Fill in flash

[lcpete]

Hi I'm after advice for the best setup for flash more for butterflies and dragonflies than the really close stuff

I'm going to give flash another go, I've always gone for natural light shots never liking the results I got with flash but I tried fill in flash last week with the built in flash and it was the only sharp shot I got on a windy day.
I'm going to try my EX430 with 40D and sigma 150 with monopod using the following settings

200 at F10 in manual and varying ISO to get 1 stop under exposed for the background and flash EXP set to zero
I think thats the right way to start from what do you guys recon ?

I nomally use aperture priority and vary exposure with exp comp if needed but I assume with flash the camera could still chose a too low a shutter speed even with flash on
Pete

[LordV]

Pete you can use fill flash in the manner you describe with the camera in manual or just use Tv or Av modes with say -ve EC set at -1 or -.66 with the flash FEC set at anything from 0 to -1. It effectively should give you the same solution as shooting in M mode.
Obviously the more underexposed you are with just the natural light the more likely you are to stop any motion blur with the flash. You will need to play with ISO to give you reasonable shutter or apertures values.
EC= exposure compensation
FEC=Flash exposure compensation
Brian V.

[lcpete]

Thanks Brian :DI think I will use TV/AV mode as you describe will be easier than messing about with manual
Pete

[pturton]

Thanks Brian :DI think I will use TV/AV mode as you describe will be easier than messing about with manual
Pete

For some critters, the pre-flash is enough to make them move OOF before the exposure is taken. For such times as these, only manual flash will work.