use or not to use flash

cajunboy · Nov 2, 2008

Ok, i went out today to take some family portraits. i wanted to use 1.8 f stop, but shutter speed was to high for fill flash. This was in shade, no sunlight. well have to go up to 5.6 f stop to get shutter speed under 250, no depth and field. So i am very confused now. I thought they had to much shadow under eyes. That why i wanted fill flash. Please help.

tsaraleksi · Nov 2, 2008

What is it that you are confused about? I don't remember if the 430ex has high-speed sync, but if not, then in bright sunlight you're going to have to stop down if you want to use fill flash.

Brutus · Nov 2, 2008

What's the problem with a high shutter speed?

El2 · Nov 3, 2008

High SS usually will give you a really great crisp picture. You could have lower your ISO if you have lots of light, to lower your SS.

usayit · Nov 3, 2008

* I do believe the 430EX has high sync. Use it (but there is a loss of flash power and increase battery consumption)
* One option is to use a neutral density filter if you want to shoot wide open in bright daylight
* f/1.8 is not an optimal aperture for that 50mm.
* Of course this is an artistic decision but f/1.8 is a bit wide for portraits. Your DOF is going to be pretty shallow (on top of the previous point) and prone to missed focus and/or important parts of the subject out of focus. An aperture of f/5.6 @ 10 feet subject will result in better DOF to work with (~2.6 ft) and still have a bokeh background with a far limit of ~11.5 ft.
* lower ISO
* increase shutter
* Use a reflector instead of a flash.

btw... this statement doesn't make sense to me:
"well have to go up to 5.6 f stop to get shutter speed under 250, no depth and field"

Village Idiot · Nov 3, 2008

usayit said:
* I do believe the 430EX has high sync. Use it (but there is a loss of flash power and increase battery consumption)
* One option is to use a neutral density filter if you want to shoot wide open in bright daylight
* f/1.8 is not an optimal aperture for that 50mm.
* Of course this is an artistic decision but f/1.8 is a bit wide for portraits. Your DOF is going to be pretty shallow (on top of the previous point) and prone to missed focus and/or important parts of the subject out of focus. An aperture of f/5.6 @ 10 feet subject will result in better DOF to work with (~2.6 ft) and still have a bokeh background with a far limit of ~11.5 ft.
* lower ISO
* increase shutter
* Use a reflector instead of a flash.

btw... this statement doesn't make sense to me:
"well have to go up to 5.6 f stop to get shutter speed under 250, no depth and field"

That's because you don't speak noob and don't have a grasp on generation text.

"well I had to use an aperture of f/5.6 to get the shutter speed under 1/250s and there was no depth of field."

430 has HSS.

If you're shooting portraitrs, I wouldn't recommend using an aperture wider than about f/2.8 with that focal range when shooting single people. I hate picture that have people's noses in focus but their eyes are blurry.

benhasajeep · Nov 3, 2008

cajunboy said:
Ok, i went out today to take some family portraits. i wanted to use 1.8 f stop, but shutter speed was to high for fill flash. This was in shade, no sunlight. well have to go up to 5.6 f stop to get shutter speed under 250, no depth and field. So i am very confused now. I thought they had to much shadow under eyes. That why i wanted fill flash. Please help.

First to me 1.8 has a pretty shallow dof in first place. If perchance 5.6 does give you too much dof. If you can, move in a little closer. The closer you are the smaller of dof will be at same f stop. Not sure how much of the frame you were filling though.

The suggestion for a reflector is a good one. In my original reply I just guessed you probably didn't have a reflector. They are not that expensive either. Can make one too if you dont feel thats too shade tree (pun intended

). Cardboard backer and aluminium foil makes a good cheap reflector.

And again. Morning light and evening light is softer, and would slow your shutter down quite a bit for fill flash sync.