430ex ii on 5d Mark II - Rear Curtain

Hey guys,

I tried to find an already existent thread focusing on this but with no luck. I am in a hurry, and it would be incredible if someone could give me an input on this today still. (fingers crossed!)

I am really a beginner in terms of speedlights. I have a 430ex ii and a canon 5d mark ii and I've been trying to just make the right choices by guessing/experimenting to fit my style. However I failed at that. All that I could get was too harsh light in the face of people, and backgrounds getting too much light as well, so the result would be a too bright of a scene. Then experimenting with either the settings on the camera and on flash the only thing that changed was the strength of light, and not the overall mood. I need to get creative shots, which from what I've been explained and read about I can get using second curtain.

But I tried and tried, doing what many people said I should, and still can't get that look. I am sure I am doing it all wrong. This is the look I am looking for:

http://www.flickr.com …pephotography/6​684083927/

And this:

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/benjhaisch/5430​106798/

Where it seems that a heavy vignette is created, light streams appear, and the main subject is sharply in focus. Can someone tell me how I can create this look on a wedding reception? What I have to do both on the body and on flash, the settings, etc step by step (yup feeling pretty dumb right now). I am so sorry, but I am completely desperate since I've been trying to get an answer by studying and experimenting and I've been failing. I thought maybe this way would be easier! If any of you could help me out asap I would be forever grateful!!


Thanks guys!

Madalena

First image looks like someone used a flash heavily zoomed in (it mainly lits the center part of the image, not the whole field of view), and then a pretty long exposure time. First or second curtain sync would yield about the same look since the people moving around don't have any lamps on themselves.
The long streaks of light comes from the camera moving, it seems, not from the subject.
The second set of images have ugly, frontal flash illumination and long exposure, to blur the background. I'm not sure the exposure time can be read from the image. Experiment with something around half a second to begin with. If it's too blurred, just make it a bit shorter. It depends upon how much you move the camera.

Then whether you sync on first or second curtain doesn't make much of a difference. Some people react to the flash, and behave differently. In that case ending the exposure with the flash could be beneficiary. But then you must use manual flash power setting, since using E-TTL will cause a metering flash to fire as well, and that always fires just before exposure commences.

Personally, I'd stay out of this night-club type of photography at a wedding, but that's just my personal preference. If you are shooting on behalf of somebody else, of course. If it's just for your own amusement, then it doesn't matter.

Here's the EXIF data from the first shot.
Lens focal length of 27mm, ISO 200, 0.4 seconds at f/8 in Manual. Not much info on flash mode though, but at least this gives you a good place to start.
Since there is very little flash spread, it's either the flash head zoomed in, or maybe some type of small flash modifier attachment.

That looks cool for a few shots, but it soon gets a little weird if all of the shots look like that (IMO).

EXIF IFD0

Camera Make = Canon
Camera Model = Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Picture Orientation = normal (1)
X-Resolution = 1800000/10000 ===> 180
Y-Resolution = 1800000/10000 ===> 180
X/Y-Resolution Unit = inch (2)
Software / Firmware Version = Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Last Modified Date/Time = 2012:01:12 12:43:09
Copyright Owner = 2011 John Hope

EXIF Sub IFD

Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 4/10 second ===> 1/2.5 second ===> 0.4 second
Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 8/1 ===> ƒ/8
Exposure Program = manual control (1)
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
EXIF Version = 0221
Original Date/Time = 2011:09:24 19:29:27
Digitization Date/Time = 2011:09:24 19:29:27
Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 1321928/1000000
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/2.5 second
Aperture Value (APEX) = 6/1
Aperture = ƒ/8
Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/1 ===> 0
Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 3/1 ===> 3
Max Aperture = ƒ/2.83
Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
Flash = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length = 27/1 mm ===> 27 mm
Original Subsecond Time = 79
Digitized Subsecond Time = 79
Colour Space = sRGB (1)
Image Width = 1920 pixels
Image Height = 1280 pixels
Focal Plane X-Resolution = 5616000/1459 ===> 3849.21
Focal Plane Y-Resolution = 3744000/958 ===> 3908.14
Focal Plane X/Y-Resolution Unit = inch (2)
Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
Exposure Mode = manual exposure (1)
White Balance = auto (0)
Scene Capture Type = standard (0)

EXIF not available on the second shot.

You can get a similar look but having lens on manual zoom and then zooming out or in when pressing the shutter, that gives you a light streaming kinda effect