advice for FE Lock

[ggodetucsamoht]

recently just explore some settings for built in Flash on my 40d.

read from the books, there is this func call the FE lock which we can meter on a certain area so that the amount of light to be flash according to that spot.

my doubts is if i am shooting an object just infront of a wide open window, after auto focus it, hold the shutter betton, point at the sky for FE locks, and then go back to the object and fully snap it off.

Supposingly the image produce might not be so bright due to the flash meter the bright sky and give a compensation of lower flash light amount but how come the captured image turns to be super bright?

can anyone share some ideas on this?

 

[nixontkl]

OK the prob is simple, what u have done is lock your your flash power using FE base on the light from the sky, then while your focus is lock on the object near your window, you didnt lock your exposure on your camera, thus while u lock your flash and focus your camera had adjust its exposure to the object which should be dark compare to the sky behind thus to have a better exposure for the object your entire picture become over exposed

 

[Octarine]

Which metering have you used? If you use any Average or Evaluative metering then your cam will compensate for the bright background anyway. Together with the flash the foreground will be nicely exposed, that's the standard setting for the camera. Your cam has detected a backlight situation and the response is quite normal.
Canon flashes have their special behaviour, read more here: http://www.photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
First define what you want: nicely lit foreground or dark foreground / silhouette? The check about metering (Evaluative vs. Spot) and (Flash) Exposure lock, combined with fill in flash.

 

[ggodetucsamoht]

Which metering have you used? If you use any Average or Evaluative metering then your cam will compensate for the bright background anyway. Together with the flash the foreground will be nicely exposed, that's the standard setting for the camera. Your cam has detected a backlight situation and the response is quite normal.
Canon flashes have their special behaviour, read more here: http://www.photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
First define what you want: nicely lit foreground or dark foreground / silhouette? The check about metering (Evaluative vs. Spot) and (Flash) Exposure lock, combined with fill in flash.

i am using on spot metering. i would like to get a well expose background and the subject should be bright too. in my take, the image background is super bright and cannot see any background details also.

 

[ggodetucsamoht]

OK the prob is simple, what u have done is lock your your flash power using FE base on the light from the sky, then while your focus is lock on the object near your window, you didnt lock your exposure on your camera, thus while u lock your flash and focus your camera had adjust its exposure to the object which should be dark compare to the sky behind thus to have a better exposure for the object your entire picture become over exposed

you mean i never lock my camera exposure and when i lock my flash and focus on the darker object hence the camera will adjust its explosure to give more power to light up the dark object ?

how can i overcome this issue?

 

[J-Chan]

in that case, you either need to use manual mode for the ambient exposure or switch the shutter button to AE lock using Custom Function IV 3-1.. I think the former is easier, point the center spot to your background to get a reading, then switch to manual mode, input those settings and take your shot.. do note that the built in can only sync to 1/250th..

 

[nixontkl]

you mean i never lock my camera exposure and when i lock my flash and focus on the darker object hence the camera will adjust its explosure to give more power to light up the dark object ?

how can i overcome this issue?

u need to AE lock your camera on the sky then FE lock your flash on the dark object, focus and recompose. this should give u the result u want

previously u lock your FE but not your camera AE so when u shoot the camera compensate the picture base on the exposure meter (meter reading of the sky)

if all else fail go manual, use metric metering and set flash to manual and if object is near use low flash power maybe 1/8 or 1/4 play around with the manual power setting of the flash