Canon 430ex Speedlite tips and help?

I've just bought a 430ex to go with a Canon 350D.
Are there any websites giving tips on how best to use the flash?

I took a couple of test pictures which I thought would have come out the
opposite ways to which they did.
http://www.myp3asa.plus.com/pictures/flash.jpg

The 1st picture, I bounced the flash off the ceiling.
The 2nd picture, the flash was just aimed straight at my daughter. It lacks
any detail and the colours look under exposed compared to the first picture.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

--
Steven.
Replace the word three with the number three if replying.

I got the 350D with 580EX. I am new to my camera and flash gun too. I
try to give my best. If I am not correct, please correct me.

When you bounce your flash off ceiling or walls etc., you created an
ambient light which light up your subject and the backgrounds close to
it.

If you aim the flash directly to your subject, the ETTL metering
decides the output power of the flash based on the data obtained from
the camera. It lights up the main subject sufficiently but created dull
colors on subject and background.

Another difference between both methods is the shadow. Notice the soft
shadow under her chin in the first picture and compare to the harsh
shadow in the second.

I believe you have lots of red in background and perhaps on both sides
of, the ambient light makes your subject more reddish.
--
Adrian Hoe
http://adrianhoe.net

"Adrian Hoe" wrote in message
oups.com...
I got the 350D with 580EX. I am new to my camera and flash gun too. I
try to give my best. If I am not correct, please correct me.

When you bounce your flash off ceiling or walls etc., you created an
ambient light which light up your subject and the backgrounds close to
it.

If you aim the flash directly to your subject, the ETTL metering
decides the output power of the flash based on the data obtained from
the camera. It lights up the main subject sufficiently but created dull
colors on subject and background.

Another difference between both methods is the shadow. Notice the soft
shadow under her chin in the first picture and compare to the harsh
shadow in the second.

I believe you have lots of red in background and perhaps on both sides
of, the ambient light makes your subject more reddish.

Thanks Adrian.
I know what you mean but I just felt the colours / detail from the direct
flash were really poor.
I used to use a standard TTL flash on my old 300D and I felt the results
were far better. Unfortunately the old TTL flash doesn't work on the 350D
as Canon apparently changed the circuitry.

In fact I think the on camera flash gives better results.

I'll try some test pictures with the 430ex and on camera flash.

Steven
P.S. That was a moving picture story of Angie. My sincerest condolences.

In article "Steven Campbell" writes:
$I know what you mean but I just felt the colours / detail from the direct
$flash were really poor.

I haven't looked at your photos so I can't say what went wrong.
If it's lacking colour and detail, it's likely an exposure error;
check the histogram. Flash metering is, unfortunately, an inexact
"science."

Bounce flash tends to give much more pleasing light. It's softer,
and generally doesn't show as much dropoff in brightness between
the subject and the background. But you need a white (or very close)
surface that's close enough that your flash has enough power; you
lose a fair bit of flash power this way.

$I used to use a standard TTL flash on my old 300D and I felt the results
$were far better. Unfortunately the old TTL flash doesn't work on the 350D
$as Canon apparently changed the circuitry.

The 300D doesn't support TTL flash, either; it only does E-TTL. The
350D does E-TTL II. The difference between E-TTL and E-TTL II is in
the body, not the flash.

If you want a whole pile of info on how the EOS flash systems
work, read http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ - it will tell
you all kinds of things Canon ought to have put in the manuals but
didn't.
--
Stephen M. Dunn
---------------- http://www.stevedunn.ca/ ----------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/

"Stephen M. Dunn" wrote in message
...

The 300D doesn't support TTL flash, either; it only does E-TTL. The
350D does E-TTL II. The difference between E-TTL and E-TTL II is in
the body, not the flash.

Hi Stephen,
I know the 300D doesn't support TTL flash. I was just pointing out that I
used an old TTL flash unit with it and the results were far better than the
350D and 430ex on first inspection.

I'll need to do more tests. Maybe it is just me being naive but I would have
thought putting the 430ex on auto with the camera on auto would have
produced good results. Instead it looks under exposed.

Thanks
Steven.