Still trying to figure out my 580exII for night sports-questions

I was not so thrilled with my first attempts with it last weekend. Leaving it in ETTL it slowed my shutter speed down to 200 and there was motion blur, not to mention it seemed to really overexpose even when I upped the ISO and aperture. After the first quarter I took it off and shot at f2.8/1600 ISO, but still wished for the fill flash I couldn't seem to get.

I would like to be able to use it in small amounts in burst mode with a 40D, is that possible? If so, how would I tweak those settings? My understanding is that in ETTL you can't reduce the power, although I may be very wrong. Should I set the flash exposure compensation to -2 or -3 if I just want to use it as fill for a bit of light? Is there any way to do that shooting at 1/320 or 1/400 to help freeze the motion?

I just don't feel like I understand how it all works in conjunction enough to be attempting it in Manual mode and programming every setting-I've read the manual several times over and still pretty confused.

*even when I LOWERED the ISO and upped the aperture, sorry

did you try High Speed Sync mode?
This will allow you to use faster shutter speeds than 250 albeit with less flash power

The flash is what freezes the motion, not the shutter speed. Shutter speed is irrelevant, except for allowing more ambient light in. Sounds like you were letting too much ambient creep in, causing the motion blur.

OP, can you post an example of the results you are getting.

High-speed sync uses pulsing of the flash (they aren't just magical lights), so, using it at the power extremes could still cause some blur.

Shooting at ISO1600, your flash is very capable at the lowest settings of lighting things up. 50 feet out might be tricky, but, your flash is what stops the action (if it's the only light source, mixing the flash and ambient with slow shutter speeds will result in blur).

I did try it in High sync but seemed to get the same result. I also don't have a battery pack, just using 4 eneloop batteries, so I guess asking it to keep up in burst mode is wishing for magic.

Can I make it fire lower power in ETTL or do I have to put it in manual mode to do that?

I just went through my files from friday and I deleted all of the flash shots except one. They were horrible. I'm uploading to flickr right now and will post when it is finished.

Use camera in manual mode with flash in manual. It just makes life so easy. That way black/white uniforms won't confuse neither the camera nor the flash. Start with ISO800, f4, 1/250 or 1/200 if you using xxD series. Flash at 1/2 power seems to work fine for me.

Looking forward to your problem shots.

For contrlloing power in eTTL mode, use flashe xposure comp. -ve for less power, +ve for more power. I still think you better off using flash in manual mode. That way you set it to one setting and forget about it. If you need to adjust flash power, adjust aperture in camera, much faster to do that when shooting action.

bobbyz wrote in post #6641326
Use camera in manual mode with flash in manual. It just makes life so easy. That way black/white uniforms won't confuse neither the camera nor the flash. Start with ISO800, f4, 1/250 or 1/200 if you using xxD series. Flash at 1/2 power seems to work fine for me.

Why would anyone buy a $400 ETTL flash just to use it manual like a $100 flash?

I used to use my old 430EZ flash in manual when I had no choice. It is not as easy as you may think. Any time your flash to subject distance changes, you have to adjust your settings.

Shooting action is is certainly when you don't have time to constantly chimp each shot to see if you need to change your aperture or flash power for proper exposure.

Shooting your flash in manual is going back 50 years when we had no choice.

If you are still having problems, consider using the Auto External Metering Mode like on old thyristor flash. The 580EX II is one of the few modern flashes to include this mode. (page 30 in the manual)

msowsun wrote in post #6641596
Why would anyone buy a $400 ETTL flash just to use it manual like a $100 flash?

Mike, I wouldn't buy expensive eTTL flash just to use it all the time in manual mode if you have one on hand there is nothing worng with using one in manual mode. Don't know where it says that you have to use eTTL flash in eTTL mode all the time.

I hope you do shoot night time high school football.

I have never shot night football, but if I did, I think I might try out this guy's technique:

http://www.davehoffman​nphoto.com …ight-football-with-flash/

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Mike,

That is what I use and I think OP also uses that as he was posting in sports forum.

My reccomendations - Keep your flash in ETTL mode and use the exposure compensation dial to fine tune your flash output. Also what have you set you camera to to measure exposure? Set to center or at minimum center weighted so you are not trying to light up the entire black sky. Bump your ISO as high you can go to use as much ambient light as possible and still get acceptable picture quality. Set your camera to manual and set your shutter speed to sync speed and open up your lens as wide as it can go. Unless you are shooting in TV quality light, you will need to find as much light as you can from any source. Also remember that in manual mode, you can fire a shot before the camera obtains focus, that may account for some blurry pictures. Use the center focus spot to aid in quick focusing. Lee Smith

fitzhughsmith wrote in post #6642300
Also remember that in manual mode, you can fire a shot before the camera obtains focus, that may account for some blurry pictures. Use the center focus spot to aid in quick focusing. Lee Smith

What?

I was using center focus & center metering. This is the only shot I didn't delete using flash, and it was before I lowered ISO:

Those are jpegs SOOC, by the way. I was shooting in raw but used those to post as examples with no editing done.