Flash not firing! Help!

[Ericas]

I have a canon EOS 5 and speedlite attachment. In sunny conditions when I am doing close up portrait shots, the flash will not fire which means I'm getting shadowy faces! I assume the camera is deciding that the shot will be overexposed and is refusing to take the photo! How can I get round this? I used to have exactly the same camera and flash years ago and never had this problem - Is there something obvious I'm forgetting to do? Have read manuals for both camera and flash and not found anything to help! Would be really really grateful for any pearls of wisdom - I'm shooting a friend's wedding in a few weeks time!

 

[Big Mike]

What mode is the camera in? If the flash is on the hot shoe properly and it's batteries are good, and the flash is working properly...it should fire in any mode (I think) but try it with the camera in different modes, just to be sure.

 

[sabbath999]

I don't know on a Canon (on a Nikon, which I use, I could tell you)... but if you look in the manual it will tell you how to set it...