Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda

New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site

New Feature: SMS Notification alert

New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist

FM Forums | Lighting & Studio Techniques | Join Upload & Sell

Archive 2004 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

u02bnpx
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

I can't recall ever having felt the frustration factor produced by the combination of the 550EX and TWO DIFFERENT 10D digital SLRs. I've spent hours combing through this and other web sites, trying to discover the "magic bullet" that would, once and for all, eliminate the single-most frequent problem I have with this demonic photographic combination: underexposure. Here's how the advice usually goes:

Advice #1: Shoot in manual mode on the camera. Well, I've received some good results with the combo of 1/125 or 1/60 and 5.6 and no diffuser. However, use an f8 aperture and you're in the dark...literally.

Advice #2: Use an omnibounce. Just did that yesterday, in both upright and 45-degree positions, and I couldn't buy a good histogram. Was shooting a chef in his restaurant (marginal ambient light), and with ISO at 400 and settings at 1/60 and f4, I had quite poor results and was barely able to use levels to bring them up to something that my newspaper (I'm a freelancer) would accept.

Advice #3: Use the FEL control. Haven't gone to this method extensively yet, but it does seem to be a fairly fussy ritual to focus on something dark or mid-tone, press FEC (*), watch the surprised reaction of subjects wondering if you've already taken the shot, recompose, and then shoot. Yech! (But it does in most cases give me the best histogram.) And kiss the grandkid candids goodbye.

Advice #4: Boost output with the FEC control. Fine, but reliance upon this assumes that you'll have two or three chances with a subject--which is fine if you're dealing with especially compliant subjects. Once again, concerning the grandkids, fuhgedabowdit.

Advice #5: Bounce the light. Fine, if you're always in rooms with white walls, and a low, white ceiling.

Advice #6: Trust the LCD rather than the histogram. Say what? My LCD displays for the chef shots were spectacular...until I opened them in Elements.

I would deeply appreciate any suggestions as to how I might rise from hell at least to middle earth if not heaven with my 550/10D combination. Meanwhile, I remain rather puzzled by the generally high regard with which this combination is held in the reviews section of this web site.

Thanks much.

Floyd Lawrence

Apr 03, 2004 at 02:18 PM

scottcan
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

Take a look at this link...

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/85033

Apr 04, 2004 at 09:14 AM

dcsang
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

Hmm..
I've also had similar issues; not many though, as I figure underexposing isn't so bad when you shoot RAW as I've been able to "get back" normal looking shots after adjusting exposure/curves in post processing.

Jpegs are a different story, but then again, that's why I steer clear of them.

Cheers
Dave

Apr 05, 2004 at 07:11 AM

NickyD
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

You are leaving the 550EX on E-TTL right?

I haven't had nearly as many problems with my 550 as you seem to be having. For general stuff, I would shoot with my settings at 1/125 at F5.6 on E-TTL. This changes as I need to adjust to capture more ambient; or just fill flash; or 2nd curtain synch; or if I wan't to blow everything out; or want everything dark.

Or, I set it on manual, decide where I want the light to fall, calculate the light intensity versus the distances via the guide number; and set my exposure accordiingly.

Knowing how to work the camera will make you a decent photographer; knowing how to control the lights will make you a great photographer.

Apr 06, 2004 at 12:43 AM

Wacom
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

I had the same problems with my 10 D and D60... I had to shoot twice as many images to get good exposures... But I found the "Magic Bullet".. after 8 months of reading and trying different combinations , I have finally found the way to get perfect exposures 90 per cent of the time..
Ist buy a Stofen bouncer from www.stofen.com..Then ... Listen carefully.. Here is the secret... SELL THE 550 and Buy a Metz MZ54!!!!!!!!
Simple...

Apr 06, 2004 at 04:16 AM

Ron Warren
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

"Ist buy a Stofen bouncer from www.stofen.com..Then ... Listen carefully.. Here is the secret... SELL THE 550 and Buy a Metz MZ54!!!!!!!!"
Amen Brother.

Apr 06, 2004 at 02:36 PM

roblumba
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

I'm reading some reviews that the Metz MZ54 has some problems with the 10D. Such as, bounce flash no longer works. There's some indication that perhaps there are more things wrong.

