What FEC settings do you use?

[mmishkin]

So I'm shooting my best friend's wedding tomorrow... j/k

I was wondering what FEC levels you use for ETTL fill flash in bright sun (midday), shade, back-lit (late afternoon), etc; particularly direct, non-modified flash.

I was experimenting earlier but was seeing very little difference. Possibly because my subject is dark skinned facial shadows are less pronounced...?

I plan on repeating the experiment this week with a fair skinned subject, but would like to know what the flash masters do.

[tim]

Your post shows a fairly obvious lack of understanding about flash exposure compensation, and EC in general. No one setting will work all day Basically EC is used to tell the camera what it's taking a photo of - dark (use negative FEC) or light colors (use +1 to +2). For fill flash use -1 to 0 FEC. It's also used for general tweaks, and must be considered in conjunction with your exposure setttings. Shade, full sun, backlit etc make no difference to your FEC settings.

Go read these web pages - found by googling exposure compensation. FEC is the flash version of EC

http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial-exposure-compensation.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_compensation

Then google flash exposure compensation and read what you find.

[mmishkin]

I understand the theory. And I'm not looking for a one size fits all answer. As I stated, I am doing my own experimentation under differing conditions. What I am asking for is for people to share with me their experience and suggestions so I can broaden that knowledge.

I normally find the community on this forum polite and helpful, no matter the experience level of the OP. But frankly, I found the opening of the above response rather condescending (although I sincerely appreciate the time invested in the response).

[Mike]

Tim can be blunt. Don't let it worry you. :D

[tim]

If you properly understood what FEC was and how it works you wouldn't be asking the question, most especially the part about sun, shade, and back lit situations. The lighting makes no difference to the required FEC settings. Go read my post and links again. And try not to take offense when useful advice is given, I don't always sugar coat things but the information I post is usually pretty useful. If I wanted to be offensive you'd know about it.