manual mode on 580ex

okay i bought a flash, and i would really like to start useing it in manual mode... but somehow i don't get the connection how to do the flash exposure and the camera exposure in M mode...

the light meter of my camera shows me how i have to set the exposure without flash.. so i guess i just have to set how i would like to have it, and what i thing would still be able with my flash? but not sure about this..
and then i don''t really get how to make the falsh exposure with the distance and power of the flash...

can someone help me with this? i just don't get the stuff i'm readin on to my cammera... somwhere i have a thinking blockad...
i'm useing a 20d and 580ex with a 50 1.4 lens

You better read The Biblefirst, my friend..

nino_zeke wrote:
okay i bought a flash, and i would really like to start useing it in manual mode... but somehow i don't get the connection how to do the flash exposure and the camera exposure in M mode...

the light meter of my camera shows me how i have to set the exposure without flash.. so i guess i just have to set how i would like to have it, and what i thing would still be able with my flash? but not sure about this..
and then i don''t really get how to make the falsh exposure with the distance and power of the flash...

can someone help me with this? i just don't get the stuff i'm readin on to my cammera... somwhere i have a thinking blockad...
i'm useing a 20d and 580ex with a 50 1.4 lens

Unless you're quite a distance from the subject and using a very low ISO, basically you set the fstop and speed you want, and the camera and flash do the rest. Disregard the settings in the viewfinder, as they may very well tell you that you are underexposed. From there, you can tweak it with FEC.

yeah i read the manual part in the bible... what i was just no sure if i just can stop carring about the info in my viewfinder... but how high can i co with my speed and how much can i close my lense then?
all i can change on the flash is the distance? that's what i read in the bible and the manual so far.. i have to say i didn't read the hole bible yet..
but i was useing the flash yesterday trying to figure this out... but i just could change the power of the flash not the distance... (well the distance went down with droping the power) but i couldn't really get it under 5m, and when i was bouncing the flash i didn't see anything about the distance anymore...?

You have to pay attention to the information in your viewfinder, because ambient light still pays a part in the exposure. If you set your aperture to narrow (F8), your ISO low (100), and your shutter speed fast (1/200th) then ambient light won't play much part. If you set it to F1.8/1/30th/ISO800 then ambient light will play a larger part. It's ballancing the ambient and flash that's the hard part, and takes experience. Try it and see! Try both outside in sunlight and outside at night (or indoors) - you'll see why afterwards.

Edit - not sure what you're talking about with the distance thing. I never noticed anything like that.

Edit2 - you should be in manual mode on your camera and ETTL mode on your flash, unless you understand enough to say why you're not doing that.

I think by distance he's meaning the little distance scale that comes up (which I've totally ignored for the whole time I've used the flash, actually) on the bottom of the back LCD with the black bars that indicate.. hmm.. something or other? Effective flash range?

You know, I think I'm going to go back through the literature and figure out what that's used for... I missed picking up on that back when I bought it and hadn't paid it any mind since.

Jim

No I think he means the zoom indicator. It disappears in bounce on the 580 rather than displaying a constant 50mm like some (most?) other flashes. That's because when you're bouncing, the zoom of the head doesn't really matter that much...you're making the light source broad and narrowing it or widening it is only effective in the straight ahead position for efficiency purposes.

yeah i mean the effective Effective flash range.. that's what you should be able to change by somehow..? well it changes if i change the power of the flash in flash manual mode.

thank you tim i'll defenitly try that out... but what i'm realy aiming for is to use the flash manual as well... i can handle the camera manual but the flash??? huiuiui
i don't get yet how to set the flash i mean on how much power related to your exposer on the camera? can you calculate that out somehow, when that little scale is 2 stops a way from the mittle, then you put the flash for example on half power or something like that? or do i need a lightmeter to get there? i still want to wait a little befor getting a lightmeter and try some things out... how to get started in useing my flash in manual and manual on the camera..

I don't see why you're trying to go away from ETTL. You can operate a flash in manual but you'd really need a light meter, and a really good reason to bother. Why do you want to use manual flash? Let the technology do the work for you.

learning, that's my only reason so far

The camera exposes for the background. The flash exposes for the foreground (subject).

I was going to respond to this thread with a simple "how-to" for manual flash but it turned out longer than I anticipated so I created a new thread. See here if you're interested:

http://www.photography​-on-the.net …php?p=1273447#p​ost1273447