HSS outside at midday, fill flash, bracket required?

[tim]

I'm shooting some wedding pictures on a beach at midday this weekend. Two*20D/range of lenses 12-200mm, 580EX/550EX on high speed sync as fill flash. My question is do I need to bother with a flash bracket for these shots? I suspect since there'll be so much light the pupils will be very small and the chance of red eye is minimal, compared with the hastle of using a bracket.

I'm not so worried about the quality of the light in this situation (ie direct flash), but opinions on this from anyone with experience is also welcome.

[robertwgross]

If you flop the camera over into vertical/portrait orientation, aren't you going to have the same "shadow on the side" problem that you would have indoors? I agree that with a lot of daylight around, it won't be as much of a problem as indoors.

I always look at it this way: What would it hurt?

---Bob Gross---

[tim]

I don't imagine there'll be anything behind them for shadows to fall on, but that's a good point. I'm more worried about red eye and how much it'd slow my workflow down when I correct it.

[PacAce]

I don't think red eye would be a problem outdoors during midday unless you happen to be shooting while a solar eclipse was occurring above you. Better check the weather report just in case.

[KaplanMultimedia]

The red-eye phenomenon happens when the pupils are large and dilated because of dim light levels. Personally, I have never seen red-eye from shots taken during the middle of the day, not even with P&S cameras which are notorious for this problem because of the flash being too close to the lens. Also your flash is elevated several inches higher from the lens than a typical P&S camera which also helps. So in my humble opinion, you shouldn't have a problem unless it gets very dark. For instance, if you shoot in a covered corridor around sunset.

FYI, this problem is usually worse with small children and animals.

Good luck!

[Wazza]

We're now shooting on a beach? Or is this something else you've got on as well.

As Kaplan said, you won't get redeye outside in bright conditions.

[tim]

The "creative" pictures are on a beach, outside government house, on the wharf, and maybe aronud parliment, depending on the weather.

[Titus213]

Originally Posted by tim

I'm shooting some wedding pictures on a beach at midday this weekend. Two*20D/range of lenses 12-200mm, 580EX/550EX on high speed sync as fill flash. ..

No opinion but a question - is HSS used in this situation to allow the higher shutter speed needed to control ambient light in a typical beach setting?

[tim]

Originally Posted by Titus213

No opinion but a question - is HSS used in this situation to allow the higher shutter speed needed to control ambient light in a typical beach setting?

Pretty much. Because i'll be shooting with wide apertures on a bright day the shutter speed will probably be faster than 1/250th, which is the fastest the 20D can use standard flash at. HSS lets you use any shutter speed. The EOS flash bible has a great explaination of how it works and why, and has to do with the way the shutter works.