Flash help needed ASAP

[Gocyclin]

Hey guys, I shooting a Fashion show tonight and just got my flash in the mail today and have no idea how to use it. If anyone would be willing to post a quick crash course in the use of flash that would be super great. it's a canon speedlite 580exII. I'm completely clueless on this subject so any info would help. Thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

Put batteries in it. Put it on your camera. Turn it on. Put it into E-TTL mode.
That should get you pretty far.

If you are in a location where you can bounce the flash off of walls or the ceiling, then tilt/rotate the flash head accordingly.

When I'm shooting with flash, I'll put the camera into manual mode, but leave the flash in E-TTL mode. The flash & camera will determine how much power to use based on the preflash, the aperture and the ISO. If you find it's not giving you as much power/light as you need, then use FEC on the camera to dial in more/less flash power.

 

[CCericola]

Hi Gocylclin,

I shot a fashion show in Philadelphia along with 50 other photographers. I put my 580 on ETTL and shot shutter priority at 1/250 at the end of the runway. Others with faster glass let the flashes of all the other cameras light their subject and used no flash. For you, just use ETTL tonight.

 

[mdphoto21]

Hi Gocylclin,

I shot a fashion show in Philadelphia along with 50 other photographers. I put my 580 on ETTL and shot shutter priority at 1/250 at the end of the runway. Others with faster glass let the flashes of all the other cameras light their subject and used no flash. For you, just use ETTL tonight.

Well I don't think they got light from the other flashes that would be too hard to time. I think they probably had enough light for a decent picture with no flash.

 

[CCericola]

Hi Gocylclin,

I shot a fashion show in Philadelphia along with 50 other photographers. I put my 580 on ETTL and shot shutter priority at 1/250 at the end of the runway. Others with faster glass let the flashes of all the other cameras light their subject and used no flash. For you, just use ETTL tonight.

Well I don't think they got light from the other flashes that would be too hard to time. I think they probably had enough light for a decent picture with no flash.

You are probably right. I think they may have had enough light with the stage lighting and continuous lights from the video cameras