May be a stupid question for some, but what mode is best for shooting with the canon flash system indoors during a reception with limited available lighting?
fotonix wrote:
Ah, Manual. I would have picked Tv mode on 1/100th .. would that work?
well if you are shooting ettl it will work because the flash will compensate accordingly but remember that you wont be able to control ambient without changing your shutterspeeds.
fotonix wrote:
Ah, Manual. I would have picked Tv mode on 1/100th .. would that work?
Not well. In Av or Tv modes ETTL will try to act as fill, rather then main lighting, in M mode ETTL will act as main, and you can adjust shutter to pull in the ambient light. The only time I will use flash outside of M is in Av mode for fill in bright light. Receptions are usually ISO 800-1600, f2.8 and 1/40th or so, to 1/100 if I am shooting with a longer lens.
I used to shoot them in A priority..it gave me fits.
Now I switched to M priority...f 2.8 and adjust my shutter speed to however much light I want on the background and just shoot. SO much easier and the exposures are much more right.
Av if you want the ambient light to be your "main light". But... if the ambient is too dark and you need your flash to be the amin source of light, then you need manual mode. Tv works the same as Av in this regard for lighting.
I've seen two statements made that directly contradict what I was taught about Canon eTTL systems. As I've always be given to believe in AV (aperature priority/aperature value) the system assumes ambient as main and uses the flash to add fill. In TV (shutter priority/time value) assumes the flash to be the main light. If you think about it there's a logic to it. If ambient is too bright you tend to close down the aperature. If too dark, to open the aperature to let in more light. So it's not too much of a stretch to assume the user is basing exposure on ambient in AV mode. Shutter speed is often adjusted with the freezing of motion in mind. Nothing freezes motion in an image better than flash.
Take a shot using eTTL flash in AV mode... note shutter speed. Switch to TV mode match shutter and aperature speed and take a second shot. Compare the results and the output of the flash in the two shots. Everytime I've tried it I get a much higher power dump in TV mode than in AV mode. If Canon's eTTL system treated both the same the power dumps would be equal.
As memory serves you can find an article on how Canon eTTL responds to AV vs TV modes by camera flash guru Neil Van Niekerk's www.planetneil.com.
What mode do I use for receptions? It depends on what I'm shooting and the result I'm after. At any given wedding I'm likely to use a combination of AV, TV and Manual modes.... non-flash, bounced on-camera flash, off-camera flash, and mixed on-camear/off-camera flash.
blueirisarts wrote:
Av if you want the ambient light to be your "main light". But... if the ambient is too dark and you need your flash to be the amin source of light, then you need manual mode. Tv works the same as Av in this regard for lighting.
