yesterday i recieved my large Flip-it from Joe Demb for my 580EX II flash, with the flash in ETTL mode & obvioulsy pointed up to allow the flip-it to be attached the zomm feature changes to - - because the flash is up I gather, can i ask you guys that when using your flash + flip-it [ or any diffuser with the flash head up] do you manually zoom out to the max setting of 105mm Can you recommend a set up for fill flash outdoors, i was getting quite slow shutter readinsg at ISO 400 with the camera on AV at f5.6, thanks
Post this in the lighting forum. They are Flip It maniacs in there. They will also probably tell you to shoot in M when using it anywhere other than outside for fill flash.
Camera to Manual
Set aperture and shutter speed for 'acceptable' ambient level (your choice, but usually 1 or 2 stops below what you would call 'correct')
Camera will use flash to expose for foreground/main subject
exactly: in Av mode you only get twice the shutter speed you get without the flash. In M(anual) mode then the flash automatically provides the amount of light to properly expose the subject. Also be aware that outdoors when using flash for fill, you may need to put the flash in "high speed sync" mode (to get shutter speeds higher than 1/250).
To address the zoom issue:
Letting it auto zoom to a wide setting is fine, because that maximizes efficiency of the reflector/diffuser combination. If you need greater range, you can shoot direct flash, and as you know, you can leave the flipit in place, just folding the reflector/diffuser out of the way. You could also experiment with manual zoom settings for a compromise, but I don't find any advantage in most situations.
Can you recommend a set up for fill flash outdoors, i was getting quite slow shutter readinsg at ISO 400 with the camera on AV at f5.6, thanks 