mode. If not the camera is restricted to 1/250th sec and using f2.8 @ 1/250th is likely to mean that your images will be way over exposed if shooting outside during the day!

 

[Garbz]

Are there multiple ETTL settings? On the SB800 I blow faces if the background is a significant distance from the foreground in TTL, I need to set it to TTLBalanced if the subject is against a truly black background.

 

[lukasgunar]

Check your exposure compensation button on the camera. Maybe it's on +2? Post examples for us.

Well, based on what Speedlite manual says:"If flash exposure compensation has been set with both the Speedlite and camera, the Speedlite's flash exposure compensation amount will override the camera's", so I think this shouldn't be a case. BTW. on the camera you can dial down only to -2 while on Speedlite to -3 so it's quite logical that Speedlite's settings have priority no. 1. But thanks for your try Jubba. I really appreciate each effort.

What mode are you shooting in? Outside I use -2 stops and Av (aperture priority). Also you need to make sure the camera is in high speed mode. If not the camera is restricted to 1/250th sec and using f2.8 @ 1/250th is likely to mean that your images will be way over exposed if shooting outside during the day!

EOS_JD, I've been shooting in fully Manual mode. As long as I'm aware there's no high speed mode set up on camera. If you're using on camera flash with 30D than you're correct that maximum sync time will be 1/250th of second. But when using Speedlite with High Sync turned on on Speedlite, then you can use whatever time. If I go once again back to the Speedlite's manual, it says:"With high-speed sync, you can use flash with all shutter speeds." I even tried times around 1/2000th or 1/4000th of second and some pictures where burned out. It's really strange to me because some pictures are totally burned out while others are totally dark with harsh shadows in faces.
Please check 2 examples below: As you can see, both were shot with almost the same settings of the flash and apperture. Which is strange that picture taken with 1/2000th of second is burned out while the one taken with 1/1000th of second is slightly underexposed in the face which is really strange to me.

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. Many thanks

lukas

This one has been shot with these settings:
Manual Mode
Tv 1/2000
Av 2.8
Focal Length 55mm
Flash Exposure Compensation -3

Setting for this one:
Manual Mode
Tv 1/1000
Av 2.8
Focal Length 51mm
Flash Exposure Comp. -3