recommended batteries for 580ex flash

[musicaleCA]

Your speedlight's manual has an entire section where they discuss battery issues.

I don't use Canon products so I can't be specific but there will be a chart that shows recharge times for various battery types.

There will also be other very handy and valuable technical info about your particular speedlight.

Nope. The 580EXII manual is devoid of such a comprehensive chart. The best they give is an (extremely rough, practically useless) estimate of how many flashes at what power (and subsequent recycle time) you can get out of new alkalines. They mention that you can use Litium and NiMH batteries too, but that's it......

....... How about that.........

Er...Sorry, am I being obtuse here? Is that the section you meant? (Seems a little short for me to consider it of any real use, but that's just me.)

 

[IgsEMT]

At a wedding, I crank ISO up to 800, set the flashes to 1/16th and can basically fire 2 shots per second for as long as I need. Now, I never "spray and pray", but when trying to get a very dynamic moment, I may take 20-30 pics one after another non-stop, like for example to get the stop action feel of the garter toss. My flashes NEVER misfire and because of the way I shoot, last long and recycle quickly.

What camera and what settings.
I do similar but @ 1/4 power. I got a roomlights (dynelyte or monolight) giving me back light f5.6 & another one pointed more towards the dance floor giving me about f8 at 1/125 ISO 400. So the camera flash ends up being a little fill.

 

[JerryPH]

At a wedding, I crank ISO up to 800, set the flashes to 1/16th and can basically fire 2 shots per second for as long as I need. Now, I never "spray and pray", but when trying to get a very dynamic moment, I may take 20-30 pics one after another non-stop, like for example to get the stop action feel of the garter toss. My flashes NEVER misfire and because of the way I shoot, last long and recycle quickly.

What camera and what settings.
I do similar but @ 1/4 power. I got a roomlights (dynelyte or monolight) giving me back light f5.6 & another one pointed more towards the dance floor giving me about f8 at 1/125 ISO 400. So the camera flash ends up being a little fill.

Obviously this differs from camera to camera, but that should NOT be important. What is... is what the histogram is showing you.

I shoot between F/2.8 and F/1.4 at shutter speeds between 1/50th to 1/80th. OMG, having F/5.6 or more levels of lighting is just BLASTING the lights and at speeds higher than 1/100th, there is NO time for the ambient to bleed into the pictures. All the shots have to look "not very good". You want your perfectly exposed photos to look as if there is NO flash or just hints of shadows, not sun tan the subject.

Maid of Honor w/father of bride in a fast dance:

Ring bearer up close

The light is very subtle just enough to show shadows in the areas where it is not. I will often also just cross light and even hide those shadows.

By subtle, I mean look at the differences here:

No lighting @ ISO 3200:

With my lighting @ ISO 800:

See what I mean? Now in this case, I added a 2nd grid spotted flash to be hard and focus on the B&G for this effect, but if I take it off, I flood the entire dance floor in subtle even light that DOESN'T look like it is lit (note areas that are not in the gridded lit areas). People often tell me that they barely notice the flashes... thats becuase I place them high and far away. It also showcases why you need to have fast glass and a camera that is clean at high ISO. At ISO 800, I have no visible noise even at 100% crop SOOC and with fast glass, I get wonderful bokeh and that flash at 1/16th is enough to light a way larger area evenly and subtly!