550EX...What am I doing wrong?

[venchka]

HELP! In the interest of full disclosure, this is going to take a bit of telling.

The last two times I was out with a camera, I used flash on both occasions. I am really annoyed with myself and/or the Canon 550EX on my Elan II E. Here goes.

First situation. Leica M5, 50mm lens, Sunpak 383 Super with Lumiquest Soft Box, flash head aimed straight ahead, Ilford XP2 Super film, Sunpak flash set to ASA 400 and F4.0, Shutter speed 1/50 sec., aperture set to 4.0. As luck would have it, I forgot to turn the flash on for the first picture. The second picture was taken with flash obviously.

The color photo is from the Canon body-lens-flash combination of Elan II E, 17-35 2.8 lens and 550EX flash with an Omnibounce and the flash head untilted (straight ahead), Portra 160 film, ISO set to 100, Program set to P, shutter 1/60 sec., aperture 2.8. First of all, I really would have liked the aperture at F5.6 but I couldn't just dial in that setting without the meter telling me I was seriously underexposed. As you can see, the flash wasn't putting out near enough nor did the light carry far enough to give pleasing results. The wall is only a couple feet behind the person in the white shirt. In the black and white picture, the Sunpak lit up the entire kitchen and the living room. What the heck do I do?

[venchka]

Once again, the "old" Sunpak light carried well and illuminated the entire space.

[venchka]

12 views. Nobody knows how to cure severe underexposure with the 550EX flash?

If this is how the thing operates, does anybody want to buy a barely used 550EX?

[ShaneKislack]

the speedlight is a great flash with all kinds of settings. Try shooting on auto and see if it does any better. If it does then your settings are off.

[venchka]

Originally Posted by ShaneKislack

Had this same problem too. The 550 is sending out a flash compensation measurement (pre-flash) which is setting off the strobes prior to shutter clicking. It's so fast though that you think they are going off at the same time. In reality the other flash has already blown. Turn the speedlight to "manual" and it should solve your problem.

Only one 550EX mounted on my body. I was just illustrating how one flsh working the old way lit up a large room while the new "modern", E-TTL flash couldn't light a wall 2' behind the subject. Something ain't right.

OK, use the 550EX, alone, in manual mode? Hmmm...if that's true, why did I spend a fortune for an automatic whiz bang gizmo? The $70 Sunpak works just fine.

Another question. Will the Sunpak work on the Canon Elan body? Something tells me the body doesn't have a hot shoe in the normal sense of things. I guess I'll have to try it.

[ShaneKislack]

Sorry I edited my response once I realized I read your question wrong. Page 28 of the manual (under Balanced flash exposures) addresses your issue. Do you have the manual? The 'modern' flash gives you the option of lighting only the subject or both.

[iCe]

I was going to ask if it fired. The first one looks like the flash didn't fire. I've had "issues" with the flash not firing before. I "fixed" it by wiggling the flash on the hotshoe. Even my newer 580EX's will do that from time to time

[venchka]

Thanks. Yes, I have the manual. I will read page 28.

Yes, in Photo #1 the flash didn't fire because I forgot to turn it on. I used it as an example of exposure settings meant for flash only exposure. By comparing the first two pictures, you see what the flash is doing.

Looking at picture #3, in color, we see that the 550EX isn't doing much.

Does the 550EX plus Omnibounce work better if the head is tilted up? Tilted how far up? There are click stops at 75 and 90 degrees.

[iCe]

OH! I missed that. It's the color image that you don't like. What was the zoom setting for the flash?

[iCe]

And... what is the guide number for each flash?

[venchka]

The zoom setting was on auto if I recall. However, with the diffuser maybe I should have had it set to manual?

[iCe]

I know that the zoom affects the dispersion of the flash... I've seen a website that shows the different flash patterns on a wall for the various zoom settings. Another thing... the "smart" flash might have been adjusted to compensate for the white shirt...

[venchka]

Originally Posted by iCe

And... what is the guide number for each flash?

I don't know, but it better be enough for ISO 100 film at 10 feet or less! This was Canon's top of the line flash not very long ago.

Guide number (power output).

The unit has a zooming flash head which moves internally to adjust for the lens focal length. Control over the zoom position is both manual and automatic. The zoom range is from 24-105 mm, with zoom detents (stops) at 24, 28, 35, 50, 70, 80 and 105mm.

The flash zoom function is not capable of adjusting its position to compensate for the smaller image areas of APS cameras and some digital cameras. The unit thus essentially wastes light by providing enough coverage for full-frame 35mm film even when that isn’t necessary.

The unit’s guide number (provided in metres, not feet, for ISO 100) varies depending on the zoom head settings.

At 17mm (with the flip-down diffuser in place) the guide number is 15.
At 24mm the guide number is 28.
At 28mm the guide number is 30.
At 35mm the guide number is 36.
At 50mm the guide number is 42.
At 70mm the guide number is 46.
At 80mm the guide number is 50.
At 105mm the guide number is 55.

I figured Charle's shirt had fooled the meter. However, I have most of a roll of film that doesn't get any better.

As for zooming and flash patterns, I figure the Omnibounce pretty much spread things out. Maybe the Omnibounce is the culprit. Perhaps I need to use the flash in manual mode and forget the E-TTL nonsense. The Leica ceratinly didn't need anything fancier than an automatic thyristor flash.

[venchka]

Looking through my horrible pictures (I'm more upset about what I was doing than what the flash was doing), it looks like the white table cloths and light colored clothing were partly to blame.

I think I'll give up photographing people once and for all. I've only taken 2 pictures of people in my life that I liked.

I do like the Lumiquest products a lot!

Thanks everyone. Obviously operator error was mostly to blame.

[ShaneKislack]

The look of your pic looks like the example in the manual of the flash being on full auto and not e-ttl.