Question for my new Flash

CAG76 · May 30, 2009

Ok first of all I don't know much of anything about external speed flashes, but I am excited to learn. I do have some photography books that I am going to read, but one quick question for anyone out there with experience who just might know.

Ok here it is. First of all I have a Canon Rebel XSi and bought a Canon Speedlight 430EX II. When I put it on the Hi Speed mode and when I hold my shutter button down, for 6 shots in one burst. It fired shots one and two. It did not fire on three and four, then it fired on five. Then did not fire on six.

I have trouble believing there is some kind of defect because everything else is working great or appears to be. Any help would be great! Also if anyone has any tips and any examples to show of some good flash photography... that would be great too. Would like to see what others have done and how they've used speedlights.

-Christopher

dxqcanada · May 30, 2009

The flash can only keep up to the motor drive if it has sufficient power in it's capacitor to produce the required output ...
If the required flash power output is small then it may keep up with the drive.

I believe that the High Speed mode on the Canon flash refers to the Sync Speed ... ie high shutter speed.

ANDS! · May 30, 2009

CAG76 said:
Ok first of all I don't know much of anything about external speed flashes, but I am excited to learn. I do have some photography books that I am going to read, but one quick question for anyone out there with experience who just might know.

Ok here it is. First of all I have a Canon Rebel XSi and bought a Canon Speedlight 430EX II. When I put it on the Hi Speed mode and when I hold my shutter button down, for 6 shots in one burst. It fired shots one and two. It did not fire on three and four, then it fired on five. Then did not fire on six.

I have trouble believing there is some kind of defect because everything else is working great or appears to be. Any help would be great! Also if anyone has any tips and any examples to show of some good flash photography... that would be great too. Would like to see what others have done and how they've used speedlights.

-Christopher

You cannot fire full capacity or near full capacity and have the flash recycle fast enough to keep shooting. Shoot at like 1/8th or 1/16th power and your flash will recycle fast enough to keep up with your shooting.

CAG76 · May 30, 2009

Thanks! This is helpful! Perhaps there are ways to adjust this Sync Speed? I still have yet to read all of my flash instructions too so I will be doing that.

CAG76 · May 30, 2009

Thats a good tip too ANDS. Now I need to read up and figure how to change the shooting power.

Samanax · May 30, 2009

Did you read the 430EX II owner's manual yet? If not, you should. And read the XSi owner's manual regarding use of flash and sync speed.

Dao · May 30, 2009

Yes, pretty much what ANDS said. The flash recycling time varies with the power. Full power or 1/32 (not sure how low it can go since I do not own this flash) yield different recycling time.

Here is the spec from Canon

Recycling Time
Approx. 0.1 to 3.7 seconds (AA-size Alkaline Batteries)/0.1 to 2 seconds (AA-size Ni-MH batteries)

So battery type also affect the recycling time. A fully charged Ni-MH batteries will have a faster recycling time as well.

I do not think anything wrong with the flash. It just that it is the limitation of the flash (of flashes in general) regarding recycling time.

CAG76 · May 30, 2009

Yeah I just put a couple of AA Alkaline Batteries in. I could try AA Ni MH batteries.

Baaaark · May 30, 2009

I think flashes use a capacitor to store that much energy up for one shot (since four batteries on their own wouldn't be powerful enough to flash that bright). So it has to wait for the capacitor to fill before it can flash again.

KmH · May 30, 2009

CAG76 said:
Perhaps there are ways to adjust this Sync Speed?

No it's not adjustable.

The sync speed is the fastest shutter speed that still allows the shutter to be fully open. On your camera that is 1/200 of a second.

Shorter shutter speeds work too, like 1/60.

At faster shutter speeds part of the image sensor is partially blocked by one or both of the shutter curtains. In other words the shutter curtain opening is just a slit. The slit gets narrower as the shutter speed increases. When the flash fires the resulting image has a black bar on one side. How wide the bar is depends on your shutter speed. At high shutter speeds the balck bar will comprise most of the image.

I shoot Nikon so am not familiar with your gear but many DSLR's and higher end speedlights have a fast sync feature (FP Sync).

High speed sync reduces the speedlight power so it can fire several times during an exposure essentially making several narrow exposures accross the image sensor.

I'll leave you to your studies. Using strobes (speedlights) requires an entire subset of photographic knowledge but it is the key to making you a well rounded photographer capable of producing professional looking images. It's all about light.

Book Recommendation: "Light: Science and Magic" by Hunter, Biver and Faqua.

CAG76 · May 30, 2009

I love it! These are very helpful! Thanks!

Yes, I was reading my manuel and it does say something about FP Sync. I will read more about that. It will take a bit to get things down, but somehow for some reason. I don't know what I did, but the flash did start firing on every shot now.

The book was telling me to look at some flash indicator within the viewfinder. It says if it is not lit things may not come out right, but if it is lit then it's good to go. So I've been checking to make sure it is lit, I think it says based on distance and how your camera settings are, I believe like aperture and such. So I think I am getting somewhere. I just need to continue to read and learn a lot about lighting and speedlights. When and when not to use them. I mean I didn't just buy it just to have it.

There were situations I wanted it for to brighten the subject when I'm facing the sun. One thing I don't understand is how a flash works in the sunlight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I will see people taking pictures of race car drivers on the winning podiums when the sun is bright and they have flashes on their cameras???

dxqcanada · May 30, 2009

Read up on Fill Flash.

CAG76 · May 30, 2009

Oh yes, I should have known better. Yes flashes can be used to fill shadowed areas with just the right amount of light so you can see all the facial features in strong sun light. Thanks dxqcanada!

ANDS! · May 31, 2009

dxqcanada said:
Read up on Fill Flash.

Or. . .

What they are doing is metering off the sky (which will be the brightest part of their image) and using the flash they have mounted on their camera to illuminate the people.

Seriously though how hard is it to answer a question?

CAG76 · May 31, 2009

Ok I was still having issues through out the day with the flash not firing in high speed mode. Just now I was playing with it and once I adjusted the ISO to where it should be, then it started to fire on all captures. I do believe someone mentioned the ISO settings above. I know I am too lazy to read all of these posts at the moment.

I'm not saying I have this speed flash problem figured out, but I am hoping I am starting to get the hang of it. Although I don't think it is ever fun to rush things. Learning is fun every step of the way!

Please, anyone feel free to post some examples of your flash photography in this post.

-Christopher

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