Canon MT 24EX - need some direction

Hi
I just bought the Canon MT 24 EX to add to my macro set up and am quite excited...BUT, I have never used a flash AT ALL so am a little confused about which way to approach shooting. I hear mixed things about shooting manual or TTL. I shoot mostly a wildlife and nature and am loving my 100 macro L IS. (a few macro's here http://www.flickr.com …in/set-72157624638744315/) SO, this is my primary reason, but I am sure I will find many other subjects!

I have always shot in AV mode so I am a little confused about how to go about this as last night every shot was requiring a really slow shutter speed, which, is somewhat working against the reason I bought the flash-to give me more hand-holding opportunity to freeze motion, for example, or to just squeeze more DOF. I wasn't expecting 3 second exposures with a flash. Clearly I misunderstand.

What shooting mode do you use TTL with and what exposure criteria do you focus on?
You don't actually leave the camera in auto, do you? If flash is in manual,do you also set the camera to manual? Again, I am used to thinking in terms of dof and adjust around that. (unless I am trying to capture motion, then I may use TV) DO I leave ISO on auto?

Why is my brain not connecting here? Any first steps to kick start a new way of thinking are welcome.

thanks
Nancie

http://njwight.tumblr.​com

Normally when using flash as the main source of light you set the camera to manual and use something like ISO100, F11, 1/200th and set the flash to ettl and just fire. The only thing you need to play with in this mode is the FEC value where just like normal exposure compensation (EC) with natural light shots, the cameras exposure system can be fooled by predominantly light or dark backgrounds and you use some +FEC for light backgrounds and - FEC for dark backgrounds.

THe other way of using the flash is in AV or Tv modes as fill flash- here the camera will meter normally for the shot but the flash will just lighten any nearby subject.
For more info on macro shooting see the link in my signature.
Brian v.

Thanks Brian, I will check out your links. I think I will mostly be using it to enhance natural light as the shadows in macro can get dark. Thanks for distinguishing as I do want to be able to shoot with the flash as my only source of light. In TTL I can use ec to adjust the the flash and in manual I believe I can lower the output power?

nj