Shooting @ f/2.8 With 580 EX Flash

I would like to know if it's feasible to shoot in daylight sun @ f/2.8 with flash fill without completely washing out the subject and background. I've been unsuccessful shooting @ f/2.8 for outdoor style portrait shots with flash fill without washing out both subject and background. What is the best way to accomplish this task using a 2.8 lens and flash?

It's just another exposure. It should be feasible, I think you're making a mistake somewhere down the line. Why use 2.8 outdoors anyway?

ND filters may be a soloution although a bit more info needed here I think.

What settings are you using and more details of the shoot.

Use HSS and remember to set the iso to 100, no problem even with f1.4.

How about using High Speed Sync on your flash? This feature should do it for you.

Photoman65 wrote in post #5378688
I would like to know if it's feasible to shoot in daylight sun @ f/2.8 with flash fill without completely washing out the subject and background. I've been unsuccessful shooting @ f/2.8 for outdoor style portrait shots with flash fill without washing out both subject and background. What is the best way to accomplish this task using a 2.8 lens and flash?

The problem isn't the flash, it's that f/2.8, your max shutter speed and lowest ISO are over-exposing the image. Too much light. As has been suggested, a neutral density filter will help here. Or wait until there's less light around.

Unless, of course, high speed sync isn't on and you're limited to 1/250 shutter speed.. ensure that's on.

Lotto is on the money, as usual. The shutter speed required to shoot in daylight at f/2.8 is much faster than the X-sync speed of your cameras (1/250).

So you'll need to use high speed sync in order to use flash at high shutter speeds. Keep in mind that this cuts your flash range in half, so keep an eye on the distance scale on the back of the flash unit.

ND filters would be another possibility for getting your shutter speed down to 1/250. Just keep in mind that they will darken your viewfinder and possibly interfere with autofocusing.

Lots of people use polarizers, too. This probably won't get you f/2.8 but it will allow for a larger aperture than without. You'll also get the benefits of bluer skies and less glare.

This is very helpful info. Here is how I tried to accomplish this operation. I shot @ ISO 50, I shot in AV, TV, and M mode and all modes gave the same results. I reduced flash output significantly, but the results did not change (over exposed) subject and background.

Why I want to shoot outside @ f/2.8 in sunlight? Because I want to capture super blurred backgrounds and use the flash to fill the panda eye look of the subjects. Since the flash and camera x-sync up to only 1/250, it's impossible to shoot at a higher shutter speed.

With this said, I must consider possible filters. I do have a polarized filter. Would this filter work to reduce over exposure? I appreciate the helpful comments from everyone.

Combination of a 2-stop ND filter and 2-stop loss cpolarizer would be great for bright outdoors shots using fill flash: with 4 stops loss, f/11 at 1/250 moves to f/2.8 at 1/250 for slight underexposure of environment. That keeps shutter speed at flash sync speed for additional non-canon or off-camera flashes, while allowing great bokeh, esp. with a long lens. The potential resulting photos go beyond the casual snapshooter.

Jim G wrote in post #5378945
The problem isn't the flash, it's that f/2.8, your max shutter speed and lowest ISO are over-exposing the image. Too much light. As has been suggested, a neutral density filter will help here. Or wait until there's less light around.

According to Sunny-16, 2.8 requires 1/4000 at ISO 100. 20D goes up to 1/8000 so I don't see this as being the problem.

Photoman65 wrote in post #5380621
Since the flash and camera x-sync up to only 1/250, it's impossible to shoot at a higher shutter speed.

Like has been mentioned above - turn high speed sync on, you can sync up to 1/8000.

Proper exposure of outdoors scene with my 20D at ISO100 is ~1/250 sec @ f/9 or f/10, 1/500 sec @ f/6.3-7.1, 1/1000 sec @ f/4.5-5.0, 1/2000 sec @ f/3.2-3.5. Yes, that sounds about right. Nice to know I'm exposing things correctly.

Jim G,

You mentioned I can sync up to 1/8000? How is this possible with the Canon 580 EX flash and the 20D or 1D series cam. To my knowledge, Canon cameras do not allow x-sync past 1/250. Am I missing something here?

Photoman65 wrote in post #5380843
Jim G,

You mentioned I can sync up to 1/8000? How is this possible with the Canon 580 EX flash and the 20D or 1D series cam. To my knowledge, Canon cameras do not allow x-sync past 1/250. Am I missing something here?

Read your 580EX manual - there is a function called high speed sync. You enable it with a button on the rear of the flash and it allows you to sync above 1/250.

I would tell you which button it is but it's 2am and I'm at work without a camera and my memory that it's a button with a little lightning symbol may be incorrect.

If memory serves me right there's a button with a lightening symbol on the 580 that toggles that function.

I think it may have the letter "H" next to it as well.

Edit: It's a 3-way switch between high-speed, bracketting and sync, as far as I can remember.

This one: