Canon 550 SPEEDLIGHT

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with the performance. Any techniques I should try

You can try:

1. Straight on flash
2. Bounce off ceiling flash
3. Bounce off wall flash
4. If you have either a hot shoe sync cord or an
infrared remote, off camera flash
5. Use different types of flash diffusers (lumiquest
bounce, lumiquest soft box, umbrellas, even a
3x5 note card, etc)
6. Manual
7. Manual with zoom settings on flash different than
actual lens focal length setting
8. Fill flash
9. Balanced exposure
10. Second-curtain sync
11. Stroboscopic
12. Stopping high speed motion (example at:
http://www.goldfrost.com/images/gallery4/gallery4.htm )

Yeah, that should keep you occupied for a while ;-)

Sabo said:

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with
the performance. Any techniques I should try

Click to expand...

Sabo,

try this link for everything you wanted to know about the EOS Flash, but were afraid to ask
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

Jim C.

Sabo said:

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with
the performance. Any techniques I should try

Click to expand...

I bought my 550EX last week and I'm very happy with it. Far more facilities than I was expecting. I've just been playing with the stroboscopic mode.



There's loads of possibilities there! It's also very effective in E-TTL with the camera in manual.

Does anyone know of a cheap slave fill flash unit that could be used when the 550EX is bounced of a ceiling just to cut out any obvious downward shadows? Will slave flashes work ok? What about the 550EX pre-flash pulse? I guess only another 550EX would be able to use the wireless remote link?

Best regards,
Tony

Sabo said:

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with
the performance. Any techniques I should try

Click to expand...

No, the much cheaper 420EX can act as a wireless slave and is a great flash on it's own.

Walt

Tony M said:

There's loads of possibilities there! It's also very effective in
E-TTL with the camera in manual.

Does anyone know of a cheap slave fill flash unit that could be
used when the 550EX is bounced of a ceiling just to cut out any
obvious downward shadows? Will slave flashes work ok? What about
the 550EX pre-flash pulse? I guess only another 550EX would be able
to use the wireless remote link?

Best regards,
Tony

Sabo said:

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with
the performance. Any techniques I should try

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Canon EOS D30
Canon 24-85mm
Canon 28mm f1.8
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 75-300mm IS
Canon 550EX Flash

If you look around some of the photo stores, they'll have some little gems of accessories like flash activated slaves. I got a couple of these little units and have found them to be quite handy. The downside, and I haven't tested this out yet on the 550 I just received, is what someone else pointed out: the preflash pulse. That could set off the slave. But for something reasonably cheap, these have worked out rather well, especially in a pinch. You're not lugging around another large flash unit as these things fit into a pocket or at the bottom of a camera case. One of them is about .75x3x2.5 inches in size and the other is about 2 inches in diameter and 3 inches tall. I think I picked them up for less than $20 a piece (it was a long time ago). Granted, they are not as functional or adjustable as their larger cousins, they do quite nicely when you need to kill a shadow or cast light from a dark corner.

Gary T

Tony M said:

I bought my 550EX last week and I'm very happy with it. Far more
facilities than I was expecting. I've just been playing with the
stroboscopic mode.



There's loads of possibilities there! It's also very effective in
E-TTL with the camera in manual.

Does anyone know of a cheap slave fill flash unit that could be
used when the 550EX is bounced of a ceiling just to cut out any
obvious downward shadows? Will slave flashes work ok? What about
the 550EX pre-flash pulse? I guess only another 550EX would be able
to use the wireless remote link?

Best regards,
Tony

Click to expand...

I am taking shots at a event today that will be in almost completle darkness, which ISO setting should I use? Will I notice a quality difference from ISO 100-200? I did some test yesterday and ISO 100 was working in darkness but everyone is recommending 400. Quality is my greatest concern, should I go with 200 or 400? Tell me about your past experiences so I can learn!!!

Thanks! This forum is better than photography school!!!!

It depends on the distance of the object you are shooting. I generally shoot with indoor flash in dim light between iso 200 to 400. Mark

Sabo said:

I am taking shots at a event today that will be in almost completle
darkness, which ISO setting should I use? Will I notice a quality
difference from ISO 100-200? I did some test yesterday and ISO 100
was working in darkness but everyone is recommending 400. Quality
is my greatest concern, should I go with 200 or 400? Tell me about
your past experiences so I can learn!!!

Thanks! This forum is better than photography school!!!!

Click to expand...

Mark, that is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. I almost always shoot in close range.

mark kay said:

Sabo said:

I am taking shots at a event today that will be in almost completle
darkness, which ISO setting should I use? Will I notice a quality
difference from ISO 100-200? I did some test yesterday and ISO 100
was working in darkness but everyone is recommending 400. Quality
is my greatest concern, should I go with 200 or 400? Tell me about
your past experiences so I can learn!!!

Thanks! This forum is better than photography school!!!!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Sabo,

There are lots of good pages on the web about how to get the best out of your speedlite. I spent a long time trying out everything, so I could understand how it worked (my wife and various household objcets were relentlessly photographed). In conjunction with the web pages and practice while holding the manual I got to understand most of what it can do.

Look at:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/Cameras/Canon_D30_with_550EX_01.htm

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

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=1136665

However I have become quite boring and normally I use Av (set to f8), with shutter speed set to 1/200 (using the CFn), disable fill flash (using the CFn) and let the speedlite do the rest. If I want a more soft feel I use the CFn set to fill flash. Check out:

http://www.pbase.com/vonstahlein/libby_wedding

http://www.pbase.com/vonstahlein/awa

(nb Judith is my wife and Shirin is a good friend these two used the in-built flash, otherwise all is using Av and no fill flash).

Sabo said:

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with
the performance. Any techniques I should try

Click to expand...

--
Kind Regards

George Adam

George,

I see pictures of Libby's wedding that has red eye. Can that be eliminated?

Logan

George Adam said:

There are lots of good pages on the web about how to get the best
out of your speedlite. I spent a long time trying out everything,
so I could understand how it worked (my wife and various household
objcets were relentlessly photographed). In conjunction with the
web pages and practice while holding the manual I got to understand
most of what it can do.

Look at:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/Cameras/Canon_D30_with_550EX_01.htm

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

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=1136665

However I have become quite boring and normally I use Av (set to
f8), with shutter speed set to 1/200 (using the CFn), disable fill
flash (using the CFn) and let the speedlite do the rest. If I want
a more soft feel I use the CFn set to fill flash. Check out:

http://www.pbase.com/vonstahlein/libby_wedding

http://www.pbase.com/vonstahlein/awa

(nb Judith is my wife and Shirin is a good friend these two used
the in-built flash, otherwise all is using Av and no fill flash).

Sabo said:

Just picked up a 550speedlight a few hours ago and I am amazed with
the performance. Any techniques I should try

Click to expand...

--
Kind Regards

George Adam

Click to expand...

Sabo,
why not take some tests shots & decide for yourself?
I think you will find that image quality holds up very well with 400 ISO.

Jim C.

Sabo said:

I am taking shots at a event today that will be in almost completle
darkness, which ISO setting should I use? Will I notice a quality
difference from ISO 100-200? I did some test yesterday and ISO 100
was working in darkness but everyone is recommending 400. Quality
is my greatest concern, should I go with 200 or 400? Tell me about
your past experiences so I can learn!!!

Thanks! This forum is better than photography school!!!!

Click to expand...