[onebadhobbit]

Hey there booth friends, can anyone recommend the best way to set up an external studio flash with a canon 1100d? If I slave it, the photos come out darker than if I use the off camera flash. If I use a PC sync cable, I lose any capability to control the flash through DSLR remote. Does the external flash mode ONLY work on live view? I have no need for live view, as I do not use an external screen. I run it as low tech as possible, but would like to nail some great light. Thanks in advance.

[CheekyPix]

If you are using the built-in camera flash to fire the studio flashes as slave units you need to be aware that the 1100D flash actually fires twice in very quick succession.

It uses a low power pre-flash to determine the correct exposure a fraction of a second before the flash proper.

The pre-flash will fire the studio slave units and effectively give the camera a false exposure reading.
It will then fire again but as the studio flashes havnt had a chance to recharge you will end up with an under exposed image.

If you want to use the camera flash to fire the studio flashes as slave units you will need flash heads that have the built in feature of ignoring the camera pre-flash.

[Chris Breeze]

If you trigger the external flash via the camera's hotshoe you can use the external flash mode option in DSLR Remote Pro's photobooth settings. The exposure mode should be set to manual and you can control the brightness of the exposure by changing the power setting on the external flash and by adjusting the camera's aperture and ISO settings. If you're not using live view you don't need to use the external flash mode setting but you can still set the camera to manual exposure and use the flash power, camera aperture and ISO to adjust the exposure. The camera shutter speed to should be set to the flash sync speed e.g. 1/200 sec.

[onebadhobbit]

Chris, and Cheeky Pix, thanks for your help. Slave is not an ideal situation, so will try and bypass that anyway. That was just my work around. Chris, thanks for that, I will try again in tomorrow, and change the camera flash settings to manual as well. I thought it would be that simple, but it was not/has not been, but I bet it is something very simple I have overlooked. Many thanks.

d.

[onebadhobbit]

For the life of me I cannot get the flash to work through DSLRremote. If I fire the flash opn camera (via hotshoe PC sync adapter) it goes everytime...but when I run through the programme it does not. Any clues what I am doing wrong?

[Chris Breeze]

You need to use "external flash mode" if you are using live view on a Canon EOS 1100D with an external flash connected via a hotshoe to PC sync adaptor. If you're not using live view you shouldn't have any problems triggering the flash via the hotshoe to PC sync adaptor.

[onebadhobbit]

Thanks Chris, i believe that I am using external flash mode, by checking the box that says 'external flash mode' No joy there. : (

[chuckb]

What shutter speed are you using? Try 60th of a sec.

[onebadhobbit]

Thanks Chuck, will try that. Flash works fine without Remote Pro, so is not the connection. It seems that I can only select 'external mode' after I have checked Live view mode. Camera is on 'M'.

[apples]

Try keeping the on camera flash 'up'. You may need to cover it up so you don't get any reflection back into the camera - but that depends upon your booth set up (whether you are taking photo through protective glass.