Help with indoor house shots using 40D, 10-22mm lens & 580EX flash

[marinenet]

I have recently started doing some real estate photography shoots and whilst the 10-22mm lens I have is useful in some situations to show more of a room in one shot, I am having trouble making this work with my Canon 580EX flash. My pictures seem to be either under exposed or over exposed. I have tried adjusting the exposure settings on both camera and flash, but just can't seem to get the right shot.

Does anyone have any advice on this issue? Is it possible that this lens and flash aren't suited to each other?

I am using the Canon 40D, Canon EFS 10-22mm Lens & Canon 580EX Flash.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank You.

[egordon99]

Are you bouncing the flash? Bouncing and shooting at 10mm can be tricky to get the whole scene fully illuminated. But I shoot with my 10-20/580EXII all the time with good results, I just have to be mindful or where I point the flash (bouncing on a wall behind me works really well)

As for the camera/flash settings, you are shooting in M mode on the camera (flash in E-TTL), right? You do know how flash/ambient exposures work, right? If the flash exposure is underexposed, use +FEC (overexposed -FEC).

How much flash experience do you have?

[PhotosGuy]

Canon on distortion, lighting, panos, HDR...: Effective Real Estate Photography (http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2887)

Photographing Bathrooms, Bedrooms (Pg 2), Hallways (Pg 3), Living Rooms (pg 4), (http://www.all-things-photography.com/photographing-bathrooms.html) etc.

Some tips in here not relating to flash:
flash for real estate photography (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=431185)

[marinenet]

Are you bouncing the flash? Bouncing and shooting at 10mm can be tricky to get the whole scene fully illuminated. But I shoot with my 10-20/580EXII all the time with good results, I just have to be mindful or where I point the flash (bouncing on a wall behind me works really well)

As for the camera/flash settings, you are shooting in M mode on the camera (flash in E-TTL), right? You do know how flash/ambient exposures work, right? If the flash exposure is underexposed, use +FEC (overexposed -FEC).

How much flash experience do you have?


It would be safe to say that I am a novice on interior shots and use of flash. Most of what I have done to date has been outdoor sports and landscape photography. The real estate photography is something new I am learning.

Yes shooting in M, but the 580EXII keeps changing from ETTL to TTL when on my 40D camera...???

I have a general understanding of flash exposures, but just can't seem to get it right when using this lens. Seem to be ok when using my 24-105mm lens.

Thanks for your help.

Philippa

[marinenet]

Thank you both for your advice...with a few simple adjustments and some more practice my photos are totally different.

Thanks again..!