OCF question

LCLimages · May 31, 2014

Ok, I'm messing around with OCF. I shoot Canon, work mostly with natural/ambient light, or bounced flash if needed. I've done a bit with OCF but I have an OCF ETT-L cord and have left it in ETT-L mode. Today I was like ok I'm moving up in the world, putting my flash on manual mode, I want more control, I want to create the look I want. I have a LumoPro universal translator kit with a cord, so I got it all hooked up. Camera is a Canon 6D, speedlite 430EX II, 43" umbrella, and I had my 85 mm lens on.

I played around with all different flash power settings and ISO/shutter speed/f stop combos. In every shot where I got the light look I wanted, it cut off at least 1/4 of the shot. Like, I'd have this pretty little soft lit shot and then the right side of the frame was completely black. The lower the exposure/light, the more of the frame was black. I really underexposed a couple on purpose just to see and it would seriously cut off all but 1/4 of the left side of the frame. What is this??? I've never once had this problem in ETTL mode. To get it to shoot the entire frame I had to seriously overexpose the shot. Like, not even useful overexpose, it really wasn't recoverable overexposed. I tried shooting through the umbrella and also putting the black back cover on it and reflecting. Same results.

What am I missing?

Derrel · May 31, 2014

Were you shooting "talls", and maybe exceeding the camera's X-synch speed? Could you perhaps post a photo or two, or a link to one uploaded somewhere, so we could see the EXIF info and the problem?

tirediron · May 31, 2014

You exceeded your camera's sync speed. Not sure what it is on yours, but generally it's 1/250 or less. When you're shooting in manual flash, the light has to fire when the shutter curtains are fully open (the maximum speed at which this occurs is 'sync' speed). Any shutter speed above this, the shutter curtains travel across the frame essentially as a slot which exposes the frame sequentially not all at once.

LCLimages · May 31, 2014

Oh...my....gosh. I hadn't even thought of sync speed. *hangs head feeling stupid* :irked:

I haven't even taken the shots off the camera yet, I literally got done with this experiment 10 mins ago and came straight here. I would bet you it has something to do with that. This shows you how little flash work I've done over the years. :blushing: I'll try again.... and report back.

See this is why I come here and embarrass myself at times! I always get good answers.