580EX on AV mode

[Nasser]

Hello
I noticed that my 580EX is work effectively on 30D only on the portraits auto selection, I usually shoot on AV mode without the flash, any help I would like to shoot with my 580EX on all modes.

[Tiberius]

If you have the flash in e-TTL mode, then the camera in Av mode should expose for the ambient light, with the flash lighting up the subject.

Have a read of this: http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

In particular, have a read of this section. http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index2.html#confusion

[Nasser]

Thanks , is there any setup I need to do in my 30D of 580EX ?

[JeffreyG]

I think you should stay away from Av mode with flash. Many people get confused by this when they start using flash. The camera will not take account of the flash in Av mode, and so if the scene is very dark you will have the camera selecting a very slow shutter speed to properly expose the ambient, and since the ambient will be relatively strong you will get a lot of blur plus possibly mixed color temperatures from different lighting.

If you want the flash to be the only source of light, put the camera in M mode and set the shutter speed to 1/250.

[Tony-S]

+1 for manual mode. I rarely use anything else unless there's an ambient light to exploit.

[Tiberius]

I had a shoot yesterday with two flashes, and I had both the camera and my flashes all in manual mode.

If you have time, manual moe is by far the easiest, because you don't have to worry about the camera deciding on something you don't want it to do and then messing up your pics.