kdthomas
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2014
- Messages
- 1,117
- Reaction score
- 474
- Location
- Denton, TX
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
Went to do a prom-night shoot for a friend of mine. Get to their house ... and the speedlight doesn't work. I have the thing in Aperture-Priority mode, just like I'm supposed to! Flash set on TTL. Still getting shutter times of 2 and 3 seconds. WTF WTF WTF WTF???!!! I got frustrated, boiling mad because I'M MISSING MOMENTS WE ONLY HAVE 15 MINUTES LEFT UNTIL WE HAVE TO DRIVE SOMEPLACE ELSE AND EVERYTHING IS GOING TO SH*T!!!!
I managed to only barely show it externally, but it really affected my energy. I want out of here. How can I leave? How can I make my phone ring so that I can pretend like the Prime Minister of Japan wants me to come right away and do a portrait?
What the hell is wrong with this thing? Ya just snap the GD thing on and go, right? Can't consult the web on the phone, OH H*LL F***ING NO! Everything is web 2.0 and takes a full minute only to find out that it's the wrong information, and an ad covers the content and you can't click it.
Screw it ... switch to manual and just diddle with the GD flash. Sure we have to take 5 shots when we should only take one but what the heck. Then the flash quits WORKING. IT QUITS WORKING. Now I have to use available light at ISO 36,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 just to barely make out a grainy noisy image that looks like old TV footage from the apollo moon landing.
Long story short it wound up being okay, got some halfway decent stuff, the parents are pleased as they can be, dad's texted like thee times thanking me and telling me how great I am (I'm not) ... I'm starting to think he wants to have my baby.
Many mistakes on this gig:
-- Not having PAPER manuals with me.
-- Not checking out, and making a practice run with, the gear beforehand.
-- Fake expectations of how easy it would be, not anticipating failures.
-- Trying to pack too much into a shoot with out know how much time we have.
As it turns out:
To TTL autoboogie the speedlight for aperture and ISO, you have to be in Aperture Priority mode, and set to front-curtain sync, and have the speedlight set to TTL. Then the shutter speed will set itself fixed to between 1/60 and 1/250 and adjust only the flash power for exposure.
The reason the flash turned off was that instead of holding the flash button and turning the front dial dial to set flash compensation, I turned the rear dial, and turned the flash OFF. At some point I also turned it off of front-curtain sync and therefore was getting the long-exposure BS.
What I'm doing tonight is to avoid having this same problem again is by making index cards of all the settings I need to check for doing events. And having checklists for when sh*t isn't working, so that I can go through the menus & settings to make sure I've haven't botched anything.
I think the first two lists I'll make are
1) All settings from factory default, (e.g. Active d-lighting off, vignette control off, daylight color balance, neutral or standard picture control, RAW mode, etc. etc).
2) Settings to make the flash work right for auto-boogie TTL
would anyone care to share the lists they have so that I have a better chance of not missing anything?
Thanks for listening to my rant I'm allllllll better now.
I managed to only barely show it externally, but it really affected my energy. I want out of here. How can I leave? How can I make my phone ring so that I can pretend like the Prime Minister of Japan wants me to come right away and do a portrait?
What the hell is wrong with this thing? Ya just snap the GD thing on and go, right? Can't consult the web on the phone, OH H*LL F***ING NO! Everything is web 2.0 and takes a full minute only to find out that it's the wrong information, and an ad covers the content and you can't click it.
Screw it ... switch to manual and just diddle with the GD flash. Sure we have to take 5 shots when we should only take one but what the heck. Then the flash quits WORKING. IT QUITS WORKING. Now I have to use available light at ISO 36,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 just to barely make out a grainy noisy image that looks like old TV footage from the apollo moon landing.
Long story short it wound up being okay, got some halfway decent stuff, the parents are pleased as they can be, dad's texted like thee times thanking me and telling me how great I am (I'm not) ... I'm starting to think he wants to have my baby.
Many mistakes on this gig:
-- Not having PAPER manuals with me.
-- Not checking out, and making a practice run with, the gear beforehand.
-- Fake expectations of how easy it would be, not anticipating failures.
-- Trying to pack too much into a shoot with out know how much time we have.
As it turns out:
To TTL autoboogie the speedlight for aperture and ISO, you have to be in Aperture Priority mode, and set to front-curtain sync, and have the speedlight set to TTL. Then the shutter speed will set itself fixed to between 1/60 and 1/250 and adjust only the flash power for exposure.
The reason the flash turned off was that instead of holding the flash button and turning the front dial dial to set flash compensation, I turned the rear dial, and turned the flash OFF. At some point I also turned it off of front-curtain sync and therefore was getting the long-exposure BS.
What I'm doing tonight is to avoid having this same problem again is by making index cards of all the settings I need to check for doing events. And having checklists for when sh*t isn't working, so that I can go through the menus & settings to make sure I've haven't botched anything.
I think the first two lists I'll make are
1) All settings from factory default, (e.g. Active d-lighting off, vignette control off, daylight color balance, neutral or standard picture control, RAW mode, etc. etc).
2) Settings to make the flash work right for auto-boogie TTL
would anyone care to share the lists they have so that I have a better chance of not missing anything?
Thanks for listening to my rant I'm allllllll better now.