Flash on D60 in Av mode

I was trying to take a picture inside late around 8pm so I used my 50mm F1.8, put it in F1.8 and pop-uped the flash with the switch on the side by lens. Yet the shutter speed was still showing up as if there were no flash and trying to shoot at .5 of a second. The flash fired but .5 is not possible to do it without tripod. Yet when I switched to P or Full automatic then it shows around 1/60 shutter speed and F2.8. How do I tell it to use Av priority to get it down to F1.8 and have it known that flash will fire and compansate for it with shutter speed?

You can't. The metering is for the ambient exposure only! Av will give a long exposure in low light because it is only metering the ambient. Use manual mode to get what you want. Flash metering is controlled by the flash compensation on the camera in ETTL mode. The two meterings are entirely separate. You have full control over them both for any effect that you want.

Rich

Mario Jesmanowicz said:

I was trying to take a picture inside late around 8pm so I used my
50mm F1.8, put it in F1.8 and pop-uped the flash with the switch on
the side by lens. Yet the shutter speed was still showing up as if
there were no flash and trying to shoot at .5 of a second. The
flash fired but .5 is not possible to do it without tripod. Yet
when I switched to P or Full automatic then it shows around 1/60
shutter speed and F2.8. How do I tell it to use Av priority to get
it down to F1.8 and have it known that flash will fire and
compansate for it with shutter speed?

Click to expand...

this is normal behavior. The AV mode with flash is designed to operate as a fill flash to whatever ambient light is around. This works better than you might thing in terms of slow shutter speed because the flash will freeze action in spite of the slow shutter speed. You can get some wierd effects sometimes though. Usually this mode will make for a very natural looking shot instead of a harsh flash look. But the addition of the flash will make the colors more natural and add a level of stop motion to the shot.

In Av mode normally your thinking what depth of field you want and take the shot. 1/20 is ok - starts getting weird under that sometimes - though I sometimes till people to freeze and it still works ok even at 1/4.

--John Mason - Lafayette, IN

Your flash operates differently in P and Av modes. In Av mode the flash automatically switches to "slow-sync mode. This allows the flash to properly illuminate the subject, and gives a slow enough shutter speed to capture the ambient light for illuminating the background.

In P mode the flash shutter speed is set anywhere between 1/60 to the flash sync speed. In low light expect the 1/60 setting. This gives you a faster shutter speed to handhold, but in low light your backgrounds will go black.

Jim

Mario Jesmanowicz said:

I was trying to take a picture inside late around 8pm so I used my
50mm F1.8, put it in F1.8 and pop-uped the flash with the switch on
the side by lens. Yet the shutter speed was still showing up as if

there were no flash and trying to shoot at .5 of a second. --exposure36 Photography landscape/creative vision/educationwww.exposure36.com

Click to expand...

Setting Custom Function 6 to 1/200th will force the shutter speed to sync at 1/200th of a second. The ETTL flash will handle the rest and properly expose the photo in AV mode.

Mario Jesmanowicz said:

I was trying to take a picture inside late around 8pm so I used my
50mm F1.8, put it in F1.8 and pop-uped the flash with the switch on
the side by lens. Yet the shutter speed was still showing up as if
there were no flash and trying to shoot at .5 of a second. The
flash fired but .5 is not possible to do it without tripod. Yet
when I switched to P or Full automatic then it shows around 1/60
shutter speed and F2.8. How do I tell it to use Av priority to get
it down to F1.8 and have it known that flash will fire and
compansate for it with shutter speed?

Click to expand...

--Barry Anders

Hi Mario,

I hope you are using external Canon flash but this setting works for me, I use manual mode, set shutter arround 1/50 and AV around 4 or 5.6, also I use ISO 200 or 400 it depends how much ambient light I have in shooting situation. I shoot wit Canon 550 EX flash and 99 % of my pics are exposed right. You can try several different settings and see which one is good for you.
Thanks Darius.

Mario Jesmanowicz said:

I was trying to take a picture inside late around 8pm so I used my
50mm F1.8, put it in F1.8 and pop-uped the flash with the switch on
the side by lens. Yet the shutter speed was still showing up as if
there were no flash and trying to shoot at .5 of a second. The
flash fired but .5 is not possible to do it without tripod. Yet
when I switched to P or Full automatic then it shows around 1/60
shutter speed and F2.8. How do I tell it to use Av priority to get
it down to F1.8 and have it known that flash will fire and
compansate for it with shutter speed?

Click to expand...