In/Outdoor Flash - 420EX???

[JABACo]

I am recent graduate of novice photography. I hereby state I am now an amatuer.

I need advice on a good flash. I would love to have the Canon 550EX but I don't know why. Money is tight so I've been eyeing the 420EX. My question is will the 420EX be sufficent for sports (football-USA style) if I'm standing on the sidelines well into the night??? I don't know alot about flashes and I don't need anything fancy. I have considered the Sigma EF-500 DG ST & Super Flash simply because of price.

Point and push me in the right direction.

Thanks to all in advance.

Bradley

[robertwgross]

Bradley, if you are looking to set up a multiple flash arrangement, then the 550EX makes sense. However, if you are just looking for a single flash, then you have to consider the 420EX also. Take the guide number of each, look at your widest aperture on your long lens, and then do the math.

---Bob Gross---

[JABACo]

Thanks Bob. All I'm trying to accomplish here is provide enough light for my 70-200 f/2.8 to take shots of my sons high school football game. The lighting at the stadium is ok but I think I need a flash to be safe.

I'm a tennis coach/instructor and just recently bought the 10D. It's probably way too much camera for me and for what I'm doing. Having said that, I have no idea what math you are speaking of. However, I am diligently trying to learn.

Thanks again

[Vegas Poboy]

I currently use the 420ex, it gets the job done for me. I shoot alot @ the local drag strip and it stops the action just fine. I wish I would of purchased the 550 first because you have more freedom to adjust your stops, but in time I'll have itand then use the 420 as a fill light.

[PPi-]

I'm thinking about to go with 420EX myself, mainly due to the price and the fact that at this point 420EX is just enough for me. Hope you will be able to do the decision according to your needs.

Talking about math, all the math that I know can be found from here: http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/flash-faq.html#gn . The chapter three is quite useful. Then there is this EOS flash article that is being quite useful as well: http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash

[DaveG]

JABACo wrote:
Thanks Bob. All I'm trying to accomplish here is provide enough light for my 70-200 f/2.8 to take shots of my sons high school football game. The lighting at the stadium is ok but I think I need a flash to be safe.

I'm a tennis coach/instructor and just recently bought the 10D. It's probably way too much camera for me and for what I'm doing. Having said that, I have no idea what math you are speaking of. However, I am diligently trying to learn.

Thanks again

Direct flash at a football game is going to be absolutely horrible. It won't look like any football picture you've ever seen. You'll be restricted to 1/200 shutterspeed and you'll want to shoot wide open, just so the flash has some reach. That 1/200 @ f2.8 is going to be close to the ambient light level in the stadium, so you are actually fill flashing. The problem is that the subjects are all moving quickly so you will get a sharp image from the flash, superimposed on a blurred image from the ambient light. This "double exposure" creates a ghost image that really sucks.

If the stadium is dark enough to keep the ambient light from ghosting the image you'll have another problem. The flash will create a proper exposure only at one distance. In front of that distance everything will be overexposed and behind it there will be severe flash fall off and the background will be black. Since there are football players all over the field you'll have that guy closer to you all white with overexposure (assuming that the flash/camera doesn't think that's the guy you WANT to be properly exposed!) while the background is completely dark. In a word: Yuck.

Your solution is to crank up the ISO and shoot with the available light. Yes it will be noisy/grainy, but at least it'll look like football.

[scottbergerphoto]

PPi- wrote:
I'm thinking about to go with 420EX myself, mainly due to the price and the fact that at this point 420EX is just enough for me. Hope you will be able to do the decision according to your needs.

Talking about math, all the math that I know can be found from here: http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/flash-faq.html#gn . The chapter three is quite useful. Then there is this EOS flash article that is being quite useful as well: http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash

Excellent link. I also suggest three books:
1. Mastering Flash Photography by McCartney
2. The Nikon Field Guide
3. The Nikon Flash Guide.
The first one talks about technique and the other two go into detail about the actual workings/settings of the flash.
The most important formula to remember is: Maximum Distance of useable flash = Guide Number of Flash / f stop.
All those flashes you see go off in football stadiums look good on TV but are absoloutely useless for taking pictures. The average dedicated flash with a Guide Number of say 140ft would be useful to about 47ft at f/2.8. Yo0u would of course have a very small depth of field. At f/4 youre at 37ft, f/5.6 = 27ft etc.

[JABACo]

Thanks for the info.

About the "noisy". In my limited experience I've seen this. Especially way back in the day when I played against the Romans. I just assumed with today's tech it would have been better.

Is it possible to reduce some of it via Photoshop?

Football is football. I want my pictures to look like football with all that goes with it. A picture tells a story and I want the book in each picture and not a chapter.

Thanks.

[DAMphyne]

I have both the 420 and 550 flash. My experience is, you can't put the 420 on full power manually, you can with the 550. Sometimes, I feel, you need the ability to go full power to "trick" the camera into getting the shot you want.

[Vegas Poboy]

JABACo wrote:
Thanks for the info.

About the "noisy". In my limited experience I've seen this. Especially way back in the day when I played against the Romans. I just assumed with today's tech it would have been better.

Is it possible to reduce some of it via Photoshop?

Football is football. I want my pictures to look like football with all that goes with it. A picture tells a story and I want the book in each picture and not a chapter.

Thanks.

If you can take the time and go out and take some night shots to see if the light will work for you. I've shot cars that is much faster than football games and has good luck. The settings I used was manual, f/8 @ 1/60 with 400 ISO setting or film. If you don't like the results return the 420 for the 550.