Anyone else know of these problems?

Apr 12, 2004 at 03:43 PM

dpmphoto
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

remember the auto focus point determines your exsposure,so turn it off by switching to manual

Apr 12, 2004 at 04:23 PM

CCDesigns
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

Everytime I have had a darker exposure I find that it was something I did. I have the 550 and once I learned how to adjust it and and the camera I dont get the darker photo's anymore. Once in a while I will but not nearly as often.

Do you read your light meter before you shoot? F8 inside is going to be to dark. Do you have it set on AWB?

Inside I always use AWB, Manual mode, normally manual focus because the AF will get confused a lot, and I do my adjustments according to my light meter. I will see if I can get a few pics up here that I took inside. Matter of fact I will see if I can get a few shots of this band I took inside a tent with no other lighting. Yes it was dark. They had no lights inside and it was tricky but they turned out.

Apr 15, 2004 at 09:26 AM

Motoed
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

dpmphoto wrote:
remember the auto focus point determines your exsposure,so turn it off by switching to manual

So, if you switch to manual focus, where does the exposure for the E-TTL get picked up from? Center?

Apr 15, 2004 at 09:40 AM

CCDesigns
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

Where you have your focus point set at. If you have it set to center focus then that is where it will be read from.

Apr 15, 2004 at 09:51 AM

froody
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
has all the info on Canon flash units you could ever want. I've found it to be very informative just understanding the 10D's pop-up flash (I don't have a separate unit yet).

Tim

Apr 15, 2004 at 10:14 AM

u02bnpx
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

b]CCDesigns wrote:
Everytime I have had a darker exposure I find that it was something I did. I have the 550 and once I learned how to adjust it and and the camera I dont get the darker photo's anymore. Once in a while I will but not nearly as often.

Do you read your light meter before you shoot? F8 inside is going to be to dark. Do you have it set on AWB?

Inside I always use AWB, Manual mode, normally manual focus because the AF will get confused a lot, and I do my adjustments according to my light meter. I will see if I can get a few pics up here that I took inside. Matter of fact I will see if I can get a few shots of this band I took inside a tent with no other lighting. Yes it was dark. They had no lights inside and it was tricky but they turned out.

Apr 15, 2004 at 06:35 PM

u02bnpx
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

CCDesigns wrote:
Everytime I have had a darker exposure I find that it was something I did. I have the 550 and once I learned how to adjust it and and the camera I dont get the darker photo's anymore. Once in a while I will but not nearly as often.

Do you read your light meter before you shoot? F8 inside is going to be to dark. Do you have it set on AWB?

Inside I always use AWB, Manual mode, normally manual focus because the AF will get confused a lot, and I do my adjustments according to my light meter.

Brian,

Thanks for your response, but I'm not quite certain about the process you describe. When do you read your light meter? With the flash on? When do you make your manual selections of aperture and speed? It might help if you give me a step-by-step of what you do to...Show more →

Apr 15, 2004 at 06:47 PM

kansashoops
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · 550EX & 10D: a hellish combination

1. Set camera to manual.
2. Select a reasonable shutter/aperture combination (speed <= 1/200, aperture <= f8).
3. Set ISO to 400.
4. Set CF 4 to 1, so that * sets the focus.
5. Set 550ex to ETTL.
6. Shoot a test shot or two and check the histogram.
7. Adjust FEC setting on the 550ex as necessary.

I did this at a wedding weekend before last, with my flash bounced off a Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer. Out of probably 400 pictures taken with flash, basically all of them were within 3/4 of a stop of being correct, except when some other light source interfered, all easily correctable with C1 since I was shooting RAW. If I had been shooting JPG, I would have been more careful about checking exposure, tweaking FEC, and gotten them closer. If I hadn't been bouncing, the exposures would have been more accurate as well. Also, I was purposely erring a bit on the underexposed side, to avoid blowing out the detail on the bride's dress.

Apr 16, 2004 at 09:11 PM


FM Forums \| Lighting & Studio Techniques \| Join Upload & Sell

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.