ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

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Archive 2011 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Keith Sheridan
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p.1 #1 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

I am having trouble understanding how to expose flash correctly using ETTL II on my Canon 7d. I have always been kinda flash phobic, but wanted to learn. I have since read the book On-Camera Flash and thought I could handle it. Now I am even more confused. I can expose properly when in manual exposure mode, but not in ETTL II. Please see the photos below. First photo is taken with flash on manual at 1/4 power. Second is with flash on ETTL II without any FEC. All other settings are identical, shutter speed is below flash synch speed.

What is wrong, why isn't ETTL exposing the image properly, but I can expose properly with 1/4 manual flash power?

2013 © Keith Sheridan

Canon EOS 7D 87 mm f/8.0 1/200 sec 400 ISO 0.0 EV

2013 © Keith Sheridan

Canon EOS 7D 87 mm f/8.0 1/200 sec 400 ISO 0.0 EV

Nov 18, 2011 at 01:03 AM

LDRider
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p.1 #2 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Read this tutorial.

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

Good luck!!

JP

Nov 18, 2011 at 01:21 AM

cgardner
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p.1 #3 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

ETTL is simple if everything is working correctly:

1) Enable the camera clipping warning in the playback
2) Adjust FEC until you see clipping in the non-specular highlights
3) Reduce FEC by one click (1/3 stop)

Your camera does not appear to be working correctly. More often than not that's a case of operator error. Double check all your settings and and custom functions. For example make sure its not in wireless Master mode or main flash is not disabled.

Are you using the built-in flash or external flash in the hot shoe?

Nov 18, 2011 at 01:53 AM

Ho1972
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p.1 #4 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

What mode is your flash in? Not familiar with Canon flashes, but Nikon has as Balance TTL mode that can cause issues with underexposure in situations like this.

How about the camera -- are you shooting manual or aperture priority or what?

Nov 18, 2011 at 02:03 AM

Beni
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p.1 #5 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Flash ain't firing in ETTL mode for some reason.

Nov 18, 2011 at 12:18 PM

Photodan34
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p.1 #6 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

I agree that something might be busted, I'd find a friend and try it with their flash and camera set up.

Dan

Nov 18, 2011 at 07:22 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #7 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Keith Sheridan wrote: ...I can expose properly when in manual exposure mode, but not in ETTL II.

Can you clarify this? Manual versus automatic exposure, and manual versus automatic flash are two seperate things. You can set your flash to either manual power or ETTL II whether your camera is in M, Av, Tv, or P, however the behavior will be somewhat different in the different exposure modes.

Nov 18, 2011 at 08:00 PM

cordellwillis
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p.1 #8 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

BrianO wrote:
Keith Sheridan wrote: ...I can expose properly when in manual exposure mode, but not in ETTL II.

Can you clarify this? Manual versus automatic exposure, and manual versus automatic flash are two seperate things. You can set your flash to either manual power or ETTL II whether your camera is in M, Av, Tv, or P, however the behavior will be somewhat different in the different exposure modes.

And is there a sizable mirror in the room that reflected the flash in the room where you shot these? If so, there is a good chance that the reflection from the mirror is the issue.

Nov 18, 2011 at 08:43 PM

Keith Sheridan
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p.1 #9 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Haven't read through all, but couple notes.

No mirror.

Camera is in Manual (M) mode for both photos

Photo 1 is shot with Manual Power Flash at 1/4 power.

Nov 19, 2011 at 12:30 AM

Photodan34
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p.1 #10 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Are the batteries fresh? Did then fully recycle between shots? Does it do his very time, one good one bad?

1. Fresh batteries
2. Reseat the flash
3. Try another flash or body
4. Put the camera on p and set the flash too Ettl

Nov 19, 2011 at 02:57 AM

Photodan34
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p.1 #11 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

On my 1dmk3 you can set on the camera body for the flash to work evaluative or average make sure it's set to average. Evaluative flash will under expose. Look under the flash settings menu.

That's my last idea.

Nov 19, 2011 at 03:14 AM

Keith Sheridan
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p.1 #12 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Fresh batteries, happens everytime ETTL is barely any flash and Manual works as it should.
I will try the camera in P mode and see what it does. Thanks for the suggestions.

Nov 20, 2011 at 02:53 AM

BrianO
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p.1 #13 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

One possibility, other than malfunction: your background is very light, and so is your subject. The ETTL II metering may be trying to set the flash output to render what it thinks is a medium-toned subject to a medium tone.

I'd try two test shots; one with the current subject and background with a +2 FEC, and the other with a neutral gray subject filling the frame and no FEC.

Nov 20, 2011 at 07:24 AM

cordellwillis
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p.1 #14 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Are you sure FEC on flash AND in camera are set to "0"? You could have the one on the flash at zero but not the one in camera.

Have you tried a different area and/or subject with the same results?

Nov 22, 2011 at 02:21 PM

benee
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p.1 #15 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

The flash is clearly not firing at all in ETTL mode right now. As others ahve suggested, make sure your flash isn't set to "master" or " slave" mode.

Nov 22, 2011 at 02:24 PM

cgardner
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p.1 #16 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Giving the problem and symptoms additional thought it occurs to me that in M mode the only contact/pin involved in signaling the flash is the larger center one. The failure to operate in ETTL may be due to faulty contact on one or more of the four other pins used for signaling in that mode.

Check for dirty contacts, stuck pins or a loose hot shoe on the camera.

Nov 22, 2011 at 04:38 PM

focus
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p.1 #17 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

When you set the flash in 1/4 power, the camera didn't get involved to decide the exposure. The exposure appear to be right because the 1/4 power just happen to provide right exposure to the scene.

Try reseat the flash as someone suggested. Clean the contacts before remount the flash.

Alter the FEC to detemine if it has any impact to the result in ETTL model. If it does, the ETTL is working but just need compensation.

Nov 22, 2011 at 06:23 PM

gpsphoto
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p.1 #18 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

on the 7d there is a menu setting which controls the onboard and external flash. double check that setting.

Nov 27, 2011 at 06:07 AM

Keith Sheridan
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p.1 #19 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Okay, so I still don't know what I was doing wrong however I know how to fix the problem. In controlling the external flash from the camera, you can chose to "clear all flash settings". Doing this fixed the issue, so I am sure I had something set the wrong way, but not sure what it was. Thanks for everyone who weighed in on this.

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:48 AM

dedsen
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p.1 #20 · ETTL II - What am I doing wrong - 7d and 430ex II

Sounds like you had lots of negative flash exposure compensation set on the camera or the flash and doing a reset cleared that.

Nov 29, 2011 at 04:06 AM

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