Overexposed Slides Using Flash

[helana4]

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I am using a canon eos30, with the speedlite 420ex flash and find that my photos are extremely overexposed- resulting in people having white faces etc. Am I too close to the subject? If anyone has any ideas- it would be very helpful- thanks

[Jeff82]

I'd look at your backgrounds, and your subject distance from the background. If your flash is trying to illuminate both the subject and the background, and there is a distance between them, then it's easy to have over-exposed subjects and under-exposed backgrounds. As you suggest, your distance from the subject is also important. The closer you are to the subject, the more difficult it is to balance exposure.

Possible solutions are to:

1- Move your subject closer to a background.
2- Stand farther from the subject.
3- Make better use of background lighting.
4- shoot at slower shutter speeds and larger apertures.
5- Try using bounce flash.
6- or, meter the subject and let the background go black.

Hope this helps,

--Jeff

[Jeff82]

Oops,

Also, faster speed film might help.

--Jeff

[another view]

Most TTL systems - which I assume this camera is capable of - are pretty good about this. I'll let one of the Canon experts answer about specifics though - maybe there's a way to set the metering differently, etc.

If you're not shooting TTL, then I would say that Jeff has it covered. One thing - when you move your subject closer to a background with direct flash, you'll get some nasty shadows.

Bounce flash can work really well as long as you have a fairly low white ceiling. The amount of ceiling height you can get away with is hard to say, but less than 15' you should be OK. White ceilings are going to be very important because you're shooting slides, the lab can't correct the color balance later! Also, you'll lose about two stops when you bounce. TTL should be able to figure that out on it's own, but if you're shooting manually with the flash you'll have to add that in.

[Sebastian]

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I am using a canon eos30, with the speedlite 420ex flash and find that my photos are extremely overexposed- resulting in people having white faces etc. Am I too close to the subject? If anyone has any ideas- it would be very helpful- thanks

I think the guys here gave some good advice, but I think samples would help narrow it down even further. Also, what was the subject to lens distance? What lens was used? What modes were you shooting in?

[Outdoorsman]

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I am using a canon eos30, with the speedlite 420ex flash and find that my photos are extremely overexposed- resulting in people having white faces etc. Am I too close to the subject? If anyone has any ideas- it would be very helpful- thanks

Yes, the camera-to-subject distance you are getting overexposure with could be the culprit. Too close is not good without bouncing. I've been shooting an older 420 EZ flash with no problems ever. I used it on my old EOS 650 as well as my new Elan 7N with very good results. With the 650 I had to fake FEC by altering film speed, but I also did well with a diffuser to avoid harsh lighting- the diffuser eased up the intensity of the light by roughly half a stop or so. I wonder if your EOS 30 is using FEC and you have it set to overexpose? The camera/flash are obviously thinking your subjects are too dim, so check your film speeds manually as well as your exposure settings and the flash unit itself. I don't know the EX-series, since I haven't used them yet- can they be manually set for FEC or manual FE? If so, maybe its settings are off. Shooting modes on the camera also can affect things, so try using different "creative zone" modes- varying shutter speeds and aperture settings and how the camera is metering can also affect it. If you've already tried this and it doesn't help? Worst case scenario: your camera's meter is going haywire and needs to be recalibrated or repaired. Or the flash is going haywire and needs servicing. Probably not, I would imagine. Everyone here has given good advice, so you should be okay. Good luck!