indoor nightime flash photography

[karatrail]

hi, i'd say the majority of my photography is outdoors, in natural lighting, but on friday night i shot at a party indoors and used two cameras: a canon 5D and a canon mark III iD. I used the same flash (a speedlite 430EX) and the same lens (canon 24-105mm EF with IS). When I shot with the 5D, the shots were crisp and clean using the flash (see first two shots below), but when i switched to the mark III later in the evening, almost all the shots had a fuzzy light halo around the subjects (see second 2 photos below). should i be using a different flash for the mark III? Any other suggestions to prevent this light halo? it looks cool in a handful of shots, but in some....not so cool! thanks for any input. kara

[royk]

I'm guessing maybe the shutter speed on the Mark III was much slower?

[Paulo]

Shutter speed on the 1st two images was 1/60th. The last two was 1/4th and 1/2 (you can see the chair through the lady's hand & wrist).

[12stones]

I can't see what you shot with the 5D, but with the Mark III, being on aperture priority and manual flash, you kind of set yourself up for this. I'm just learning flash myself, but the basic principles of exposure still figure in here. Being on aperture priority in a low light setting forces you to use a longer shutter speed. Having your flash on manual even handicaps your flash's ability to put out the requisite amount of light to compensate if you don't have the correct amount of power set. If you're more comfortable shooting in AP mode and not too comfortable with manual flash, then let your flash shoot ETTL. Or play with your manual flash, but remember that your shutter speed still needs to be fast enough to stop motion crisply (unless you're going for a blur effect) and chimp until you get the correct shot.

[Cerbera LM]

To follow up with what 12stones said.

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-f...html#confusion

P
Shutter speed: Automatically set from 1/60 sec to the camera’s maximum X-sync speed.
Lens aperture: Automatically set according to the camera’s built-in program.

Tv
Shutter speed: You can set any shutter speed between 30 seconds and the camera’s maximum X-sync speed.
Lens aperture: Automatically set to match the shutter speed you have set.

Av
Shutter speed: Automatically set between 30 seconds and the camera’s maximum X-sync speed to match the lens aperture you have set.
Lens aperture: You can set any lens aperture you like.

M
Shutter speed: You can set any shutter speed between 30 seconds and the camera’s maximum X-sync speed.
Lens aperture: You can set any lens aperture you like.

With Tv and Av the camera meters like the flash isn't there and uses the flash as fill light. With M the flash fires enough light to match the settings in M.

In picture #3 the mode was Av with it set to f4, the iso was 800 and the camera set the shutter to 1/4 second. You pressed the shutter the flash fired, to provide fill, while the shutter stayed open a 1/4 second which caused the ghosting. The first to pictures were either shoot in P or M.

I use M when using the flash indoors and change the flash exposure compensationon, on the 580, as needed.

[karatrail]

Thanks for all the help. I'll study up on all these great suggestions. I love my 5D....and I know I'll eventually love my Mark III, I just admit I have a lot to learn about it!!

[Freedbaby]

I dont know if this helps but here goes.

I shoot a lot indoors low light (scenes just like you've pictured above) and my benchmark is Manual mode, I set my ISO to 800 with a shutter speed of 125th and F stop to 5.6 with my flash on ETTL. After a few test shots I adjust my shutter speed a bit either way to compensate for the ambient light. I try never to drop below 1/80th or 1/100th of a second shutter speed so that I dont have any chance of a blur or camera shake. Works well for me.

Freedbaby

[Freedbaby]

Forgot to say that I am ALWAYS using a bounce card in those situations.

Freedbaby

[RubenZamora]

Take a course or read up on Flash Photography. You own 5-6 thousand dollars worth of cameras, its a shame not know how to use them.

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by RubenZamora

Take a course or read up on Flash Photography. You own 5-6 thousand dollars worth of cameras, its a shame not know how to use them.

I was sorta thinking the same thing.

[royk]

Originally Posted by karatrail

Thanks for all the help. I'll study up on all these great suggestions. I love my 5D....and I know I'll eventually love my Mark III, I just admit I have a lot to learn about it!!

Actually, it's not really a 5D vs Mark III issue, because the same flash/exposure principle apply to both cameras. In other words, you would get the same results if you were using Aperture priority on the 5D.