cgardner
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 p.1 #15 · Flash suggestion for 5DII | |
Michael Gordon wrote:
Perhaps I was overly influenced by the smartshooter review. I thought the Ettl-2 not infrequently did not do so well with fill flash and the normal auto mode was too buried in the 580 EX or EX11. If the FEC is buried in the Metz, it may be a wash.
I appreciate all the suggestions and comments.
Go with the Canon. 580ex is the better overall choice because the extra .8 stop of light comes in handy when bouncing, using a diffuser, or using the flash outdoors.
ETTL-II actually does fill flash quite well once its understood how Canon evaluative metering, on which it is based, calculates exposure and how fill flash need to be used.
When using fill flash you want to shoot into the shadow side of the ambient lighting, keeping the sun of the front of faces the camera sees and the flash illuminates. If the flash fill overlaps sun on the front of the faces you get a situation akin to a dog chasing its tail. As you add more light in an attempt to raise the shadows you also add light to the highlights and blow them out. Increasing shutter speed will reduce the ambient in highlights and shadows so that's not a solution. It simply replaces the ambient light with flash resulting in a fake over-flashed appearance.
So flash isn't the solution for dark eye sockets on a sunlit face. In order for flash to reduce the contrast of the foreground to fit the range of the sensor, which is the point of the exercise, its necessary to orient the subject so the flash can lift the shadows with only minimal glancing overlap of the sunlit parts..
Put the back of the subject to the sun and first adjust the ambient exposure so the sun lit highlights are not clipping. In Av mode that may require - 2 EC. Once the ambient is correctly exposed turn on the flash in ETTL mode and more often than not the metering will match the "hole" in the middle of the ambient pattern created by the backlit subject with the correct amount of fill flash at FEC =0.
Another thing to realize about "fill" flash is that the open sky the subject faces is actually providing the fill for the shadows and the flash is actually acting in the role of frontal key light creating the highlight pattern. Understanding the difference and actual role of the flash in that situation guides its placement. To get natural looking lighting with flash in a backlit scenario its necessary to raise the flash so the light hits the face from a natural overhead direction. A camera-flip bracket is ideal for that.
BTW the solution to the dark eye socket problem, which will also occur in open shade when shooting at eye level, is to bring a ladder along on your outdoor shoots or find some higher vantage point to stand on when shooting. The root cause of the dark eye sockets is the fact the high angle of the sky light results in the brow shading the eyes. The solution is to raise the face into the light so it reaches the eyes and eliminates the shadows. The ladder is so you can also raise the camera position to capture a flattering above nose level view of the face once it is in the better light.
The same applies in a backlit situation which is simply the face in the open shade created by the head. The brow will often shade the the fill light being provided by the sky if you shoot at ground level. You'll get better results if you raise the camera and have the subject look up to it and get the fill from the sky into the orbits 
See this tutorial I did on High Speed FP mode, which is ideal when shooting outdoors:
LINK
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