CANON 380EX, flash compensation w/bounce cards

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When employing bounce flash,using a device such as the Lumiquest Pocket Bounce or an index card angled over the head of my 380EX flash, should I use my ElanIIe's flash compensation feature to increase output?

Lumiquest's site says light loss is 1.3 stops yet adds that no compensation is required for AUTOMATIC flashes- what about Canon's E-TTL flashes such as my 380EX? I'd appreciate some advice regarding this approach when shooting indoors, in both a "normal" or large interior, as well as outdoors when using fill-in flash.

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), November 11, 1999

Answers

No compensation is required for bounce flash. In E-TTL mode, your camera meters the subject reflection of the pre-flash through the lens and instructs the flash how much power to use for the exposure.

Use flash exposure compensation only for difficult situations:

  • a dark-toned subject that you want to remain dark (use "-" FEC)
  • a light-toned subject that you want to remain light (use "+" FEC)
  • a very small subject with a distant background (use "-" FEC)

    -- Dave Herzstein (dherzstein@juno.com), November 11, 1999.

  • I guess it will depend on the distance of the subject you are shooting at. The more distant your subject are the greater chance that your flash "might" not be able to cope up.

    -- Alvin S. Graanada (granada666@yahoo.com), November 13, 1999.

    Alvin,

    If the distance is too far, no amount of flash compensation is going to help. The flash will already be putting out its maximum power.

    -- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), November 16, 1999.


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