Recent stuff from the Brass Rail (Fort Wayne).

Some recent stuff from me. 1-4 are with a bounced 580ex on camera. 5,6,8 are with 430ex II's controlled by an on camera 580ex (which did not fire).

One thing I'd like to throw out there for 5D/5DII users is that I had a ton of back focused shots at 24mm with the 24-70 last night (2/21). I was using mostly center point, one shot mode, with the AF assist beam from the 580ex. I did some brief testing today, shooting at a black and white piece of paper with plenty of contrasty stuff behind it. Again, every shot out of focus. I turned off AF expansion and the problem disappeared...turned AF expansion back on and the problem came back. I was under the impression that AF expansion was not active in one shot mode, but this appears to not be the case. From what I've seen in the last couple days, I think I will no longer be using AF expansion when I need critical focus with the center point (for non-tracking applications). This has me kind of puzzled, because I've used the 5D in the past, and I've never really noticed this problem in such a visible manner until now.

1. The Terrible Twos (Detroit) - 2/13/09

damn these are great. 4, 5, and 8 are the picks for me. you need to give me some pointers on flash use...really well executed.

on the AF expansion topic, i've not noticed any issues to be honest...on the wide end you would think it would likely be more apt to pick up a duff point to focus on, but if you are pretty tight w/ yr subject, i don't think it would be an issue. i've not found any back-focusing issues that seem to trend w/ expansion (and i always leave it on).

I'd take the AF problem over to the EOS forum. I'm with Tim on the picks.

narlus wrote in post #7387540
damn these are great. 4, 5, and 8 are the picks for me. you need to give me some pointers on flash use...really well executed.

on the AF expansion topic, i've not noticed any issues to be honest...on the wide end you would think it would likely be more apt to pick up a duff point to focus on, but if you are pretty tight w/ yr subject, i don't think it would be an issue. i've not found any back-focusing issues that seem to trend w/ expansion (and i always leave it on).

Thanks for the comments.

My use of flash relies heavily on the fact that I can bounce the light off the light colored walls and ceiling. Really, for 1-4 it's as simple as pointing the 580ex at the ceiling in E-TTL mode and shooting. I use a CTO gel to attempt to balance the flash with the tungsten lighting and generally dial in some +FEC. I also shoot in manual at about 2 stops under exposed (for ambient), but that really depends on the ambient light present and where it falls. I tend to shoot at a pretty high ISO with a shutter speed in the 1/30-1/60 range. I do this to minimize the drag-the-shutter look, to let in enough ambient light, and to minimize the output required from the flash. Aperture is typically between 2.8 and 5.6 depending on how difficult the AF situation is.
For 5,6, and 8 I was using 430ex's on top of the PA speakers (you can see one of the flashes in shot 7 next to the last S in Brass, though it isn't fired in that shot). I still have a long way to go in figuring out off camera flash. It is pretty difficult not to totally dominate the ambient exposure when dealing with two off camera flashes in such a low light environment. This is also not a good think to do to your flashes....I think next time I'll be duct taping the flashes to the top of the speakers (they tend to fall off when drunk people are about). Jtfdzn on here is sort of the master of the two light off camera technique...and I know he shoots manual flash with PWs.

DwightMcCann wrote in post #7395469
I'd take the AF problem over to the EOS forum. I'm with Tim on the picks.

Yes, I may just do that. I took some test shots at my wife's work, which clearly illustrate the issue. The only thing is that my wife works at a lingerie store, so I might try to take some others before I post them online.