I was officiating at a bridge tournament at the weekend, and was asked with about 10 mins notice if I would take photos of the trophy winners as I had my camera with me, and no one else had anything better than a mobile phone or compact camera with built-in flash. This was in a large hotel room, moderately lit with fluorescent lights only.
I'd been taking pictures of the event without flash at high ISO (to avoid disturbing competitors), but decided it would be better to use a flashgun for these shots. I have a 7D camera, 430EX speedlite and 17-55 mm f/2.8 lens. I'm not used to taking these kind of pictures, nor really using flash at all.
I set it to Av so that I could use a moderately wide aperture of f/4 or so, ISO 400, angled the flash head and fixed a diffuser, and tried a test shot. The camera set a slow shutter speed (1/4 sec or so), thinking I wanted the background correctly exposed and just fill-in flash. I was expecting it to set the shutter to the sync speed of 1/60 - 1/250 sec.
I then tried Tv and P modes, so the shutter speed was < 1/60 sec, but it then set an aperture of f/2.8, which was wider than I wanted. I didn't trust myself to work out how to do it in manual mode quickly enough, so I went with these settings.
The photos were good enough, but I was frustrated that I didn't really feel in control, or get what I wanted. I later realised that there are three different flash settings in Av mode that are hidden deep within the custom function settings that would have given me what I wanted. I don't recall them even being mentioned in the EOS flash workshop I attended earlier in the year.
Wouldn't these settings be more usefully added to the quick menu? I can imagine wanting to switch between them quickly (now I know about them). Would I be better off using manual mode?
I'd been taking pictures of the event without flash at high ISO (to avoid disturbing competitors), but decided it would be better to use a flashgun for these shots. I have a 7D camera, 430EX speedlite and 17-55 mm f/2.8 lens. I'm not used to taking these kind of pictures, nor really using flash at all.
I set it to Av so that I could use a moderately wide aperture of f/4 or so, ISO 400, angled the flash head and fixed a diffuser, and tried a test shot. The camera set a slow shutter speed (1/4 sec or so), thinking I wanted the background correctly exposed and just fill-in flash. I was expecting it to set the shutter to the sync speed of 1/60 - 1/250 sec.
I then tried Tv and P modes, so the shutter speed was < 1/60 sec, but it then set an aperture of f/2.8, which was wider than I wanted. I didn't trust myself to work out how to do it in manual mode quickly enough, so I went with these settings.
The photos were good enough, but I was frustrated that I didn't really feel in control, or get what I wanted. I later realised that there are three different flash settings in Av mode that are hidden deep within the custom function settings that would have given me what I wanted. I don't recall them even being mentioned in the EOS flash workshop I attended earlier in the year.
Wouldn't these settings be more usefully added to the quick menu? I can imagine wanting to switch between them quickly (now I know about them). Would I be better off using manual mode?
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